Briefly describe the development challenge that will be addressed/solved by the innovations??

Small and marginal farmers form a majority of Bihar’s rural population. They have few resources, usually less than an acre and little livestock. These farmers have been growing drought tolerant food crops, mostly paddy and cash crops with very low investment in improved seeds, fertilisers and plant protection measures, resulting in poor yields and low returns. Fragmented land holdings, heavy depletion of soil productivity, inefficient use of water resources, out-dated agricultural production technologies, unavailability of agricultural credit and lack of infrastructure for post harvest management and marketing of agricultural produce, are the other factors which further suppress their agricultural production. Due to low agricultural productivity, these small and marginal farmers as well as about 15 to 18% landless families living in rural areas, are unable to generate remunerative employment and about 40% families are forced to live in poverty. For these small holders and landless, livestock has been a source of supplementary income. However, over 75% of the animals are uneconomical due to severe genetic erosion, inadequate feeding and poor veterinary care. With lower crop and livestock productivity, the employment opportunities in the farming and other related sectors are reduced further, leading to reduction in farm wages, seasonal employment, malnutrition and migration. With lack of food security, poor families are compelled to migrate to cities in distress, keeping their agricultural lands fallow. Distress migration will also deprive the women and children of their basic needs such as shelter, safe drinking water and health care, which will affect their quality of life. The children will discontinue their education and end up as child labour and illiterate unemployed youth of the future. Thus, improving the agricultural productivity of small land holders can play a key role in ensuring food security and improving the quality of life in Bihar.

We have identified three districts Gaya, Nawada and Banka where agriculture practices as well as the condition of farmers require immediate attention. Geographically, the area is suitable for vegetable production and there are existing markets as well as established connects that makes it suitable for our intervention. The objectives of our intervention will be as follows :

Improve household food, nutrition and livelihood security Improve food, livelihood and income diversity Improve ecological sustainability Strengthen the local economy

Briefly describe the proposed innovative solution?

Current Scenario:

Farm Home

Backyard Farming of vegetables

Livestock

At present, the assets of a small holder farmer in the target districts is a farm of very small size which is used for paddy or other cash crops, little livestock and a small backyard farm of vegetables for personal consumption. Data shows that the density of livestock per square km in Bihar ranges from 120 to more than 200.

We have observed that the production of paddy and cash crops is becoming extremely difficult as the area is mostly rainfed with unpredictable weather patterns. The produce of small holding farmers is decreasing every year making it inevitable for them to migrate. The produce of the backyard farming and livestock so far has been only used for personal consumption.

In or innovation, we propose the concept of mixed farming, an idea inspired from nature, through collaboration, multilayer arrangements and carefully combining different elements. We propose the introduction of vegetable production to increase the crop diversity as well as integrating it with rearing of livestock. They are combined in such a way and proportion that each element helps the other ; the waste of one is recycled as resource for the other.

Current Scenario:

Say a farmer has one field which provides the family with rice for personal consumption and he can sell some surplus in the market. His cow is getting some fodder from straw. He may also get some milk for his children and some vegetables from backyard farming.

The future farm: Our proposed innovation

We make simple changes like introducing a compost pit for the dung to be processed into the fertilizer helping the farmer to realize immediate benefits from savings on chemical fertilizers.

We also introduce them to vegetable farming and with the help of best practices suitable for the area, demonstrate and implement vegetable cultivation helping them to earn higher incomes.

Market

Food

Farm Produce

Straw

Food

Food

The incomes thus generated can be used for the introduction of more livestock and poultry thus creating a two way subsystem interdependent on each other.

Along with the planning of an integrated farm, we would also set up an Agri-Business Centre which would serve as the focal point between farmers and market. It would provide a connect with the market for both farm produce as well as livestock produce, eliminating middlemen and vendors, thus improving the profit margins of the farmers by removing information asymmetry.

What are the expected Activities and Outcome of the Proposed Project?

Factors that constrain goat production include: - lack of farmer organization into goat production groups to increase productivity, lack of access to improved breeds and crosses, lack of cross-breeding between exotic and local breeds to improve the local breed, lack of smallholder goat fattening practices to increase size and quality of the local goat, poor animal husbandry practices e.g. housing, feeding, and disease control, poor linkages to markets, and lack of effective approaches to broaden goat ownership at community level.

Poultry production is mainly affected by poor farmer organization into poultry groups, lack of access to improved breeds and crosses to improve the local breeds, lack of commercial-oriented production of eggs and meat under smallholder farming systems, poor husbandry practices, and poor linkages to markets.

Activities: The activities will be divided in 3 phases with a number of short term objectives in each phase.

Phase 1: Understanding and Preparing the community though communication and dialogue.

