Agriculture
Learning Stream
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13th July 2012 Mahindra & Mahindra in Analytics, Bengaluru, Tipping Point, Agriculture, Data Management
http://rise.mahindra.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/MG_2266-220x160.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail wp-post-image"… Read morealt="_MG_2266" title="_MG_2266" />
We’re combing the country to find examples of intelligent, scalable innovation – and we’re going to pick 20 of the best to be featured here, and on the pages of Tehelka." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://tehelka.com/">Tehelka. These are some of the most compelling and untold stories of our time – and they reflect another truth; that spirit and determination can master any challenge.
This article was originally published http://tippingpoint.thinkworks.in/rikin-gandhi/" target="_blank">here.
IF INNOVATION ODDLY ENOUGH FOR someone who seems so committed to his task, land held very little interest for Rikin Gandhi, 30, growing up; it was the skies and astronomy hat captivated him. With a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a private pilot’s licence, it didn’t seem like anything could deflect him from his path.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2266/" rel="attachment wp-att-2773">
The Challenge
A CHANCE MEETING with Microsoft Research’s Technology for Emerging Markets team in Bengaluru made software engineer Rikin Gandhi start exploring the role that technology could play in the lives of farmers. “Our main challenge is to identify organisations, that are already working with communities, that we can work with,” he says. “We primarily look for partners with three attributes: 1. locally relevant agri-cultural and related livelihood expertise, 2. scale of existing operations, and 3. trust networks and rapport amongst the community. If such a foundation is in place, we have been impressed by how quickly the community is able to pick up skills to operationalise the system by themselves.”
The Idea
INITIALLY STARTED AS a project at Microsoft Research, Gandhi began by surveying existing projects that work on agricultural development — some technology-led, others not. They started out with one partner, the NGO GREEN Foundation, that works with farmers on a variety of biodiversity conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. Digital Green took on the task of combining technology and social organisation to improve cost-effectiveness and broaden the community participation in existing agricultural extension systems.
A few key components made Digital Green’s approach unique: for one, as intermediaries between farmers and experts, Digital Green relies extensively on local ‘social’ networks and hierarchies to disseminate their message and work. They also involve farmers in producing short learning videos for other farmers, an approach that has given them a success rate almost unparalleled in the sector so far — in the past four years, Digital Green’s approach has been scaled up to reach over 1 lakh farmers across 1,200 villages in six states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha).
At the heart of Digital Green’s work, though, is technology: they built a data management framework that operates in locations with limited to no Internet access or power; as well as a set of analytics dashboards to slice and dice the data to see which video is most or least popular.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2230/" rel="attachment wp-att-2772">
The Innovator
ODDLY ENOUGH FOR someone who seems so committed to his task, land held very little interest for Rikin Gandhi, 30, growing up; it was the skies and astronomy hat captivated him. With a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a private pilot’s licence, it didn’t seem like anything could deflect him from his path. “I came to India in 2006 to check out a friend’s biodiesel venture. That didn’t work out as planned, but I connected with Microsoft Research and things just fell into place,” says Gandhi.
The Impact
IN CONTROLLED TRIALS, Digital Green was shown to increase the adoption of certain agriculture practices seven-fold over conventional systems. Digital Green’s system still requires the support of the existing ones, but it magnifies its effectiveness by using relevant content and a local presence to connect with farmers. In fact, Digital Green was shown to be 10 times more effective per rupee spent. “Farmers are incentivised to take up new practices so that they can be seen on video as a role model in their community,” says Gandhi.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2227/" rel="attachment wp-att-2771">
The Way Forward
DIGITAL GREEN HAS now collaborated with the National Rural Livelihood Mission; over the next 3-4 years, they plan to scale up to at least 10,000 villages to reach a million farmers. It has also began work to extend the model with partners in Ethiopia and Ghana and are also exploring how the Digital Green platform could be used to exchange knowledge. “We are also developing a Facebook of farmers called Farmerbook (prototype: farmerbook.digitalgreen.org),” enthuses Gandhi.
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10th October 2012 Mahindra & Mahindra in Agriculture, Event, Agriculture & Rural Development, Araku Valley, Camp
As the sun rose over the lush Araku Valley, history was being made. For the first time, visitors from around the globe gathered for the 2012 Livelihoods Network Camp to co-build solutions for rural communities to live in healthy, sustainable ecosystems.
http://rise.mahindra.com/cultivating-livelihoods-a-global-gathering-in-araku-valley/day-1-photo-1/" rel="attachment wp-att-3084">
Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, Government of India, plants the 2 millionth tree of the Araku Valley project to commemorate the event.
