Archive for December, 2010

Globally, about 800 million poor live in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture. But often, living off the land isn’t a great proposition. In this issue, we feature some innovative businesses reaching out to these farmers, look at how MNREGA can reach beyond just creating jobs and hear from three successful entrepreneurs boosting livelihoods through for-profit companies.

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This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Innovative business models can make living off the land a viable option for millions of small farmers.

While agriculture’s share of GDP in much of the world has dropped—from two-thirds to one-third in Africa and down to 18% in India—the developing world still depends on agriculture to provide livelihoods.

In some sub-Saharan African countries, 70% of rural households earn more than three-quarters of their income from agriculture. In 2007, agriculture still employed more than half of India’s workforce. But living off the land isn’t often a choice. » Continue reading “Changing the face of agriculture”

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Agriculture contributes 17% to India’s income. Three entrepreneurs speak about working in India to support livelihoods using a for-profit model.

BP: In your experience, what are the current challenges faced by agriculture-dependent peoples in India?

Venkat Subramanian: When we come from another industry and look at agriculture, [my wife and myself] saw that quite a few things are actually not in place. Most of the issues that are being pointed out, like agriculture yield, are actually not the real problem. The real problem was that farmers were actually not having any marketing mechanisms at all. And the logistics to reach the end customer were not there. These are much bigger problems than even trying to increase the yield because even if you try to increase the yield, it may go up by 10% or 20%, but when you look at the huge wastage which is happening because of just poor management…all the interventions have been so far on the yield to increase area. » Continue reading “Round Table: The Business Behind Livelihoods”

By Suryamani Roul

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

MGNREGA has provided jobs to 52.5 million households, but the act’s impact can extend beyond employment.

The enactment of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) best reflects the Government of India’s (GoI) new resolve to strengthen the rural economy and livelihoods of the poor. Implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD)GoI, MGNREGA aims to enhance livelihood security by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The most significant feature of MGNREGA lies in making the Government legally accountable for providing employment to those who ask. » Continue reading “Employing India Through MGNREGA”

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

By the Numbers

A new report by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) presents interesting statistics about food production.

• 70%: The necessary increase in food production to feed the projected global population of 9bn people in 2050
• 15%: The annual percentage of national budgets spent on agriculture in Asian countries since 1972
• $36 billion: The value of total global investments in agricultural R&D in  2000 where close to 50% was concentrated in Brazil, China and India
• 321 million: In acreage, the area under cultivation of genetically modified seeds in 25 countries in  2009
• 13 million: The number of smallholder farmers growing genetically modified crops in 2009 » Continue reading “Data: Living Off the Land”

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Like almost everyone involved in the social space, investors, too, are interested in solutions that can scale, but the fragmented nature of Indian agriculture makes that a challenging proposition.

Input

Most farmers in India still use seeds harvested from the previous year’s crop. Although genetically modified seeds are more expensive, they can triple a farmer’s yield. This market is generally monopolized by big companies—Monsanto, Nuziveedu and Pioneer Seeds—because of the intensity of research and design. Although the introduction of these seeds has been controversial in India, investors are optimistic about the effects. » Continue reading “Top 5: Investors’ Agriculture Picks”

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

ITC’s innovative e-Choupal program expands to provide rural workers with jobs and companies with local links.

Much has been written about ITC’s successful e-Choupal program that brings the internet, and all the information encompassed, to rural farmers in India. The program has expanded to reach 38,000 villages and more than 4 million farmers through 6,500 internet kiosks.

There have been multiple iterations of the program since it started in 2000. » Continue reading “Deepening Rural Relationships”

This story originally appeared in our December 17, 2010 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

As part of a new report, ACCESS examines how climate change will affect India’s agricultural sector.

Climate change has again become global headline news. The recent UN-sponsored climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, has brought together 190 nations to discuss domestic and international environmental policy. India is just one of the nations involved and it could not be timelier: a study by the Climate Vulnerable Forum delineates how imperative it is for the country to assume a more pro-active stance in addressing climate change. The study predicts that India is susceptible to rising health problems and loss of habitat. Since rural India still heavily depends on the land, how will climate change affect agriculture-dependent peoples? » Continue reading “Climate Changing Livelihoods”

Facebook started as a college social site but quickly grew to be much more than that; Twitter has become a new way to share information; and LinkedIn is the professional networking site where members post resumes and job openings. But there’s a new social site on the scene: Jumo.

Jumo, which means “together in concert” in Yoruba, aims to connect socially minded people with like-minded organizations. » Continue reading “Jumo: A Socially Minded Social Network”

By Dipika Prasad

The nature, complexities and business model solutions of the BoP were the subject of a session delivered by S. Sivakumar, the Chief Executive of Agri Businesses at ITC, at iDiya 2010 last week. Beyond Profit live tweeted the discussion, which can be accessed here. We caught up with Sivakumar to learn more about his journey of innovations in rural marketing, and empowering the Indian farmer. » Continue reading “Rural Marketing: Trust is Critical”