Executive Summary

Small and marginal farmers constitute more than 86 percent of farm households in India. Despite producing about 80 percent of the country’s food, these farmers are continually plagued by high production costs, low yields, unpredictable rainfall, lack of quality farm inputs, and inefficient supply chain. Those challenges lead to the vicious cycle of debt trap and are compounded for indigenous farmers in India’s central tribal belt, which constitutes 73 percent of the country’s tribal population.

Spearheaded by women, the ‘Lakhpati Kisan’ initiative is a five-year program that aims to confront these challenges and ensure tribal households are irreversibly brought out of poverty by earning a steady annual income of $1,450–a three-to-fourfold increase from their current income. The program takes a multi-pronged approach, layering livelihood activities such as market-linked agriculture, floriculture, livestock, Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), and others. Moreover, to optimize the efficacy of the program, 70 percent of the households receive irrigation throughout the year.

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Accomplishments

Over the past year, the project has been successful in increasing the annual income of the target beneficiaries by 11.3 percent. More than 11,413 households crossed the annual income mark of $1,400 in India. This figure may look tiny but, given the high purchasing power parity in India, it is significant for a low-income household. Due to large numbers of poor households that had returned to their native regions after migrating to urban centers earlier, the last year was quite difficult to engage with communities on the ground. The project accounted for these migrants and absorbed them into our initiatives to help them achieve livelihoods in rural and tribal areas. Also, we could raise approximately $14.86 million for this project.