The Livelihoods Network Camp (October 8-11) began with a symbolic event—the planting of over 100 new trees by individuals representing 61 organizations from across 21 countries. Their collective presence and participation in this forum represents a new approach to investing in livelihoods through co-creation and local interactions.
Why Araku Valley?
The Livelihoods Network was born out of the belief that the success of large scale impactful projects depends on capacity building and knowledge sharing between practitioners. In 2011 the Network held its first Camp in Paris to explore sustainable development practices through the sharing of best practices, tools and methodologies. In 2012, more than ever before, the Livelihoods Network wanted to put the rural communities they serve at the forefront of the event, hence the gathering in Araku.
http://rise.mahindra.com/cultivating-livelihoods-a-global-gathering-in-araku-valley/day-1-photo-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-3085">
Bernard Giraud explains the story behind the Livelihoods Network Camp and the focus on local communities.
This year, the dialogue is broken up into six distinct workshops consisting of site visits and team discussions. In line with this year’s emphasis on local involvement, the agenda was determined by talking to the adivasis (tribals) in the Paderu Tribal Agency Area. These key themes that emerged—carbon monitoring, access to market, household energy, financial inclusion, nutritional security, and improving agricultural capacity—span multiple social development parameters in a holistic approach to livelihood promotion.
The Enablers—The Livelihoods Fund and Naandi Foundation
The Livelihoods Fund bridges the gap between rural communities and the corporate sector by addressing the needs of both through an innovative carbon investment fund. The Fund’s primary objective is to provide nutritional security and social value to rural communities through sustainable ecological development. Corporations, on the other end of the equation, receive high quality carbon offsets in return for a financial investment in the fund. These corporations are also asked to provide technical and operational support to the projects they invest in.
One such investment of the Livelihoods Fund is the Nandi Foundation’s Araku Valley project. Naandi has been working in Araku Valley with the adivasis for nearly a decade and a half. Their mandate is to change the lives of the underserved populations in India through public-private partnerships. In addition to the work they do to create sustainable livelihood options for farmers, they are also committed to the protection of child rights and the provision of safe drinking water. Across India, their programs provide livelihoods to 20,000 tribals, feed 1.1 million children per day through their midday meals program, and provide safe drinking water to over 200,000 people living in villages.
http://rise.mahindra.com/cultivating-livelihoods-a-global-gathering-in-araku-valley/day-1-photo-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-3086">
Leaders from Livelihoods Venture, Naandi Foundation, local cooperatives, and several government agencies address 100 representatives of farmers from each village.
It is holistic approaches to livelihood like Naandi’s that set an example for others in the same space. We expect that over the next few days, this unique group of people will learn from each other, but more importantly, from the local communities and community partners. Check back tomorrow for more updates and learnings from the Camp!
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3rd September 2012 Tech Mahindra in Tipping Point, Agriculture, Agrarian, Crop, Farming
We’re combing the country to find examples of intelligent, scalable innovation – and we’re going to pick 20 of the best to be featured here, and on the pages of Tehelka." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://tehelka.com/">Tehelka. These are some of the most compelling and untold stories of our time – and they reflect another truth; that spirit and determination can master any challenge.
This article was originally published http://tippingpoint.thinkworks.in/rangu-rao/" target="_blank">here.
A DELHI UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS, Rangu Rao heads the Watershed Development programme for SPS. His hands-on interventions and personal connections with hundreds of villagers have yielded many successful initiatives.
The Challenge
TACKLING INDIA’S agrarian crisis is not the most fashionable project for contemporary innovators. It isn’t even about innovation — because conventional challenges of innovation pale when confronted with the realities of food and crisis in farming in some of the country’s drought-ridden drylands. The scale and reach of the government intervention has not been able to make a dent. It is enough to demoralise even dedicated do-gooders. But one formidable band of game-changers has taken it upon itself to work towards livelihood security on an unimaginable scale: over a million acres of land across India’s 72 most backward districts.
