Teaching farming to over 1,000 families in India

This report comes from Smruti Das, Shivia's Assistant Consultant in Odisha.  Smruti visited Susila, one of our farmers from the tribal communities in Ganjam district.  He recorded their conversation which you can watch on our YouTube channel here.

In the video, Susila describes how she began farming to improve her family’s livelihood after facing significant nutritional, emotional and financial challenges as part of a poor tribal community, sometimes relying on forest resources for daily needs. Prior to engaging with our Agri Management Service (AMS) programme, she reported having no scientific knowledge of agriculture or organic methods and relied on traditional practices. With our training and support, she adopted organic and sustainable farming, strengthened her understanding of approaches such as System of Rice Intensification and built skills in pest and disease management and kitchen gardening. She now cultivates a range of vegetables (including okra, brinjal/eggplant, tomatoes and bitter gourd) and sells produce mainly at the nearest weekly market. With her new source of income from farming, Susila prioritises spending on household needs and especially her children’s education and health, with some savings set aside for future investment. She was delighted to be able buy a low-cost mobile phone to support her daughter’s education. Susila talked about her improved economic stability, greater social recognition and increased confidence.  She also now shares her agricultural knowledge with other farmers. Looking ahead, she aims to expand production commercially to increase productivity and income and is seeking continued assistance to start an additional village-based business.

In summary....

• Starting point: Traditional farming with limited technical knowledge.
• Support received: Guidance on organic and sustainable practices, pest and disease control and kitchen gardening.
• Current activities: Diversified vegetable cultivation and local market sales.
• Reported outcomes: Increased household income stability, investment in education/health, stronger community recognition and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
• Next steps: Commercial expansion and exploration of a new local business with more support.

Thank you for supporting Shivia in 2025.

This year, we have continued to support thousands of marginalised farmers so that they can make farming a sustainable livelihood.

As always, our focus has been on using bio-products so we having been training farmers to make their own fertilisers and pesticides at home, instead of resorting to expensive chemicals.

We are excited about the launch of the Shivia Farmer App which we have developed to supplement the training across our four agri-based programmes. It's being tested with a group of farmers in West Bengal and is due to be completed and released in 2026.

Find out more about this development and other milestones from our busy and impactful year in this short video - click here to view the video on our YouTube channel.

We look forward to keeping you updated with our work in 2026.

Until then, we wish you a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year!

The Team at Shivia