CAN YOU HELP LAKSHMI & 300 TRIBAL WOMEN INCREASE THEIR MONTHLY INCOME FROM $61 TO $300??: NIRVANA FARMS - NEEDS YOU!

Let me introduce you to Lakshmi, a daily wage-earning tribal lady from Narayanpet Thanda who a mother to 2 daughters and a son is. Lakshmi earns $2.50 per day which is about $61 if she works for 25 days every month. Her 3 children attend government school where they get free lunch. In the evening Lakshmi serves her family with rice & pickle as they cannot afford to buy vegetables. Her husband is a farmer who cultivates paddy in his one-acre land. He toils in his farm for 6 months and sells the produce for 1/10 of the market price due several middlemen. He earns about $370 / 6 months which he will have to use to buy seeds for his next crop cycle, his children's education, and household expenditure for the next 6 months. This is the average farmer's life if climate and circumstances support without any surprises. But if there is a flood, drought or pest problem then the quantity & quality of produce falls drastically leading to high debts & eventually the farmers committing suicide. This is the story of poor and marginal farmers whose lives are revolving around the clutches of money lenders & stockyard middlemen. Due to such living conditions, often the children drop out of school and become farm laborers or stay home.

Lack of proper rural infrastructure, farm mechanization, optimal irrigation facilities, farming best practices and advanced techniques, lack of cold storages, resources to develop value added products & finally marketing linkages are few problems that plague the small and marginal farmer's life.

The optimal solution for the betterment of farmers’ lives is to train them in farming best practices such as usage of farm mechanization & natural farming techniques. Give them handholding support to develop value added products from farm produce and help with marketing.

According to the UN World Social Report an urgent reconsideration of rural development is needed to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The current strategies of rural development are failing to meet either the socioeconomic or the environmental SD Goals. Four out of five people who face extreme poverty around the world live in rural areas. Many rural areas are witnessing severe depletion of natural resources & youth migration to cities contributing to climate change and the recurrence of zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19 and an imbalance of resources in villages.

To address these problems we from SERA SMART VILLAGES, have collaborated with NIRDPR, NIMSME, SKLTSHU, CIMAP, ICAR & local State Government to develop aromatic & medicinal crop colonies to help empower tribal women. We have adopted women farmers & daily wage laborers in 9 villages of Narayanpet district, Telangana State and help them earn better income.

The state government has donated 10 acres of land to SERA (Sustainable Ecofriendly Rural Areas) & Tribal women group (registered as NIRVANA Farms). Our goal is to train the women to practice Natural / Organic farming methods, provide free seed to grow market demand driven vegetables, herbs, build storage facilities, setup manufacturing unit hub, develop herbal value-added products, design product, labelling & finally provide marketing support

This is our 4th cluster where we usually stay 2 - 3 years in each cluster and slowly wean away the support so that the tribal women can sustain themselves. Once we complete our intervention, the selected women become rural entrepreneurs and, on an average, earn $250/month. And the cluster manufacturing units generate income to more than 300 women farmers from the nearby villages.

The current NEED for Narayanpet Tribal Cluster:

TOTAL COST - $250,000

PHASE 1 COST - $36,000 (COMPLETE)

1. Land clearing, fencing, tilling, fertigation for 10 acres.

2. Seeds, water well & women group registration

3. Laying of 18' wide 1-mile-long road

PHASE 2 COST - $55000

1. Farming best practices Training - $1600 / 15 women

2. Supply free seeds - $3700 / 15 acres

3. 1000 sq ft. Shed construction on Govt provided land to setup food processing units - $18,000

4. Vegetables & Herbs 1 Solar dryer for food processing - $8500

5. Extraction & powder making machine - $4600

6. Essential oil extraction unit - $5500

7. Branding, Packaging & Marketing - $13000

To create this global impact, every penny counts, and your generous gift will help tribal women of 9 villages have a sustainable living.

Donations of $1000 or more will be etched on a stone plaque at the entrance of the rural industrial park - NIRVANA FARMS

You can make a difference in lives of Tribal Women of India

By Sera Smart Villages Inc

You can make a difference in lives of Tribal Women of India

The tribal women of Narayanpet, India earn $61/month and you donation will teach them new skills & better livelihoods.

Team Members