The Idea
THE CORE FOCUS of Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) is watershed development — farmer suicides in the state were high, usurious moneylenders were taking advantage of illiteracy and desperation, and reliance on single crops was making land yields unviable. SPS adopted 57 villages to directly implement watershed programmes — spending 60 million to create water harvesting structures with a storage capacity of over a million cubic metres, irrigating over 112,000 acres of land. In the process, they generated two million man-days of employment — and for the first time ever, offered drinking water security to every household in each village. Another key benefit: drought-proofing of the all-important kharif crop that the community primarily relies on.
But simply creating structures wasn’t enough; the innovators at SPS got involved in management and equitable sharing of water also. Written agreements were drawn up in each case, detailing everything, from proportion of water sharing to hours of pumping, sequence of irrigation, cropping patterns and even watering intensity. All households, irrespective of their size of land holding, were given an equal share of the water. SPS core member Rangu Rao — who oversees the watershed programme along with Pramathesh Ambasta, Murlidhar Kharadia and Narendra Patel — had the formidable task of gaining the confidence of farmers and arriving at the agreement on water-sharing through involvement with local communities and panchayats.
The Innovator
A DELHI UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS, Rangu Rao heads the Watershed Development programme for SPS. His hands-on interventions and personal connections with hundreds of villagers have yielded many successful initiatives. Along with a committed team, Rangu has created a network that enjoys the confidence of locals. His paper on Rural Credit in 20th Century India (along with Mihir Shah and PS Vijay Shankar) is a part of the syllabus for Development Theory for Delhi University’s Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Rangu also chairs the working group on.
The Impact
SPS HAS BEEN making a tangible impact on the quality of life and incomes in the region. The value of agricultural output has increased, due to expansion in irrigated areas and higher yields. Kharif yields are up 10-20 percent, Rabi by 50-60 percent. Equally significant – external migration of farmers and local families has dropped by a staggering 80 percent. Another key impact has been the removal of reliance on a single crop – tribal farmers now cultivate 2-3 crops.
The Organisation
SAMAJ PRAGATI SAHAYOG (SPS), one of the country’s largest grassroots initiatives for water and livelihood security, is headquartered in Dewas, MP. SPS has direct intervention programmes in over 220 villages and towns in the area. Its key focus is to arrest distressmigration towards the metros and liberate farmers from the vicious cycle of moneylenders and loans. For direct intervention programmes, SPS relies on government funding, and a few key donors. The organisation also focuses on building a corpus from larger donations where only the interest is used for development activities.
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11th September 2012 Mahindra & Mahindra in Maya, Agriculture, Agriculture & Rural Development, Belize, Cacao
It is no secret that chocolate can have a powerful effect; comforting, calming or even energizing, depending on your sweet tooth. But more than just inducing various emotional states, chocolate can also contribute to social change – and no one recognizes this more than the innovative team behind Maya Mountain Cacao, Alex Whitmore and Emily Stone.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img2/" rel="attachment wp-att-2985">
Everything changed for Whitmore when he took his first bite of stone ground chocolate; from this first sweet, rich taste, Whitmore was so inspired that he decided to create a chocolate company. But beyond just aspiring to become the world’s next great chocolate producer, Whitmore wanted to create a company with a conscience.
To do so Whitmore started travelling the globe seeking new sources of sustainably harvested cacao. It was on this rather epic journey that Whitmore stumbled upon the lush – albeit tiny – country of Belize and its high quality cacao crops.
The reality in Belize, Whitmore learned, is that despite 44% of the country’s land is protected Belize continues to face ongoing ecological threats – especially related to tropical forests. These threats include industrialization of agricultural production through mono-crops and the discovery of crude oil in the southern region where most of the country’s cacao is grown.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img3/" rel="attachment wp-att-2986">
As a shade crop cacao prevents deforestation while providing a cash source for cacao-farming families. Cacao is grown organically and mostly in an agro-forestry-based system, allowing for high biodiversity levels and income diversification for families.
The Maya of Belize have been producing cacao for decades, but have historically had only one market option to sell their beans; as a result, the industry has never reached a state of financial viability.
Recognizing this, and the economic potential of the cacao industry in Belize, Whitmore proposed the introduction of a competitive market for Belizean cacao to bring new services, ideas, pricing models, and meaningful relationships to local farmers. The goal was to catalyze a renewed interest in cacao farming to help local communities earn an income, while also preserving tropical forest biodiversity.
While researching the above concept Whitmore met Emily Stone, a graduate of the Green Corps Field School for Environmental Organizing. Bonded by the concept of sustainable cacao, together they worked to find a way to establish direct relationships between chocolate companies and the cacao farmers. The goal was to build relationships so the farmers could generate an income while producing quality, sustainably sourced cacao for global consumption.