Walking together with the community helping them realize their own resources and possibilities of improvement.

Selection of farmers and resource farmers and forming and strengthening groups Understanding the production cycles, seasonality of weather, scarcity months in the villages

Phase 2: Joint Planning of the Farm

Creating resource maps of the villages Understanding the flow diagram of the project and how each element supports the other in

integrated farming Individual farmers will be assessing their resources and form action plans and identify capacity

building needs

Phase 3: Capacity building and mobilization of farmers

Farmers learn from trainers and/or each other about various skills required for establishing a farm and apply them on their field.

Farmers Groups will learn how to track/monitor the progress of their farms and make any modifications if required

Training programmes will be conducted broadly on following topics 1. Group/ ABC management skills o Standard operating processes o Operational & management skills 2. Internal savings and lending skills 3. Basic market skills o Logistics o Pricing o Planning 4. Innovation and experimentation skills 5. Sustainable production and natural resource management skills o Modern and better vegetable cultivation practices o Post harvest management of vegetables o Crop Planning 6. Preparation of fertilizers (Focused on Women)

a. Vermi-compostingb. Heat pit/ Compostc. Liquid manure

7. Livestock Management including livestock shelter and fodder(Focused on Women)

Phase 4: Setting up of Rural Agri-Busines Centres that will perform the following functions:

1. Identification of market for farmers’ produce 2. Facilitate market information dissemination to all the stakeholders to stimulate production of vegetables and livestock produce3. Identification and creation of post harvest management and marketing infrastructure like collection centers, logistics or transport , appropriate processing center for both vegetables and livestock4. Developing and establishing a system of vegetableand livestock produce procurement from farmers 5. Developing and creation of a system for fast distribution and selling of vegetables and livestock produce6. Development of integrated marketing plan 7. Development of post harvest “vegetables package of practices” to reduce losses and to increase the efficiency & effectiveness of the supply chain 8. Creation of an integrated vegetable and livestock supply chain

Short-term Outcome Community understands the project purpose and farmers try to locate their own resources and

improvement areas Framers learn various simple techniques and methods to manage their own farms making them

self sufficient. Farmers take responsibility of their own land under the monitoring of the farmer groups and

involvement in the project is increased

Long Term Outcomes

All farmers are member of a farmer group and farmers are actively participating in the peer learning process of capacity building following step by step farm planning process

Farmers are following improved sustainable agriculture practices Local vegetables are promoted and the diversity of these are increased Food availability is increased Diet diversity is increased Household income is increased

Developmental Impacts

• Improvement in family income with adoption of vegetable production and livestock Reduction of risk through income diversity, guaranteeing a buffer against trade, prices and

climate fluctuations Better health of the family though improved and diversified nutrients Reduction in production costs of the farmers by reducing the dependence of external sources

for farm inputs thus increasing profits Economic, through crop diversification with higher yield and quality at lower cost Ecological, through reduction of crop pests and reduced use of fertilizers Social, through the reduction of rural-urban migration and creation of new job opportunities in

rural areas

16. Impact of the innovation on the base of the Pyramid Population (include a description of who will benefit directly from the innovation and how they will benefit)

The selection criteria for the project will be as follows:-

• Small and Marginal Farmer dominated area• Social factors: Indigenous/Dalit/ minority community whose access to mainstream

resources/transportation/market is limited• Economic factors: Land holding is small/assets are limited/ uses outdated technology in

production system• Environmental factors: Disaster prone area like droughts and unpredictable rainfall are

prevalent and threats of climatic changes are high

The small holding farmers in the three districts Gaya, Nawada and Banka have been practicing rain-fed traditional cropping for a long time without any farm planning. Paddy, which is a major source of income, is usually unsuccessful because of frequent delays, unpredictable monsoon, falling productivity of land and increasing cost of cultivation. So along with buying of vegetables they are also buying cereals to feed their family leading up to a huge loan which makes survival difficult.

With the adoption of vegetable farming, and the modern and easily accessible techniques of farming, they can increase their income considerably. Simultaneously integrating their vegetable cultivation with rearing of livestock will reduce their dependence on external source for fertilizers thus bringing down their input costs and thus a higher profit margin. It will also improve the nutritional content of their diet and reduce the risk of their income.

Livestock incomes enable poor households to buy cheap grains and tubers for the bulk of their meals, as well as some highly nourishing vegetables.

Consumption of even very modest amounts of vegetables and milk, meat and eggs helps nourish people subsisting largely on cheap grains and tubers, particularly very young children and women of child-bearing years.

The point is to enable poor households to diversify the foods they consume and to incorporate modest amounts of more nourishing foods in cheap, starchy staple diets.

