Sample proposal to enhance the Agriculture Productivity and Income of Small Farm Holders

Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. With the help of this sample proposal we would like to improve India’s structural weaknesses in the agricultural sector. This sample proposals created to establish Agri growth centers which will provide training to graduates in horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and dairy, veterinary, poultry, pisciculture & other allied activities thereby tapping the expertise available in the large pool of agriculture graduates of India so that they could either assist there or set up their own agri-clinics or agri-business centers later. If your major concern is Agriculture or if you are non government organization and working towards agriculture or want to develop your own project proposal on agriculture. Get a detailed look at this project.

Overview

India is currently the world’s second largest producer of several dry fruits, agriculture-based textile raw materials, roots and tuber crops, pulses, farmed fish, eggs, coconut, sugarcane and numerous vegetables. India is ranked under the world’s five largest producers of over 80% of agricultural produce items, including many cash crops such as coffee and cotton, in 2010. India is one of the world’s five largest producers of livestock and poultry meat, with one of the fastest growth rates, as of 2011.

India is growing at a rapid pace and so is the use of technology in the growing sectors of the country. A major mass of the population is still dependent and practicing agriculture as its primary source of income. India has been in a continuous tryst with its farming infra, practices and associated communities since independence. With the sector still contributing around 15-20% to the national GDP of the country over few decades, and its diverse cum changing needs across its regions, India has been driving necessary and timely interventions at Industry, Institution, and individual farmer level for its constant manifestation. As agriculture is a sector that emotionally appeals to the masses, Indian agencies were prompted to undertake policy measures to stimulate industry landscape by improving access to credit and widening scope of crop insurance. Setting up and enabling institutions to mobilize essential Agri services and new age technology production inputs further, empowering individual farmers through incentives like subsidies on input resources across the farming value chain and enhancing their social security conditions.

Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihoods in India. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal. In 2017-18, total food grain production was estimated at 275 million tons (MT).  India is the largest producer (25% of global production), consumer (27% of world consumption) and importer (14%) of pulses in the world. India’s annual milk production was 165 MT (2017-18), making India the largest producer of milk, jute and pulses, and with world’s second-largest cattle population 190 million in 2012. It is the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts, as well as the second-largest fruit and vegetable producer, accounting for 10.9% and 8.6% of the world fruit and vegetable production, respectively.

However, India still has many growing concerns. As the Indian economy has diversified and grown, agriculture’s contribution to GDP has steadily declined from 1951 to 2011. While achieving food sufficiency in production, India still accounts for a quarter of the world’s hungry people and home to over 190 million undernourished people. Incidence of poverty is now pegged at nearly 30 percent. As per the Global Nutrition Report (2016), India ranks 114th out of 132 countries on under-5 stunting and 120th out of 130 countries on under-5 wasting and 170th out of 185 countries on prevalence of anemia. Anemia continues to affect 50 percent of women including pregnant women and 60 percent of children in the country.

While agriculture in India has achieved grain self-sufficiency but the production is, resource intensive, cereal centric and regionally biased. The resource intensive ways of Indian agriculture has raised serious sustainability issues too. Increasing stress on water resources of the country would definitely need a realignment and rethinking of policies. Desertification and land degradation also pose major threats to agriculture in the country.

India also needs to improve its management of agricultural practices on multiple fronts. Improvements in agriculture performance has weak linkage in improving nutrition, the agriculture sector can still improve nutrition through multiple ways: increasing incomes of farming households, diversifying production of crops, empowering women, strengthening agricultural diversity and productivity, and designing careful price and subsidy policies that should encourage the production and consumption of nutrient rich crops.  Diversification of agricultural livelihoods through agri-allied sectors such as animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries has enhanced livelihood opportunities, strengthened resilience and led to considerable increase in labor force participation in the sector.

Project Rationale

Through the proposed project, we would like to improve India’s structural weaknesses in the agricultural sector. Although its infrastructure harnesses research and development, the institutions lack financial and human resources to conduct research and taking action on the government’s land reform programmes could be a lengthy and tedious process hence, Agri Growth Centers could change the dynamics of this issue. Agri Growth Centers are a boon for the needy farmers. Agri Growth Centers as the word ‘Agri’ suggests, will focus on delivering their expert services and advice to the farmers regarding:

• • Soil and crop protection
  • Usage of technology in agriculture
  • Cropping practices
  • Awareness of market demand
  • Clinical services for animal health to assist in the productivity of farms and other economic activities.

They also provide training to graduates in horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and dairy,veterinary, poultry, pisciculture& other allied activities thereby tapping the expertise available in the large pool of agriculture graduates of India so that they could either assist there or set up their own agri-clinics or agri-business centers later.

Farmers would learn how to

• • Improve infiltration capacity and fertility of the soil
  • Reduce soil erosion
  • Build up organic soil content etc.
  • Use the right combination of nutrients to enhance productivity
  • Improve market access

This would enhance not just agricultural production but income of the farmers.

Project Description

Project Goal: To enhance the agriculture productivity and income of small farm holders in India.

Project Objectives

• • To establish 10 Agri Growth Centers in two districts of India to provide necessary support to small farm holders.
  • To mobilize 2000 small farmers through capacity building thereby expanding their knowledge on various aspects of agriculture.