Recognizing the business potential, Stone travelled to Belize and, with the help of a young local Mayan famer, began truly laying the groundwork for Maya Mountain Cacao. She worked with farmers to get organic certification, eliminate the use of pesticides and increase overall yields. At the same time, Stone also started encouraging reforestation practices essential for the sustainable cocoa plantation. Impressively, due to outreach and their full launch, in 2011 Maya Mountain Cacao’s over 60 farmers received organic certification.
After 3 months of education, in January 2011 Maya Mountain Cacao made a direct investment in cacao production and started buying from the region’s local farmer. With a strong contingent of organically certified supplies, Maya has exported 26 metric tons organic cacao so far in the 2012 season, securing the highest possible price from the world market.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img1/" rel="attachment wp-att-2984">
In addition to their for-profit business, in 2011 Maya started partnering with local NGOs to invest in seedling farming for long-term reforestation. As a part of this project Maya is helping to scale the overall cacao production levels in Belize, looking beyond just their operations. Overall, the seeding project is set to yield 50,000 cacao trees to be planted in July and August.
With their impressive launch and success throughout the last year, Whitmore and Stone are now focused on drawing attention to the fact that catalyzing market access can directly contribute to protecting tropical forests.
This is why they’ve applied to the WWF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.ennovent.com/challenges/index/id/8">WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge – which seeks to identify the best for-profit solution impacting tropical forest biodiversity in the world’s 75 tropical forest-rich countries. The 3 winners, in the Idea, Start up and Company categories will be endorsed by WWF Switzerland and receive global visibility and capacity building opportunities.
Maya Mountain Cacao is just one example of a for-profit business, which is, by design, creating a positive impact while generating commercial value. Now, as Whitmore and Stone focus on further growing their operations to scale their impact, Maya Mountain Cacao is well positioned to create lasting change for the communities of Belize, and the tropical forests in which they live and work.
And who knew it would all begin with that (sustainably) sweet treat – chocolate.
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13th July 2012 Tech Mahindra in Analytics, Bengaluru, Tipping Point, Agriculture, Data Management
We’re combing the country to find examples of intelligent, scalable innovation – and we’re going to pick 20 of the best to be featured here, and on the pages of Tehelka." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://tehelka.com/">Tehelka. These are some of the most compelling and untold stories of our time – and they reflect another truth; that spirit and determination can master any challenge.
This article was originally published http://tippingpoint.thinkworks.in/rikin-gandhi/" target="_blank">here.
IF INNOVATION ODDLY ENOUGH FOR someone who seems so committed to his task, land held very little interest for Rikin Gandhi, 30, growing up; it was the skies and astronomy hat captivated him. With a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a private pilot’s licence, it didn’t seem like anything could deflect him from his path.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2266/" rel="attachment wp-att-2773">
The Challenge
A CHANCE MEETING with Microsoft Research’s Technology for Emerging Markets team in Bengaluru made software engineer Rikin Gandhi start exploring the role that technology could play in the lives of farmers. “Our main challenge is to identify organisations, that are already working with communities, that we can work with,” he says. “We primarily look for partners with three attributes: 1. locally relevant agri-cultural and related livelihood expertise, 2. scale of existing operations, and 3. trust networks and rapport amongst the community. If such a foundation is in place, we have been impressed by how quickly the community is able to pick up skills to operationalise the system by themselves.”
The Idea
INITIALLY STARTED AS a project at Microsoft Research, Gandhi began by surveying existing projects that work on agricultural development — some technology-led, others not. They started out with one partner, the NGO GREEN Foundation, that works with farmers on a variety of biodiversity conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. Digital Green took on the task of combining technology and social organisation to improve cost-effectiveness and broaden the community participation in existing agricultural extension systems.
A few key components made Digital Green’s approach unique: for one, as intermediaries between farmers and experts, Digital Green relies extensively on local ‘social’ networks and hierarchies to disseminate their message and work. They also involve farmers in producing short learning videos for other farmers, an approach that has given them a success rate almost unparalleled in the sector so far — in the past four years, Digital Green’s approach has been scaled up to reach over 1 lakh farmers across 1,200 villages in six states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha).
