Creating sustainable livelihoods for marginalised farmers in India

In 2014, Shivia developed a programme to stop the cycle of poverty facing small holder farmers in West Bengal. The cause was often years of over-use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides which depleted the soil to such an extent that crop yields were too low to make farming a viable source of income. Added to this, the cost of agri-inputs was rising rapidly. Families that depended on farming for their livelihoods were facing destitution and many fathers and sons were forced to migrate to towns and cities to find work, leaving mothers and younger children to fend for themselves back in the villages. So Shivia launched Agri-management Services, a training programme tailored to the specific needs of these farming families. Our goal was simple: to empower marginalised farmers with the tools and training to make farming not just profitable but environmentally viable too. Now our farmers earn their income with dignity and families stay together in their home village. We have trained over 7,400 farmers with our holistic approach to sustainable and responsible farming and they are literally reaping the rewards with increased productivity, yields and money in the bank!