Activities of the Project

Objective 1:

• • Setting up Agri Growth centers: As part of the project we shall be establishing 10 Agri Growth centers in the project site to provide advisory services to farmers to enhance their agriculture productivity.  The following activities will be undertaken to set up the Agri Growth Centers.
    • Selection of sites- We shall be selecting sites based on accessibility, land availability and ease of farmers to visit the site.
    • Procurement of land- We shall be procuring the land to set up the growth center.
    • Construction of Agri Growth centers- Each center will have the following rooms and design:
      • Training room- To accommodate 100 farmers/trainees
      • Demonstration Field
      • Soil testing laboratory
      • Pest and disease Lab
      • Small equipment and agriculture tool room
      • Processing Room
    • Equipping the Growth Centers: The following tasks will be undertaken for the successful functioning of the Growth Center:
      • Procurement of quality seeds
      • Procurement of small farm equipment and tools
      • Procurement of fertilizers, pesticide and insecticide
      • Setting of the soil testing lab
      • Printing and publishing field manuals for trainees
    • Hiring staff to run these growth centers: Each growth center will be staffed with 6 full time experts, this will include:
      • Center In charge– The center in charge will be responsible for running the center. S/He shall be hiring the other staff and shall ensure that the various training programs are timely completed. S/He shall also be taking care of the outreach and awareness drive to mobilize the farmers to visit the center.
      • Soil expert – The soil expert will be heading and working in the soil testing laboratory. S/he shall be testing soil samples to understand the soil composition, nutrient distribution, soil ph etc.
      • Trainer – The trainers will be training the small farmers on improvised agricultural best practices to enhance productivity of their farms.
      • Agri experts – The two agri experts will be conducting field trials and undertaking field surveys to understand the issues that the farmers face.
    • Activities in the Growth Center: The following set of activities will be undertaken at the training center.
      • Training of farmers
      • Soil Testing
      • Research on improving yield
      • Demonstration
      • Providing advisory services to the farmers
      • Providing agri- inputs at subsidized rates to farmers
      • Developing market linkages
      • Facilitating linkages with financial institutions
      • Carrying out extension activities

Objective 2

• • Baseline Survey: We will be conducting a baseline survey to gather the following information:
    • Soil and climatic features of the selected area
    • Availability of the resources, land, labor& capital
    • Present level of utilization of resources
    • Annual income of farmers
    • Average landholding size
    • Managerial skill of farmer
    • Markets accessibility
    • Financial institution

Data collected during the baseline study will help in identification of major issues/constraints and opportunities associated with agriculture in the area and the major concerns of farmers.  This data will be collected through individual interviews, household surveys, stakeholder meetings, cognitive mapping, resource mapping, collecting historical climate data, present day climate variability data etc.

• • Awareness Generation: Awareness generation will be carried out in the project site and during this session, we shall inform the farmers about our growth centers and how our centers can help them in improving farm productivity. Audio- Visual material will be developed and distributed to the farmers to make them understand the importance of adopting Good Agricultural Practices.
  • Identification of direct beneficiaries: We will be selecting 2000 small farmers (1000 farmers from each district). Selection will be done based on the data collected during the baseline survey.
  • Build Capacities of the selected farmers: A 15 day training program will be conducted for the identified farmers. Training will be conducted in the growth center. Each growth center will cater to 200 farmers and each batch will comprise 25 farmers.  Area specific technologies that are aligned to agro-ecological, cultural and socio-economic conditions of the area will be promoted.  Trainings and capacity building will be carried out in the following four areas:
    • Enhancing Crop Production
    • Diversification of farming
    • Water and Soil Conservation Primary Processing
    • Using tools and equipment
    • Post harvesting technology
    • Identification of crop diseases, pests
    • Package of Practices
    • Marketing
    • Processing

Exit Strategy:

Formation of a Trained Member Association to manage and run the Growth Centers. We shall be selecting 200 youth members from each district to run the growth centers after the project terminates. These youth members will be elected by the local communities and will be trained on various aspects of managing the growth centers. For every growth center there will be 20 trained youth members to manage the work and the operations of the growth center. From among these 20 members, 10 members will be elected for 1 year to run the center, while the other 10 will closely monitor the process and will be involved for carrying out extension services in the neighboring villages.

Activity Chart

Result of the Project

• • Increased awareness among the residents of two districts in xxxxx on improved agriculture practices.
  • Improvement in agricultural productivity by 30% in the selected districts.
  • Enhanced income of 2000 farmers families by 40% through selling of agriculture products.
  • Establishment of market linkages with the nearby markets, hotels, shops and other government departments.
  • Fully functional 10 growth centers successfully established.

Monitoring & Evaluation

We will be developing a strong monitoring and evaluation system for the project. The project team will regularly update the progress made against stated objectives of the project and will make adjustments to tackle any delay in the deliverable.

Also, we plan to have a multi-level review and evaluation system that will help in keeping track of the project and also advising amendments to cope with any challenge.  During the construction of the growth centers, we shall be conducting financial audits, to ensure that there is no corruption or malpractice. All the bills will be filed properly and all financial transactions will be carried out only after the approval of our financial officer and project director.

For reviewing the project activities, we shall develop a multi-level review system, which will comprise of the Project Director, Growth Center In charge, Project Manager and Field Coordinators.  Our senior project team will conduct field visits every quarter to meet the project team and assess project progress.

Sustainability of the Project

The trained member association will ensure long term sustainability to the project. As the growth centers will be run and managed by the local communities and their elected representatives, they will take ownership of the center. Our teams will regularly monitor and provide necessary support to the members, so that they can continue with the extension services and managing the center.

Also, there will be a nominal fee for the training and services provided at the training center, which will be used for maintaining the growth center.

Budget: USD **********

Project Implementing Agency

AAA foundation is a non-profit, and non- governmental charitable organization, working in India. AAA was established in the year xxxx with a view to alleviate poverty from the backward regions of India.  The mission of AAA is to improve the livelihoods of the tribal people through the adoption of scientific methods and technological advances. Over the last three decades, we are striving to empower the illiterate and poverty stricken people of this region, and mainstream them into the society.  The organization has implemented several projects on livelihood improvement in the area, and therefore is well equipped to implement the project successfully.