At the heart of Digital Green’s work, though, is technology: they built a data management framework that operates in locations with limited to no Internet access or power; as well as a set of analytics dashboards to slice and dice the data to see which video is most or least popular.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2230/" rel="attachment wp-att-2772">
The Innovator
ODDLY ENOUGH FOR someone who seems so committed to his task, land held very little interest for Rikin Gandhi, 30, growing up; it was the skies and astronomy hat captivated him. With a bachelor’s in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, master’s in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, and a private pilot’s licence, it didn’t seem like anything could deflect him from his path. “I came to India in 2006 to check out a friend’s biodiesel venture. That didn’t work out as planned, but I connected with Microsoft Research and things just fell into place,” says Gandhi.
The Impact
IN CONTROLLED TRIALS, Digital Green was shown to increase the adoption of certain agriculture practices seven-fold over conventional systems. Digital Green’s system still requires the support of the existing ones, but it magnifies its effectiveness by using relevant content and a local presence to connect with farmers. In fact, Digital Green was shown to be 10 times more effective per rupee spent. “Farmers are incentivised to take up new practices so that they can be seen on video as a role model in their community,” says Gandhi.
http://rise.mahindra.com/farmville-for-real/_mg_2227/" rel="attachment wp-att-2771">
The Way Forward
DIGITAL GREEN HAS now collaborated with the National Rural Livelihood Mission; over the next 3-4 years, they plan to scale up to at least 10,000 villages to reach a million farmers. It has also began work to extend the model with partners in Ethiopia and Ghana and are also exploring how the Digital Green platform could be used to exchange knowledge. “We are also developing a Facebook of farmers called Farmerbook (prototype: farmerbook.digitalgreen.org),” enthuses Gandhi.
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3rd September 2012 Mahindra & Mahindra in Tipping Point, Agriculture, Agrarian, Crop, Farming
We’re combing the country to find examples of intelligent, scalable innovation – and we’re going to pick 20 of the best to be featured here, and on the pages of Tehelka." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://tehelka.com/">Tehelka. These are some of the most compelling and untold stories of our time – and they reflect another truth; that spirit and determination can master any challenge.
This article was originally published http://tippingpoint.thinkworks.in/rangu-rao/" target="_blank">here.
A DELHI UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS, Rangu Rao heads the Watershed Development programme for SPS. His hands-on interventions and personal connections with hundreds of villagers have yielded many successful initiatives.
The Challenge
TACKLING INDIA’S agrarian crisis is not the most fashionable project for contemporary innovators. It isn’t even about innovation — because conventional challenges of innovation pale when confronted with the realities of food and crisis in farming in some of the country’s drought-ridden drylands. The scale and reach of the government intervention has not been able to make a dent. It is enough to demoralise even dedicated do-gooders. But one formidable band of game-changers has taken it upon itself to work towards livelihood security on an unimaginable scale: over a million acres of land across India’s 72 most backward districts.
The Idea
THE CORE FOCUS of Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS) is watershed development — farmer suicides in the state were high, usurious moneylenders were taking advantage of illiteracy and desperation, and reliance on single crops was making land yields unviable. SPS adopted 57 villages to directly implement watershed programmes — spending 60 million to create water harvesting structures with a storage capacity of over a million cubic metres, irrigating over 112,000 acres of land. In the process, they generated two million man-days of employment — and for the first time ever, offered drinking water security to every household in each village. Another key benefit: drought-proofing of the all-important kharif crop that the community primarily relies on.
But simply creating structures wasn’t enough; the innovators at SPS got involved in management and equitable sharing of water also. Written agreements were drawn up in each case, detailing everything, from proportion of water sharing to hours of pumping, sequence of irrigation, cropping patterns and even watering intensity. All households, irrespective of their size of land holding, were given an equal share of the water. SPS core member Rangu Rao — who oversees the watershed programme along with Pramathesh Ambasta, Murlidhar Kharadia and Narendra Patel — had the formidable task of gaining the confidence of farmers and arriving at the agreement on water-sharing through involvement with local communities and panchayats.
The Innovator
A DELHI UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS, Rangu Rao heads the Watershed Development programme for SPS. His hands-on interventions and personal connections with hundreds of villagers have yielded many successful initiatives. Along with a committed team, Rangu has created a network that enjoys the confidence of locals. His paper on Rural Credit in 20th Century India (along with Mihir Shah and PS Vijay Shankar) is a part of the syllabus for Development Theory for Delhi University’s Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Rangu also chairs the working group on.
