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Bankura project
reports
 In
2006, SFSA established the Syngenta Foundation India (SFI) to develop
its projects across India
Project reports
SFSA and SFI work in India to help smallholder farmers
improve their livelihoods by producing a profitable surplus.
Whole communities are benefiting from the new income.
Pradip Hembrom belongs to a farming community in the Bankura
District of West Bengal, where he and his wife Malini
live on a plot of land of about half a hectare (4,000
square metres) in size. The dryness of the land, soil
erosion and plant pests, have often led to disappointing
harvests.
Pradip is one of more than 200 farmers from 18 villages
to have joined a project run by a non-government organization,
Shamayita Math, to find ways to improve their productivity.
SFSA provides funding and technical advice to Shamayita
Math to raise awareness about new hybrid strains of rice
that are resistant to pests and higher yielding varieties
of vegetables.
The farmers borrow money for buying hybrid rice seed,
higher yielding vegetables and fertilizer. Shamyita Math
organizes training workshops on how to prepare the land,
raise young plants, use fertilizers and pesticides effectively
and economically, and also organizes visits from agricultural
experts. The farmers get to network with other farmers,
share experiences and build support.
Pradip produced enough tomatoes from 2006 to 2007 to sell
at the roadside and nearby markets. He is using the profit
to pay for his children’s board and keep at a hostel
some 20 kilometres away, where they attend a government
school. In 2007 Pradip will grow more vegetables –
yard bean (cowpea), pumpkin and cauliflower as well as
tomato. He is also saving to buy a water pump for irrigation.
Bankura District is one of four to benefit from the SFSA’s
agricultural development work. What began as a pilot in
2004 at Anandwan, in Chandrapur District has expanded
and is being replicated in three other districts in West
Bengal, Maharashtra and Orissa. The programme is coordinated
by agricultural consultant and Foundation Delegate Dr.
Partha Das Gupta. In each District, farmers are growing
a variety of vegetables, and seeing improved rice yields
through using certified hybrid rice that is more resistant
to disease.
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