Devbhoomi Initiative

Partner: UANA

The subsistence farmers of the hill state of Uttarakhand face a multitude of challenges leading to high levels of unemployment and poverty. This program is designed to help and train them for better agricultural techniques, educational support and lead them towards a sustainable agricultural source of income. 

Problems faced by the Farmers

• Lack of quality education and lack of technical skills leading to high levels of unemployment and poverty.
• Lack of awareness of farming techniques and natural conditions such as chronic water shortage prevents the farmers from efficiently using the land.
• A side effect of the high levels of unemployment and poverty is a lack of educational support for children in the community. Although public schools are present, the students still have a need  for some additional support to learn the skills which will allow them to become part of the  workforce.

Goals and Objectives

We plan to help alleviate the plight of the farmers in the hill areas of Uttarakhand and help provide them a path out of poverty through the usage of their land. Our major goals include: 

• Provide educational support for the children in these communities so that they can become better prepared for employment.
• Provide the farmers with knowledge of better agricultural techniques and supplies.
• Train and guide them towards dealing with natural conditions such as water shortages, making the land more economically efficient and help them with better income. 

Earlier in 2019, we started our efforts in this region for horticulture. Plants like masala elaichi, walnuts and spices have proven to show resistance from wild animals and helped farmers to prevent income loss. Village tourism is being promoted to help villagers earn extra income. Continuing our efforts in this region, we completed fencing in 3 locations to prevent damage to crops by wild animals. Efforts are underway to identify and plant wild animal resistant fruits and herbs to prevent crop and income loss because of wild animal menace.

Our Activities

• High quality seeds and approximately 500 fruit tree saplings were distributed in Dabralsyun region.
• We also helped farmers to mend and prepare 2 acres of barren land and planted about 80 walnut trees on one of the plots. This “Shaheed Fal Vatika” is dedicated to Phulwama martyrs.
• Assistance is being provided to the farmers to sell their produce in lucrative markets such as New Delhi to get better price.
• SIF is also spreading awareness on water conservation techniques in this area.
• Horticulture and spices are proving to be good crops and financially viable

A lot of media coverage and good work has prompted people to reverse migrate to villages which also helps with animal control. Please watch the video report about our activities in Uttarakhand.

Farmers from 13 villages have been cultivating Turmeric as part of the project and selling the raw produce in the market
earning only INR 100 per kg

SIF has now funded setting up turmeric processing and packaging units for 2 of these farmers who can
now sell the final produce at INR 300 per kg. The machine has a capacity to produce 60 kgs of powder
turmeric every day so they now have the potential to earn INR 18,000 per day with this intervention once
the supply chain is setup.

The turmeric processing unit will add value to the produce and help the farmers earn almost 3 times the
income.