The Impact
SPS HAS BEEN making a tangible impact on the quality of life and incomes in the region. The value of agricultural output has increased, due to expansion in irrigated areas and higher yields. Kharif yields are up 10-20 percent, Rabi by 50-60 percent. Equally significant – external migration of farmers and local families has dropped by a staggering 80 percent. Another key impact has been the removal of reliance on a single crop – tribal farmers now cultivate 2-3 crops.
The Organisation
SAMAJ PRAGATI SAHAYOG (SPS), one of the country’s largest grassroots initiatives for water and livelihood security, is headquartered in Dewas, MP. SPS has direct intervention programmes in over 220 villages and towns in the area. Its key focus is to arrest distressmigration towards the metros and liberate farmers from the vicious cycle of moneylenders and loans. For direct intervention programmes, SPS relies on government funding, and a few key donors. The organisation also focuses on building a corpus from larger donations where only the interest is used for development activities.
-
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11th September 2012 Tech Mahindra in Maya, Agriculture, Agriculture & Rural Development, Belize, Cacao
It is no secret that chocolate can have a powerful effect; comforting, calming or even energizing, depending on your sweet tooth. But more than just inducing various emotional states, chocolate can also contribute to social change – and no one recognizes this more than the innovative team behind Maya Mountain Cacao, Alex Whitmore and Emily Stone.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img2/" rel="attachment wp-att-2985">
Everything changed for Whitmore when he took his first bite of stone ground chocolate; from this first sweet, rich taste, Whitmore was so inspired that he decided to create a chocolate company. But beyond just aspiring to become the world’s next great chocolate producer, Whitmore wanted to create a company with a conscience.
To do so Whitmore started travelling the globe seeking new sources of sustainably harvested cacao. It was on this rather epic journey that Whitmore stumbled upon the lush – albeit tiny – country of Belize and its high quality cacao crops.
The reality in Belize, Whitmore learned, is that despite 44% of the country’s land is protected Belize continues to face ongoing ecological threats – especially related to tropical forests. These threats include industrialization of agricultural production through mono-crops and the discovery of crude oil in the southern region where most of the country’s cacao is grown.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img3/" rel="attachment wp-att-2986">
As a shade crop cacao prevents deforestation while providing a cash source for cacao-farming families. Cacao is grown organically and mostly in an agro-forestry-based system, allowing for high biodiversity levels and income diversification for families.
The Maya of Belize have been producing cacao for decades, but have historically had only one market option to sell their beans; as a result, the industry has never reached a state of financial viability.
Recognizing this, and the economic potential of the cacao industry in Belize, Whitmore proposed the introduction of a competitive market for Belizean cacao to bring new services, ideas, pricing models, and meaningful relationships to local farmers. The goal was to catalyze a renewed interest in cacao farming to help local communities earn an income, while also preserving tropical forest biodiversity.
While researching the above concept Whitmore met Emily Stone, a graduate of the Green Corps Field School for Environmental Organizing. Bonded by the concept of sustainable cacao, together they worked to find a way to establish direct relationships between chocolate companies and the cacao farmers. The goal was to build relationships so the farmers could generate an income while producing quality, sustainably sourced cacao for global consumption.
Recognizing the business potential, Stone travelled to Belize and, with the help of a young local Mayan famer, began truly laying the groundwork for Maya Mountain Cacao. She worked with farmers to get organic certification, eliminate the use of pesticides and increase overall yields. At the same time, Stone also started encouraging reforestation practices essential for the sustainable cocoa plantation. Impressively, due to outreach and their full launch, in 2011 Maya Mountain Cacao’s over 60 farmers received organic certification.
After 3 months of education, in January 2011 Maya Mountain Cacao made a direct investment in cacao production and started buying from the region’s local farmer. With a strong contingent of organically certified supplies, Maya has exported 26 metric tons organic cacao so far in the 2012 season, securing the highest possible price from the world market.
http://rise.mahindra.com/sustainably-sweet-renewing-belizes-tropical-forests-through-cacao/maya-mountain-img1/" rel="attachment wp-att-2984">
In addition to their for-profit business, in 2011 Maya started partnering with local NGOs to invest in seedling farming for long-term reforestation. As a part of this project Maya is helping to scale the overall cacao production levels in Belize, looking beyond just their operations. Overall, the seeding project is set to yield 50,000 cacao trees to be planted in July and August.
