How ‘Project Aahar’ Helps in Increasing Farmers’ Monthly Income

India is an agrarian country, where agriculture along with its allied activities- acts as the main source of income for more than 80% of rural India, contributing 16-18% of India’s GDP. However, lack of awareness about modern farming techniques and the prevalence of traditional farming methods result in increased chances of crop failure. 

Enactus is a global community of students, academicians and business leaders spread across 36 countries, committed to transforming lives through the power of entrepreneurial actions.  

Earlier known as Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), NSUT is a premier engineering institution based in Dwarka, India. Enactus NSUT (a local chapter of Enactus) is a team of 80 active members who are working on 5 social entrepreneurial projects.  

Through the efforts of our team, we have successfully increased the monthly income of 30 small-scale farmers by 25% using hydroponics method of farming. Furthermore, we are proud to be mentored by reputed scientists from The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK).  

We work in two levels of implementation: Level 1 is enhancing the production side and Level 2 is enhancing the selling-side of our farmers’ produce. 

Level 1: To boost crop production, we help the farmers implement the coco peat method of farming on their lands. As a part of our trust building process, our team pays for the initial material investment, as farmers are often skeptical about switching to a new farming technique. 

Why Cocopeat: A mixture of coco peat, vermiculite, and perlite in a unique ratio (popularly known as CVP mixture), eliminates the use of fertilizers and pesticides in the growth cycle. Furthermore, coco peat also results in an increased water retention capacity of the soil which saves up to 50% of irrigation water. It also ensures the absence of soil-borne diseases and increases the final produce output by 20%.  

Level 2 (Farm to Fork model): Through our “Farm to Fork” Model, we set up stalls in societies with the help of the respective RWAs and help our farmers sell their produce directly to the residents. Farmers earn substantially better profits as there are no exploitative middle-men and the residents consume fresh produce, straight from the farm.  

To bootstrap our venture, we sell hydroponics (NFT) kits to the gardening enthusiasts. These kits are assembled by the unemployed women of our farmers’ families. The profits from the kits are invested to buy and implement coco peat farming on our farmers’ lands.  

(AUTHOR: Team Aahar)