Generate Livelihood and Employment for Indigenous Farmers – Women farmers will adopt scientific methods of agriculture, soil and water management, which will help cultivate existing fallows and increase production of land; healthy communities with enhanced incomes will emerge.

Build Institutions – Women will come together through the concept of Self- Help and federate to build a strong institution which will cater to their needs. Women will access institutional finance through linkages with government and private financial institutions and village women will save from their enhanced agricultural incomes to move towards self sufficiency.

Alternate Employment Avenues for the Landless – The landless families who till now have worked largely as agriculture labour will have alternate employment through scientific methods of livelihood management. Livestock work to be introduced in scales as alternative means of livelihoods for poor families.

Our Approach

Community is the Principal Stakeholder. Women farmers must be brought to the front and the families, societies and government must recognize the contribution of women farmers. Women farmers lack access to quality inputs, credit and also do not have land titles. We converge with the government and other quality input providers to make available seeds, fertilisers and other requirements. We train farmers on the preparation of organic alternatives addressing long term sustainability. We believe that Soil and Water management is the key to maximize outputs in small patches.

We promote people’s institutions that augment opportunities for the rural poor. The emphasis is on building up of a social capital which will help the poor. We believe that better linkages will lead to better lives.

Our Service Providers

Harsha Trust has promoted the concept of Community Service Providers (CSPs), Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and Para Resource Persons (PRPs) from the rural youth and women who act as catalysts of change within their communities. They are also seen as bridges between the organization and the people and help us in implementing our projects. These community derived and based individuals have made it possible for us to scale up our endeavours, as they belong to the communities and are right there to render services, demonstrate their own skills and upgrade skills.

The entire Community Cadre has different roles. Let us examine the services provided by them:

Harsha Trust has promoted the concept of Community Service Providers (CSPs), Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and Para Resource Persons (PRPs) from the rural youth and women who act as catalysts of change within their communities. They are also seen as bridges between the organization and the people and help us in implementing our projects. These community derived and based individuals have made it possible for us to scale up our endeavours, as they belong to the communities and are right there to render services, demonstrate their own skills and upgrade skills of the community.

Our Technical Expertise

Livelihood enhancement – we use different approaches and diverse farm practices for different kinds of land. We work with tribal farmers who often cultivate on undulating lands, thus we de-risk farms by the promotion of integrated crop cultivation models.

Natural Resource Management – We help farming populations to manage soil and other natural resources and prevent drainage of water and other nutrients and allow the natural resources to be conserved. Village institutions are facilitated to take up plantations at household and village level with local tree species. Field bunding, contour trenching and green manuring are done to conserve in- situ soil and moisture at the farm level.

Scientific Livestock Management – Our trained professionals, PRPs, CSPs and CRPs work in collaboration with Producer Companies to support landless households. Promoting micro enterprise through livestock rearing (Poultry, Goat and Fishery) have been major income major supplements for poor families.

Farmer Producer Organizations – Harsha Trust has promoted 12 FPOs whose combined annual turnover is 6.4 crores. These Producer Companies are linked to NABARD to get assistance from their PRODUCE FUND, Ernst & Young Foundation, PI Foundation, NCDC and APC.

Education – In partnership with Klorofeel Foundation we are attempting to make learning fun. Currently we have 104 Joyful Learning Centres in rural area of Koraput, Nawrangpur and Rayagada districts of Odisha.