For COVID relief efforts, we are utilizing the proceeds from the previous campaign

Project #1:
Provide a comprehensive 2 week training to the farmers and the grassroot volunteers working alongside with the farmers on various aspects of farming (blog has more details)

Here is one farmer from Maharashtra wrote back to me as feedback for the session. He found the session extremely useful and was keen to implement this in how own village Incidentally he also won the panchayat elections , so there is a very good chance to work more closely

The training was conducted by CSA (Center for Sustainable agriculture) in Hyderabad over the course of 2 weeks. The training was attended by 20 people, including 8 farmers 6 agriculture students 6 grass root level volunteers (Students are not in the picture)

As part of the training they attended farmer field school, the farm in Enabavi village (model village for organic farming) and had discussions and interactions on other concepts of farming, including FPO’s
Also had sessions on pest control, insecticides

The farmers and the grassroot level volunteers liked the sessions and they found it extremely useful. They did have feedbacks which will help in future such sessions

While, I’m still collecting feedback from all the participants, wanted to share the initial feedback with all the donors and supporters of this project Also thank you everyone for your generous contributions. Thank you to Ramanjaneyulu GV and the entire team of CSA for conducting the training sessions



Project #2:

Providing financial support to SahajaAharam (sahajaaharam.in) to procure produce from farmers in different villages via FPO’s and their by providing the farmers a better price. Please find the details of the procurement



Project #3:
Kisan Mitra Helpline, a helpline and sometimes the only lifeline for the farmers in distress. I've listed more details about the helpline below. A grant of Rs 2 lakh was provided for the helpline in order to help sustain some of their activities.

All this put together, we have disbursed about 18 lakhs of funds. I resumed the fundraising again this year, with the hope that we can reach the elusive 1 crore goal.

This will help us establish a fund for the farmers, which can then be utilized to provide zero percent interest loans for the farmers. The modalities of the fund will be shared accordingly.

https://sureshe.wordpress.com/2017/11/27/update-on-onecrorefarmerfund/

https://sureshe.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/helpline-for-farmers-its-long-overdue/

https://sureshe.wordpress.com/2018/09/07/an-8-hour-breakfast-kisan-mitra-helpline-and-coffee/

Dear Supporters,

Just as a quick one liner
We only managed to raise about 20 lakhs. Out of this

16 lakhs were allocated to two projects
1) farmer field school - a 14, day hands on training by CSA for about 15 farmers
2) help Sahaja Aharam buy directly from farmers across several fpos to maximize the profits to the farmers

2 lakhs were sent to the Kisan Mitra helpline, as a way to help sustain their activities

The remaining is what I raised in the last year.. So we have closed to 2 lakhs unspent

But like I said, I will post a more detailed update soon