Smallholder livestock and vegetable production offers the following opportunities :

Nutritious foods for the malnourished. Market opportunities to meet high urban demand. Income opportunities for women and youth. Expands household incomes. Generates jobs. Makes use of organic urban waste and wastewater. Can be considered ‘organic’ and supplied to niche markets.

17. Which indicators (see section 1.3 of the Innovation Solicitation Document) will the innovation impact? (Only list the indicators. You do not need to include targets. (Maximum of 3000 characters))

Agriculture/Food Security:

• Increased farmer incomes (including women farmers) as a result of applying new technologies or management practices

• Technologies and processes to provide low cost infrastructure and business models on food storage and processing, mainly in the perishable food sector

• Improved access to age-appropriate safe and nutritious food

18. What steps shall be taken to make the project scalable and sustainable? (Maximum of 3000 characters)

The Agri-Business Centres have enormous potential provided they are created for a specific need of the community which in this case would be promotion f the dual purpose integration of vegetable farming and livestock cultivation. Some elements that can help make this business centres scalable and sustainable are :

Comprehensive Understanding of Rural Markets: Rural markets involve both economic and social transaction. We place a lot of importance in understanding the connections and operations of rural markets before conceptualizing a system. Use of local population as much as possible has helped the network to get acceptance closely.

Designing a WIN-WIN transaction model : The success ABCs comes from the condition in which both the farmer and the processor share the benefits coming out of the elimination of middle men and due to timely information availability.

Leveraging the logistics channels and existing resources: The existing logistics of the rural markets are leveraged but they are not able to exploit the information asymmetry (unlike that in a conventional market). In that sense ABCs uses the local institutions but eliminates the information asymmetry. They can also asses the resources of the community to find the most suitable package of practices in their area.

Selection of Sanchalak: Both the selection of Sanchalak and the acceptance of Sanchalak by the community are very critical for the success of an ABC. Sanchalak is the interface for maintaining the platform. For the farmer the Sanchalak is the centre. Training and sensitizing him for the crucial role has been the main reason for the acceptance of the Sanchalak by the farmers. Sanchalak, thus, acts as coordinator of the knowledge community, and a representative of farming community.

Bottom-up model for entrepreneurship: ABCs encourages enormous amount of creativity at the local level along with local entrepreneurship stimulation. The farmer and Sanchalak are free to use the ABCs and develop new uses.

Training and Capacity Building: Capacity building through on ground IT training for rural communities and capacitating the farmers and the lead farmers in modern practices is a critical step in making an ABC sustainable, so that the farmers:

• Become innovative, self-reliant, analytic and technologically sound;• Are capacitated to assess their own resource, strengths and stress factors and come up with a

improvement areas and methodologies that suit their needs• Are trained through principles of modern farming techniques with multiple skills and equipped

with knowledge required to realize and improve their own farms• Work in groups and form cooperatives to strengthen solidarity among the community.

Provide Linkages: To enable scalability and sustainability, it is important to provide linkages for further expansion of activities. The task can only be completed by aligning & putting thrust on all levers, crucial for providing solutions to existing challenges of desirability, affordability, accessibility & acceptability among the rural masses. This will be implemented trough the creation of following networks:

• Partnering with government for convergence of various government & non-government projects

• Leverage resources, funds & grants available through various rural development schemes• Provide rural micro credit for setting up the kiosk at ABCs and extend banking related services

through the network• Identify, nurture and build capacity in organizations willing to run chain of kiosks in rural areas.• Critically examine various interventions & provide future directions and policy advice, apart

from evangelizing the effectiveness of the interventions

19. Measuring Impact (How will you measure progress toward your project goals/impact? What is your approach to project evaluation? (Maximum of 3000 characters))

There will be two sets of evaluation: One which the farmer group will do in groups at regular intervals. The other will be done by the Project Monitoring Committee.

Farmer Group Monitoring tool: Wheel/Web Diagram

1. The parameters can be decided based on the objectives of the project as follows:a. Area under vegetable productionb. No external fertilizer inputc. Number of bio-digesterd. Training receivede. Group/Co-operative activitiesf. Income by selling productsg. Etc

2. The criteria can be redefined by the group.3. The farmers can give 0-5 according to their understanding of the progress.4. This can be used as a community monitoring tool as a baseline, midline and endline.

The blue line is the baseline and the red line indicates our progress.

The following methods would be used by the management Committee for evaluation

• Questionnaire & survey• Direct Observation • Case Studies • Most significant change • Spatial distributed information

o Photograph & Video • Analysis linkages & relationships

o M&E wheel or Spider web

• Mapping on different indicators over period of time

• SWOT window for farmers & FPCs o At every six months

• Ladder related to specific indicators – qualitative comparison of before and after situation

• ABC maturity indices