Economic Growth India Project #22583

Teaching farming to over 1,000 families in India

by Shivia

Teaching farming to over 1,000 families in India

Project Report | Jul 13, 2021
Nirapada's story

By Victoria Denison | UK Operations Manager

This is Nirapada, one of our AMS farmers at our location in Sundia. He joined us in 2019 after seeing how well other local farmers were doing on our AMS programme. At the time, the soil on his small plot of land was so depleted after years of using chemical fertilisers and pesticides that he was unable to grow enough produce to make farming affordable. He and his wife (pictured above) tried to supplement their income by working as labourers on other farms but found themselves getting deeper and deeper into debt.

Since joining AMS and getting training from Gour, one of our LSPs at Sundia, Nirapada’s fortunes have changed significantly. Gour linked him to a government programme for making a vermi-composting bed at home and now he uses this to fertilise his land instead of using chemicals. The results are amazing and he says he is earning double what he used to. He also sells the compost to other local farmers, or the worms so they can start their own vermi-composting bed. Nirapada and his wife no longer have to work for other farmers and are paying off their debts. They are happy to be earning money from doing what they love best – farming!

Thank you for supporting our AMS programme and helping thousands of marginalised farmers like Nirapada earn a sustainable income from responsible, eco-friendly farming.

You can read more about the impact of this and Shivia's other programmes in our Annual Report for 2020/21 - just click here.

Best wishes from the team at Shivia

Nirapada with his vermi-composting bed

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Mar 23, 2021
Making farming affordable

By Tapas Das | Livelihood Service Provider for Shivia

Namaste from Kolkata!

My name is Tapas and I am one of Shivia's Livelihood Service Providers working with marginalised farmers in the villages near Kolkata. My job involves helping farmers like Meghrai make farming affordable.

Meghrai has always farmed the land to earn an income but he was finding it harder and harder to make ends meet and provide for his family. His input costs kept rising and, like so many small holder farmers, he resorted to using chemical fertilisers and pesticides to try and increase his crop yields. But, over the years, all that did was degrade the soil on his small plot of land and the result was the opposite - poorer yields and less profit.

We met in November 2019 when I came to Meghrai's village to talk about Shivia's AMS programme and how we are helping local farmers make farming not just affordable but really sustainable via a number of interlinked interventions. Meghrai was initially skeptical but I convinced him to join our programme and give me a chance to make a change!

18 months on and Meghrai is a very happy farmer! After testing the soil on his plot I showed him how to make bio-fertiliers and pesticides using readily available produce such as cow dung and urine. He has been growing tomatoes and mustard and getting great yields resulting in more profits - over 25% more than previously he happily tells me.

Farming has become Meghrai's sole occupation now - he no longer has to look for casual labouring jobs to supplement his income. And he is able to provide for his family and also his two grandchildren which makes him feel happiest of all.

"When I was a poor small farmer, I could not maintain the daily expenses of my household. With the knowledge gained from Shivia’s team, especially my LSP Tapas, I am now confident to carry on agriculture as a full time occupation. I am especially happy for my grandchildren. Thank you so much for this!"

Me (Tapas) with Meghrai in his field

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Nov 25, 2020
You can count on AMS making a big impact!

By Victoria Denison | UK Operations Manager

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