“Bananas are thirsty – drinking almost 50% of water as you grow them! In this water parched area I used to spend Rs.45,000 on electricity for pumping water and on labour – and the bananas were awful!

"I was completing my graduation and had my sights set on a government job when my father passed away and our family fell into financial crisis. Being an educated person, what would people say if I simply join agriculture? But with no other choice at the time, I thought let me put my mind to good use in farming and support my family of 9.

‘Farming is a family business and we all get involved – in fact, we live as part of khiryati Dhaani where almost 30 families live and work together in close proximity. We used to grow maize but found it tough to survive, so I would work as a labourer on other farms in the district.

“It was a bitter pill to swallow - I was 59. I'd just retired. And was broken.

Since childhood, I saw my father struggling to make agriculture profitable. I was very sure that I could do better. That with my hard work and skill, I’d earn more. But somehow, it never happened …

“In West Bengal, Mandals are known to be cultivators. So despite earning my trade as an electrician at ITI, I turned to the 30-acre family farm to work hard and build a business.

“I was one of 7 children and growing up, there were many days where my parents couldn’t provide even one meal for us all. So at the age of 10, my father sent me to Baishnabnagar to work as a child labourer on a dairy farm.

When an NGO talks about its various programmes and models of intervention, they often paint the bigger picture of the tangible results, the work as it exists today, and the impacts being made on lives. Rarely do we get the back story – the story of the evolution of the programme and how it came to be in the first place …

Indian farmers face significant challenges in agriculture - fragmentation of land ownership, increased cost of cultivation, deteriorating soil health, uncertain market spaces. In addition to this, climate change is a major threat. It seems there is no end to the hurdles that the humble Indian farmer must jump over.

When it comes to key stakeholders in agriculture and rural development in India, there is no bigger player than NABARD who, with a 7, 50,000 crore balance sheet, are a primary investor in the revitalisation of rural India. It makes sense then, for Ambuja Foundation to work closely with them – after all, both organisations are working towards the same vision – rural prosperity!

Ambuja Foundation joins hands with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the implementation of Watershed Development projects in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh. Owing to Ambuja Foundation’s successful past experience in the field of Watershed Development in Solan under CSR mode where Ambuja Foundation is implementing 9 watershed projects, NABARD has now selected the Foundation to support farmers in the Mandi region – improving their production and livelihood.

India is the largest cotton producer in the world, with 5. 8 million farmers making a living from the crop, along with millions of people who work in the sector. But in the past the industry has had a bad name, labelled as one that ‘consumes too much and produces too little’ – too much water, too much pesticide, and low productivity per hectare.