Teaching farming to over 1,000 families in India

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