Teaching farming to over 1,000 families in India

In October 2021 we started working with VIEWS Odisha to replicate our Agri-management Services Programme.  We are supporting 600 families from very poor tribal communities in the Ganjam District of Odisha.

The major livelihood source in this area is agriculture but farmers face a multitude of problems including:

• cyclones
• erratic climate conditions
• poor water
• lack of quality agri-inputs
• soil degradation due to over-use of chemicals
• lack of access to markets
• multiple middlemen in the value chain
• lack of credit leading to reliance on unscrupulous money lenders

As a result, men are migrating to cities in search of work (there are also instances of suicide), leaving the entire farming responsibility to women who lack knowledge on improved methods of agriculture. 

We are using Agri-management Services to enhance the skills of these women in sustainable and organic farming to reduce food insecurity and increase household income. 

One of the first steps is to help women cultivate a kitchen garden to address the immediate issue of food insecurity.  Joe Rao, our Lead Consultant in India, visited some of the communities recently to find out how the programme is progressing.  He recorded a short video with one of our beneficiaries called Rukmini whose kitchen garden is flourishing.  Not only is she able to feed her family but she now grows enough produce to sell at the local market.

Click here to see the video

Thank you for helping us to support hundreds of women like Rukmini so they can provide for their family.

Best wishes from the Team at Shivia

We are delighted to report that on 30th September we were awarded Small Charity, Big Achiever at the Third Sector Awards for our Agri-management Services Programme.

Here is the executive summary of the entry we submitted upon which we were at first shortlisted and then announced as the overall winner in this category.

'In 2014, Shivia developed a programme to stop the cycle of poverty facing small holder farmers in West Bengal. The cause was often years of over-use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides which depleted the soil to such an extent that crop yields were too low to make farming a viable source of income.  Added to this, the cost of agri-inputs was rising rapidly.  Families that depended on farming for their livelihoods were facing destitution and many fathers and sons were forced to migrate to towns and cities to find work, leaving mothers and younger children to fend for themselves back in the villages.  So Shivia launched Agri-management Services, a training programme tailored to the specific needs of these farming families. Our goal was simple: to empower marginalised farmers with the tools and training to make farming not just profitable but environmentally viable too. Now our farmers earn their income with dignity and families stay together in their home village.  We have trained over 7,400 farmers with our holistic approach to sustainable and responsible farming and they are literally reaping the rewards with increased productivity, yields and money in the bank!'

You can watch the winning moment at the awards ceremony : click here

Thank you for all your support for Shivia and for our programme to allow poor, marginalised farmers in India earn a decent income with dignity.

Best wishes,

The Team at Shivia