Background and Rationale

The small holders, mostly poor in rural areas, have been dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods. It has been observed that due to overexploitation of natural resources available and accessible to them, the primary production activities (agriculture and animal husbandry) carried out by them are under increasing threats of sustainability.

As per data collected from project areas presently being covered by "Morarka Foundation" a small holder owns an average of 5 acres land and is able to produce total output worth INR 80,000.00 per year. From this, after deducting an average of INR 28,000.00 towards cash costs and equivalent of INR 38,000.00 for home consumption, an average of INR 5,000.00 is only available to them as cash income. Poor productivity and low incomes have deprived them from making any investments either on their land for productivity improvements or for any other value addition activities.

To a great extent, some of these problems can also be attributed, to the increasing costs of external inputs, lack of marketable surpluses from their existing cropping patterns and some of the so-called modern agricultural technologies and practices such as small range of short duration crops, excessive use of chemicals and mechanization of farm operations.

In last 10 years, increasing concerns for quality of food expressed by high spending consumers have given rise to new demands for naturally grown products. With the enactment of laws, organic food is now considered as a value added product. The organic philosophy, standards and practices offers many competitive advantages to the small holders.

Summary of the Existing Efforts in the Field

"Morarka Foundation" has been engaged in the promotion of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas since last eleven years. The first experiment covering 10,000 farm families in semi-arid regions of Thar Desert in Rajasthan have already expanded to cover 100,000 farm families in 15 States in India. On an average, three out of five small holders still continue to cultivate as per their own indigenous and traditional practices. Introduction of new technologies (confirming to organic standards), quality certification (in compliance with international norms) and marketing linkages for about 10,000 farm families have helped increase their incomes by 100-200 percent. For certification, a comprehensive system of record maintenance accepted by international certification agencies has also been developed. For quality certified produce many tie-ups for direct marketing have also been established. The proposed project will help expand the outreach of the present program intervention.

Vision of Success for Solving the Problem Stated Above

"Morarka Foundation" had pioneered many new technologies that have been adopted by over one million farmers in the country. Adoption of Organic Agriculture Practices has been possible, only after the introduction of these new technologies (such as vermiculture, probiotics, diversification of activities, and adoption of traditional crop varieties). Organic management alone, while reducing the cost of production by an average of INR 10,000.00 per year per farm unit has also increased the total quantity of outputs. Certification and marketing linkages (direct procurement from the farm and supply to retailers/exporters) have added another INR 10,000.00 per year per farm unit.

Except for our initial core areas, most of the expansion and outreach has been possible due to our efforts to involve local entrepreneurs (agripreneurs). Out of about 1,000 entrepreneurs supported by us in last five years, about 200 entrepreneurs are already offering a well diversified portfolio of products and services to organic producers. Though, presently most of them serve large farm units, but with some support of IT technology and funding, they can be utilized to integrate even small holders with the program.

The overall cost of implementation incurred by "Morarka Foundation" has varied between INR 2,500.00 to INR 5,000.00 per acre spread over 3-5 years period. For about 50 percent of the project beneficiaries, a portion of this cost has been reimbursed by Government Agencies as well as also by some Private Sector Marketing Organizations who have been entering into collaborative farming arrangements with the organic producers.

In our efforts to reduce this implementation cost (about half of it is for the cost of record maintenance and certification alone) we have worked to develop an IT-ICT platform. We have already made some progress in this direction. A portion of initial funds are also being contributed by the Stakeholders in Organic Agri-business Value Chain. Online record maintenance, essentially required for certification, has also been found to be very useful for marketing by the Stakeholders. Additional support can easily enable us to cover a very-very large number of small holders in India.

Necessary Steps to Achieve the Vision of Success

The proposed intervention being part of an existing program, that has already achieved reasonable success, will continue within the existing framework of implementation. With the incremental funding support, two major initiatives will get necessary investments that will not only help reduce the overall cost of implementation in existing areas but will also enable quantitative and qualitative expansion of this program. Setting up of new Entrepreneurial initiatives and creation of IT-ICT platform will take precedence in the present implementation plans. 10,000 small holders will also bring in 50,000 acres additional land under certified organic management. At an average of INR 25,000.00 per acre per year output will produce an annual output worth INR 300 million. This large portfolio of certified organic produce will help establish new tie-ups with many new retail ventures being set up in India.

