With a large percentage of India’s population still dependent of Agriculture as their primary source of income and among them majority being small-scale farmers, the lack of awareness on latest techniques and also the financial crunch to develop or install latest infrastructure is a worrying reality.
Large number of small-scale farmers continue to adopt old techniques even today which leads to continuous depletion of soil quality depriving them of the maximum potential and benefits they can reap by working on their lands.
To fill this lacuna of information and infrastructure, Mosaic India Private Limited stepped in and began supporting such farmers in Haryana and Punjab. Through its flagship project – Krishi Jyoti – Mosaic reaches out to farmers in Mewat District of Haryana and Alwar District of Rajasthan.
Since its inception in the year 2008 till today, the project has directly impacted the lives of over 40,000 people in 60 villages of these districts. Mosaic implements its project in these areas with the help of its partner SM Sehgal Foundation.
“The Krishi Jyoti team constitutes both S M Sehgal Foundation and Mosaic staff on board, who together plan the work and monitor the progress. The community, farmers and Panchayat are also considered as team members, who recommend modifications to the project and their agreements are sought,” the company states.
The project details
As mentioned above, the core philosophy of Mosaic behind launching the project has been to introduce modern agricultural techniques to the small-scale farmers so as to help them in increasing the crop yield and getting more financial benefits from their work on the farm. To achieve this feat, the company focuses on four areas of intervention:
The first broad area is agricultural development under which Mosaic and SM Sehgal Foundation work on enhancing the soil health, providing agricultural inputs and giving expert advice to the farmers. The farmers are provided with good quality seeds and fertilizers, macro and micronutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, etc.
Water Management being the second core focus of the project, the company helps in promoting water conservation, building infrastructure and encouraging water efficient irrigation techniques. The company supports building of check-dams for the farmers as well as helping them with the use of drip irrigation facilities.
Moving forward, the company does not stop at just providing agricultural inputs but also supports the school system of the villages it operates in. It helps in renovation of schools, providing safe drinking water and plantation of trees which further leads to an increase in enrollment of students in these schools improving the education levels of the children.
The impact
As per the plan, the project is implemented in a village for a period of three years and a farmer is made capable of sustaining the progress after that. The company has so far spent Rs 7 crore on the project and continues to release more funds periodically.
The Krishi Jyoti project started with just one village in Nuh (Mewat) in 2008 and in a span of just eight years it has spread to 60 villages in total. By supporting the farmers through providing micronutrients and fertilizers and capacity building, Mosaic has achieved an impressive increase in productivity of crops by 20 to 30 percent. This, when calculated on the economic scale, brings about an increase of 15-20 percent in farmer’s income. Imagine the kind of change this can bring to a small farmer and his/her family’s life.
The check dams constructed today have a reservoir capacity of over 16.99 million gallons, a boost for moving in the direction of replenishing groundwater. Lastly, the work by Mosaic has also benefited over 4000 school going children studying in 20 different schools of the two districts.
Village members and farmers are motivated to come together and ensure better implementation of the whole project. Two percent of the total allocated budget is spent on monitoring and evaluation activities and quarterly development and financial reports are taken out to track the progress on regular intervals.
In addition, a Village Development Committee (VDC) is also formed which oversees all the aspects of the project. The VDC members are given regular training by agricultural experts and are the money is deposited by villagers in the name of VDC which is then used for maintenance of infrastructure after the project is concluded. This model also ensures that the project is sustainable after the organisation moves out of the village.
Mosaic’s work has also been acknowledged and appreciated on many different levels. It has won various awards including the FICCI Water Award in 2013 and Bhamashah award of Rajasthan government in 2016 and 2017 in different categories. The felicitation is a proof of the effort being put by Mosaic and SM Sehgal Foundation to bring about a positive change in the lives of small scale farmers.
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