Livelihood interventions are focussed to improve the opportunities for rural communities and hence in their income enhancement. The three different approaches in the livelihoods theme are:
12400 farmers, of which 8626 women farmers trained on agriculture-based capacity building Trained 121 BODs and leaders of 31 FPOs in rural Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh 3200 women given skill development trainings
Capacity Building of Groups and Collectives
The capacity building of groups and collectives aims to seek outcomes related to nurturing of producer led economic collectives like Farmer Producer Organizations and Off-Farm Producer Organizations by addressing their challenges or service gaps. Through this program PDS handholds the producer organizations on various aspects including capacity building of BODs, CEO & other farmers, market connect, access to agriculture technologies and infrastructures, and finance.
Guiding thoughts and the objectives of the program are:
- To stimulate the smooth functioning of producer-based collectives to identify the right economic opportunities through efficient planning and designing.
- To build a strong producer based network in the program areas enabling them easy access of financial and marketing support that promote occupational enhancement of the region.
- To create an identity (branding) for these collectives in bigger markets and making more partnerships with stakeholders to ensure sustainable income enhancement of producers.
Micro Entrepreneurship Development
The program aims to unleash the entrepreneurial energies of individuals with special focus on women by giving necessary training on soft skills and hard skills along with necessary hand holding support to set up a sustainable entrepreneurship model.
Krushakmitra
The Krushakmitra was born based on the need for small and marginal farmers to have a skilled person to interact for their agricultural needs while the potential of village level enterprise models fostering the business development of the grassroots were untapped. The Krushakmitras work in coordination with FPOs in the respective region to provide last mile delivery of products and services to smallholder farmers like:
- Advisory services
- Access to good quality inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides
- Farm-mechanization services and awareness about common facility services
- Output aggregation market linkages and financial services
Pashumitra
Pashumitras are essentially dairy based entrepreneurs who also work as a guide to farmers in animal husbandry by providing them the assistance for better management of farms, medical care, artificial insemination, etc. using various equipment and technology. Also, a few Pashumitras get into procurement of milk from other farmers to set up collection centers or production of value-added dairy products and marketing of it.
The journey
- Training of selected beneficiaries for training on dairy entrepreneurship as the first level training at accredited partners’ centers
- Hand holding support to trained candidates to start their dairy based services and businesses
- Second level training on interest areas of the Pashumitras for topics like milk collection, production of value added dairy products etc.
- Training for identified youth for being an Artificial Insemination technician and hand holding them in the field by integrating into the FPO ecosystem
Skill Development Training
Upgrade or develop new skills of individuals by providing livelihood-based training in line with economic opportunities through tailor made programs to improve the performance of informal enterprises aimed at economic empowerment.
Objectives of the program
- To stimulate active participation and mobilization of partner organizations, communities and their organizations in the process of identifying economic opportunities and planning, designing and delivering relevant training and post-training support.
- To improve performance of informal enterprises in the SHGs with a target on women, and to assist them in transforming survival activities into decent work.
- To apply cost-effective training delivery systems that promote occupational enhancement and include women in vocational training and other programmes.
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