About Manthan Biotech-KISAN Hub

Manthan has 15 years experience working with farmers, scientists and other private and government bodies to create greater sustainability in farming system. Manthan has been working on socio-economic development through various skill development, agriculture development and research support for upliftment of rural community. The organization has a leading expertise in working with communities on sustainable farming, research development and capacity building through training networks. We are working in sustainable agro-forestry techniques to improve farm production and profitability while promoting sustainable natural resource management. A holistic and integrated development approach to counter issue for soil infertility, environmental degradation and lack of income generating opportunities. Introducing diversified ecological farming systems would not only increase soil's fertility but also enhance crop production, suppress weed growth, inhibit pests and diseases, increase food security, generate more income and improve the health and nutrition of farmers and their families.

Manthan Biotech-KISAN Hub will act as catalyst and aggregator of different stakeholders and act as bridge between farmers, scientists, market to facilitate technology driven sustainable farming. We intent to facilitate this through participatory development process. The hub in order to provide benefits to farmers in an organized manner envisage to develop a potentially replicable model comprising strengthening of Farmers Groups and creation/utilize existing Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) for better community engagement. In addition to the mandated activities of HUB we intent to create Farmer Groups and encourages villagers to address a wide range of livelihood constraints. With the facilitation of HUB, villagers will undertake different farm and non-farm activities such as crop, tree, watershed management, livestock development and different income generation activities etc and further scale-up the activities in order to increase their income, to ensure their food security. The technology transfer will be made through training & exposure of community and strengthening FPO system in each village. A series of community training will be organized with in the Block and outside in order to achieve this goal. Gradually the project envisaged on the holistic approach for sustainable improvement of livelihoods by mobilizing the existing capitals in and around the villages. In nutshell the HUB’s interventions centered on the existing capital for sustainable improvement of livelihood and agriculture development, mobilization and training, and linkage to markets and value addition. Benefits include augmentation in the production of lead crop and cash crops. Market linkage and use of technology interventions through Partner Institutes for bringing in more value; financial linkages for group credit; and awareness and linkages to government livelihood opportunities.

Objectives

• To promote and popularize conservation-agriculture (CA) based technologies for resource conservation, enhancing farmers profit and to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in the Soybean-wheat-Gram and Rice-wheat based cropping system of the zone.
• To identify the constraints of adoption and provide necessary back-up through HUB and its partner institutions for adoption and popularization of CA-based technologies among the resource-poor farmers.
• To assess the impact and quantify the benefits of CA-based technologies for improving socio-economic conditions of the farming community.

Methodology

The MGSSS HUB will develop the information center and work as facilitator for promotion of CA in the selected areas. In the HUB audio-visual facilities, literature for distribution among the farmers, web based information on CA (in Hindi and English), and linkage to toll free Kisan Call Center of the ATIC for queries on CA will be developed. The HUB will be equipped with information on improved farm machineries suitable for CA. The HUB will also link with partnering institutions through web linkages and formation of Facebook Group on CA.

Demonstrations on conservation agriculture-based technologies will be undertaken in the identified villages on the following aspects:

• Direct-seeding of soybean-wheat-gram
• Zero-till sowing of wheat and other crops
• Integrated crop management
• Crop residue management
• Introduction of legume crop (green gram, black gram) or sesbania green manure in summer)