Sampurna

Mahashakti Foundation has launched an innovative project called Sampurna for the development of life and livelihoods of small farmers and marginal farmers of Sambalpur and Bargarh districts, with the support from HDFC Bank.

The project aims to improve the livelihoods of small and marginal women farmers by providing them with a variety of technical know-how, business development services, skills and capabilities. The program will provide a wide range of training and support to women farmers to form and manage agricultural and related small businesses. In addition, better agricultural practices will be introduced to them through exposure visits. The program will run for the next three years (January 2022 to December 2025).

Scope of the Project: The project will be implemented in two blocks of Bargarh district namely – Bhatli and Ambabhona and two blocks of Sambalpur district namely Maneswar and Jamankira.

Project Beneficiaries: As project beneficiaries, the project will cover 7,040 small and marginal farmers (mainly women) living in the above four blocks of Bargarh and Sambalpur districts.

Project Objective:

• To increase the agricultural productivity of 7,040 farmers and improve their income security
• To enhance the value of the agricultural produce and improve the marketing linkage, through the formation of Producer Groups and Producer Companies.
• To let them connect with technical services, business development agencies and integrate them with the market system.
• Provide capacity building support and provide extension and business development services to farmers for effective participation in alternative value chains built between individual and group forms.

Project Activities

1. Producer Groups will be formed in each village with farmers living in project-occupied villages in the two districts to make farmers aware of the farmers collectives.
2. Formation of a Farmer Producer Company: After that, a Farmer Producer Company will be formed in each district with those production groups. The producer company will be registered under the Company Act 2013. The producer company will be run like any other private company. Farmers can take ownership of the company by buying shares. The dividends earned by the company will be distributed among the participating farmers at the end of the year.
3. Technical and business development services: Complete know-how will be developed for the value chain of agricultural products. Consultations will be made with various agencies, individuals and agricultural experts to increase agricultural and related production. So that farmers can get knowledge, skills and techniques from agricultural science centers in the district and other experienced agronomists.
4. Exposure visits: Along with introducing more efficient varieties of seeds to increase crop production and productivity, exposure visits will be organized to showcase locally accepted best agricultural practices for the farmers.
5. Propagation of livelihoods through joint efforts: Through small-scale farmer producer companies, farmers will be able to produce a variety of crops, mainly millet and chilli as per the market demand. All the produce will be collected through the producer company post-harvest. Farmers deprived of this system can join the mainstream of the market and can also join in the value chain building in their town.

All these benefits will reduce the cost of production of the farmers and benefit the farmers. Particular attention will be given towards increase in agricultural production and productivity, consolidation and marketing of agricultural products with the help of the Department of Agriculture. Efforts will be made to give farmers a discount on the use of various types of drip irrigation equipment, irrigation equipment, greenhouses, plastic mesh for shade, etc. through various government schemes to increase productivity.

Highlights of on-going Project Activities

• Two separate workshops in the focused districts of Bargarh and Sambalpur have been organized with the presence of progressive farmers and distinguished guests from government line departments.
• Staff orientation program for the project team on the project activities, communication, leadership, PG and FPO formation has been organized.
• A baseline survey and value chain study of chilli and millet is also conducted and a comprehensive study report is submitted.
• Block Coordinators (BCs) while coordinating with their respective Community Resource Persons (CRPs) are engaged in the village level meetings, farmers awareness meetings, mobilization meetings and PG (Producer Group) formation meetings. As a result, there are a no. of PGs are already being formed and linked with the project.
• Block level launching workshops are being conducted to let know the key stakeholders from the government as well as other related parties about the ongoing project and its overarching objective of improving the agricultural productivity of the farmers.
• PoP (Package of Practices) – PoP trainings are being organized for the farmers to understand the improved farm practices by the invited experts.
• Efforts given towards orienting farmers on undertaking soil testing and its technicalities in the field. Demo plots are also being identified for the two targeted agricultural products – Chilli and Millets in the two districts.