With their impressive launch and success throughout the last year, Whitmore and Stone are now focused on drawing attention to the fact that catalyzing market access can directly contribute to protecting tropical forests.
This is why they’ve applied to the WWF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.ennovent.com/challenges/index/id/8">WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge – which seeks to identify the best for-profit solution impacting tropical forest biodiversity in the world’s 75 tropical forest-rich countries. The 3 winners, in the Idea, Start up and Company categories will be endorsed by WWF Switzerland and receive global visibility and capacity building opportunities.
Maya Mountain Cacao is just one example of a for-profit business, which is, by design, creating a positive impact while generating commercial value. Now, as Whitmore and Stone focus on further growing their operations to scale their impact, Maya Mountain Cacao is well positioned to create lasting change for the communities of Belize, and the tropical forests in which they live and work.
And who knew it would all begin with that (sustainably) sweet treat – chocolate.
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20th September 2012 Mahindra & Mahindra in Agriculture
Dr Biksham Gujja and his team are educating farmers about scientific methods in #agriculture, to increase productivity. http://t.co/Ode3qHKX
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20th July 2012 SunGard India in Agriculture, Emploi
Consultant finance C++ - SunGard Global Services - Paris 2e (75): et de conseil dans les s... http://t.co/kttCF49i #emploi #agriculture
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10th October 2012 Tech Mahindra in Agriculture, Event, Agriculture & Rural Development, Araku Valley, Camp
As the sun rose over the lush Araku Valley, history was being made. For the first time, visitors from around the globe gathered for the 2012 Livelihoods Network Camp to co-build solutions for rural communities to live in healthy, sustainable ecosystems.
http://rise.mahindra.com/cultivating-livelihoods-a-global-gathering-in-araku-valley/day-1-photo-1/" rel="attachment wp-att-3084">
Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, Government of India, plants the 2 millionth tree of the Araku Valley project to commemorate the event.
The Livelihoods Network Camp (October 8-11) began with a symbolic event—the planting of over 100 new trees by individuals representing 61 organizations from across 21 countries. Their collective presence and participation in this forum represents a new approach to investing in livelihoods through co-creation and local interactions.
Why Araku Valley?
The Livelihoods Network was born out of the belief that the success of large scale impactful projects depends on capacity building and knowledge sharing between practitioners. In 2011 the Network held its first Camp in Paris to explore sustainable development practices through the sharing of best practices, tools and methodologies. In 2012, more than ever before, the Livelihoods Network wanted to put the rural communities they serve at the forefront of the event, hence the gathering in Araku.
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Bernard Giraud explains the story behind the Livelihoods Network Camp and the focus on local communities.
This year, the dialogue is broken up into six distinct workshops consisting of site visits and team discussions. In line with this year’s emphasis on local involvement, the agenda was determined by talking to the adivasis (tribals) in the Paderu Tribal Agency Area. These key themes that emerged—carbon monitoring, access to market, household energy, financial inclusion, nutritional security, and improving agricultural capacity—span multiple social development parameters in a holistic approach to livelihood promotion.
The Enablers—The Livelihoods Fund and Naandi Foundation
The Livelihoods Fund bridges the gap between rural communities and the corporate sector by addressing the needs of both through an innovative carbon investment fund. The Fund’s primary objective is to provide nutritional security and social value to rural communities through sustainable ecological development. Corporations, on the other end of the equation, receive high quality carbon offsets in return for a financial investment in the fund. These corporations are also asked to provide technical and operational support to the projects they invest in.
One such investment of the Livelihoods Fund is the Nandi Foundation’s Araku Valley project. Naandi has been working in Araku Valley with the adivasis for nearly a decade and a half. Their mandate is to change the lives of the underserved populations in India through public-private partnerships. In addition to the work they do to create sustainable livelihood options for farmers, they are also committed to the protection of child rights and the provision of safe drinking water. Across India, their programs provide livelihoods to 20,000 tribals, feed 1.1 million children per day through their midday meals program, and provide safe drinking water to over 200,000 people living in villages.
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Leaders from Livelihoods Venture, Naandi Foundation, local cooperatives, and several government agencies address 100 representatives of farmers from each village.
It is holistic approaches to livelihood like Naandi’s that set an example for others in the same space. We expect that over the next few days, this unique group of people will learn from each other, but more importantly, from the local communities and community partners. Check back tomorrow for more updates and learnings from the Camp!
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