Objective-1

To create institutional arrangements for outreach (extension), linkages and delivery of services by independent rural entrepreneurs (Agripreneurs) for a new collaborative farming model.

Activities
1. Identification, Motivation and Counseling of prospective entrepreneurs.
2. Training, Capacity Building and Resource Mobilization for entrepreneurs.
3. Establishment of business linkages between the entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.

Outputs
• 10,000 farm families from 500 villages will get covered.
• 100 educated unemployed youths will become Counselors cum Extension Agents i.e. the grass-root level interface.
• Out of 100 counselors, 60 entrepreneurial units will deliver back-end program management services.
• Out of 60 entrepreneurial units, 40 will deliver both back-end as well as front-end services.
• Best practices would get documented and shared.

Outcomes (Short- and Long-Term)
• New and improved structure for grass-root level service delivery will be available to small holders.
• Innovative and strategic multi party partnerships managed by 100 entrepreneurs will come into existence.
• A sustainable and replicable model would be created.

Objective-2
To create IT-ICT backbone for convergence of technologies, stakeholders and services by information sharing.

Activities
4. An IT Service Company would develop, operate and manage user friendly IT-ICT Services Platform for data sharing between different stakeholders.
5. Affordable Telecom Services would be linked with this collaborative model for communication between stakeholders.

Outputs
• A privately owned, managed and revenue earning IT-ICT service platform would be created.
• A decentralized and distributed network of 100 independent entrepreneurs as outreach workers would be available in 500 villages.
• Best practices would get documented and shared.

Outcomes (Short- and Long-Term)
• IT-ICT platform will improve the efficiencies of operations in Organic Agri-business Value Chain.
• IT-ICT platform will expand other formal markets, e.g. financial services, banking, credit, etc.
• IT-ICT platform would find many more users of new services, making them to become standard services.

Objective-3
To introduce quality management, certification and marketing linkages.

Activities
6. A user friendly quality control and operations management system would be created.
7. Linkage will be established with internationally accepted organic certification agencies for quality certification.
8. Marketing linkages under collaborative farming model will be established.

Outputs
• Quality oriented precision management practices would get adopted by the farmers.
• Cost of production will come down by 20-30 percent through better management of resource at farm level.
• Complete records acceptable to international certification agencies would get maintained.
• 50,000 acres land area will deliver certified organic produce as a value added product.
• The complete output will find ready markets.
• All stakeholders i.e. producers, entrepreneurs and service providers will earn enough to sustain and grow.

Outcomes (Short- and Long-Term)
• Increased small holder access to information and knowledge.
• New and improved functioning of output markets.
• Improved access to market information and fair sharing arrangements.

Objective-4

To introduce technologies and practices for productivity improvement and sustainable outputs.

Activities
9. Low cost technologies (vermiculture technology and probiotics) will be introduced to meet 100 percent requirements of inputs and recycling of resources.
10. Gender sensitive practices would be introduced for social acceptable quality of life of the workers.

Outputs
• 100 % inputs for production will get produced on-farm.
• Fuel wood and animal dung used for household requirements will get replaced by renewable biomass.
• Energy efficient methods of cooking will get adopted.
• Land degradation will get prevented.
• Sources of income from farm units will get diversified.
• Women will participate in decision making.
• Better nutrition for the poor.
• Additional income will lead to better quality of life.

Outcomes (Short- and Long-Term)
• Increased farm level incomes.
• Diversity of incomes.
• Reduced risks from external factors and stabilized farm output prices.
• Improved productivity of inputs and reduction in cost of production.
• Improved capacities to organize and manage complex operations for certified organic production.
• Socially acceptable and better quality of life will be achieved.