Crop and reap
In excess of 100,000 farming families in Uttar Pradesh will reap the benefits of improved agricultural practices through Sujalam Sufalam
Buying a car is a dream for India’s marginal farmers. That’s why when Savitri Devi’s family managed to save enough to buy a second-hand version there was elation in the household. Better times would follow. Ms Savitri converted her hut into a proper brick-and-cement house and, soon after, put together enough money for her daughter’s wedding.
These milestones were reached after Ms Savitri and her family became part of the Sujalam Sufalam programme in 2019. Seeded and supported by the Tata Trusts, Sujalam Sufalam translates into ‘clear water, good fruit’. It has certainly borne fruit for Ms Savitri, raising her family’s annual agricultural income from about 
50,000 to more than 120,000.
Propelled by the objective of doubling farm-based incomes, Sujalam Sufalam covers 100,000-plus farming families in 457 villages in the eastern Uttar Pradesh districts of Balrampur, Bahraich and Shravasti. The villages in the programme are blessed with the fertile soil of the Gangetic-basin flood plains. The promise of agricultural development is high, yet the region is prone to endemic poverty.
Rakesh Singh, programme manager for Tata Trusts’ rural upliftment portfolio, offers one explanation: “Many of the farmers here have small landholdings. This becomes a bottleneck for mechanisation and prevents them from fully realising the income potential of traditional crops like wheat and paddy.”
Sujalam Sufalam addresses this issue, as also the exploitation that farmers face due to a lack of knowledge about market demand and crop prices. Adds Mr Singh: “They are often cheated by traders on the weight of their produce and they struggle to get fair margins from traders. The existing value chains are highly disaggregated and informal.”
Sujalam Sufalam, which commenced in 2019 is designed to be an intensive intervention that works as an enabler for the households under its canopy: 60,000-plus in Balrampur, 20,000-plus in Shravasti and 20,000-plus in Bahraich. About 80% of this target group have landholdings of less than 2.5 acres and annual incomes under 30,000.
The numbers in the programme are a help when it comes to developing a value-chain approach to marketing produce, and it attracts multiple stakeholders.
Higher-value crops
The Trusts team got going by convincing farmers to add high-value crops to their mix: pulses in the kharif season (June to October); maize and mustard in the rabi season (November to March); and sugarcane, groundnuts and beans in the zaid season (March to June). Also in the farming basket are potatoes, onions and vegetables.
“The crop combination has been prepared keeping in mind soil conditions and allelopathy, the process by which plants and microorganisms influence one another,” explains Mr Singh.
Mechanisation was introduced and this was a game changer for the farmers involved. The farmers were educated on best practices by community resource persons and the Trusts teamed up with NGOs with feet on the ground to drive training in soil health improvement, fertiliser and pesticide use, cropping intensity, water conservation and micro irrigation.
Selling their produce at a fair price is always a challenge for India’s small farmers. The Trusts team has met this challenge by trying to ensure that small farmers get the minimum support price (MSP) promised by the government. Furthermore, market access has been enhanced through the setting up of farmer producer companies (FPCs). The team also trained 290 local youth as agriculture entrepreneurs. These youngsters now provide doorstep services to farmers and FPCs.
These moves have fetched dividends. FMCG behemoth ITC, the multi-business conglomerate, has come on board to buy cereals from the farmers at higher-than-MSP rates. Meanwhile, the FPCs have managed to increase their turnover to 20 million (2023-24).
The more visible change is at the individual farm level, with Sujalam Sufalam influencing what and how farmers grow. An example is Geeta Mourya, whose family of 13 survives on the income from a 2.4-acre farm in Naya Nagar village in Balrampur.
Farming culture changes
In 2019, before she became a part of Sujalam Sufalam, Ms Mourya’s farm had paddy, wheat, sugarcane and a few vegetables. “The quality of the produce was not good and insects and weeds were a constant menace,” says Ms Mourya, whose farming fortunes took a turn for the better after her Sujalam Sufalam training.
Ms Mourya now grows four crops in the same field, saving on fertiliser and water, and vegetables are of a quality that net her a higher income. As a result, her annual farm income has jumped from 96,000 to more than 200,000. The money has been put to good use. Ms Mourya has invested in a solar pump for irrigation and she has renovated her family home.
Sujalam Sufalam has had a ripple effect that goes beyond farming. “We see our farmers building concrete houses and buying vehicles, and they also say that they have more respect in the community,” says Mr Singh.
Veggie way forward
Mamta Maurya (above) wanted a proper house to live in, not the thatched hut she came to when she got married in 2011 and arrived at her husband’s village, Muravan Purwa, in Bahraich district. A portion of the hut was cemented, and that’s where all 11 members of the family would sleep.
Ms Maurya and her husband own a 0.3-acre farm plot. “It was not enough to support our family. I wanted a better life for my three children,” she says.
The pathway to the better life Ms Maurya craved opened up in 2020 after she attended a meeting organised by the Tata Trusts and its NGO partner Trust Community Livelihood (TCL). “The meeting included many village elders and the talk was about growing vegetables to increase our income,” says Ms Maurya. “I listened carefully and understood the possible benefits, and I convinced my husband that vegetable farming was the way forward.”
With the help of the TCL-Tata Trusts team, the Mauryas installed a net house and started growing radish, spinach, cauliflower and cabbage. “The net house helped us grow good-quality vegetables and we kept adding to our produce list.”
The couple soon realised that selling directly to customers would be more profitable, and they opened a vegetable shop. Soon after, the Mauryas ventured into dairy farming, which brought in a steady income, manure for the farm and fuel for their biogas stove.
All of this has brightened the world of the Mauryas. “Our kids go to a good school, we eat better, wear nicer clothes and we have even bought a motorcycle,” says Ms Maurya. “We have Rs50,000 left to repay on the loan we took for the motorcycle, and we hope to clear that soon.”