Help make agriculture possible for small and marginal farmers | Milaap
This is a supporting campaign. Contributions made to this campaign will go towards the main campaign.
Help make agriculture possible for small and marginal farmers
  • Anonymous

    Created by

    Shrinivas
  • MT

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Magasool Trust

    from Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu

Tax benefits for INR donations will be issued by Magasool Trust

Magasool (meaning "yield" in Tamil) is a 3 year old Tamil Nadu based not-for-profit trust that is  helping 1000+ small and marginal farmers and farm workers in over 60 villages in improving their incomes and nutrition.  

We are attempting to raise INR 10 lakhs by August 15th to continue supporting our small farmer and farm worker beneficiaries. Every rupee that you contribute is used to add value to agriculture and generate 4 Rs in wealth for the farmers! Magasool's services act as multipliers and help generate stable incomes for farmers and farm workers. 

Help us free our farmers from poverty and drudgery, making agriculture a viable profession for them. 

Small and marginal farmers, who own less than 3 acres each and make up for majority of the farming population, barely earn Rs.50000 a year from agriculture, making it a non-viable livelihoods option. Small farmers are plagued by decreasing productivity levels, increasing input costs, and poor price realization of their produce. While the government offers subsidies and schemes to increase agricultural productivity, lack of proper support and extension systems results in poor uptake of such schemes.

Magasool supports small and marginal farmers by providing them appropriate cultivation mechanisation, composting, soil testing, produce processing and marketing services  that help them reduce input costs, realise higher yields and profits. Magasool also runs kitchen garden programmes to improve households' (especially children) diet and nutrition. We also engage our employee base on education and policy initiatives, actively help rehabilitate them from alcohol abuse and domestic violence. We recruit young farm help and farmers to train them on technology and business and make them self reliant. Finally, we aim to make Indian agriculture a part of India's growth story, and include the 75% of rural Indians in generating wealth.

Some of our farmer clients' testimonies on how Magasool services have helped them:

“I usually get around 40 to 42 bags per acre per season. However, after planting with a mechanized transplanter last season with the help of Magasool, I got 52 bags. These 10 bags (1 bag = 60 Kg) resulted in an extra income of Rs 7500 per acre last season.” 
- Ravindran, farmer with 3 acres of land, Anbil  village, Trichy, Feb 2014

“I harvested in the first week of January. This is the first time I am trying the system of rice intensification with a transplanter. While there were lots of doubts initially, I was confident after looking at the number of tillers. Usually I get around 27 bags per acre (1 bag = 75 kg) in samba. This time I have got 32 bags per acre. I am hoping that Magasool will bring many more such programs. I am starting to build an organic manure unit with Magasool’s help now”
- Kannan, Farmer with 2.25 acres of land, Boothamur village, Cuddalore, Jan 2014


*Your Rs. 12,000 will help take yield-improving paddy transplantation technology to 10 farmers improving profits by Rs 4,000  per acre per farmer per season for 3 seasons. This income will go towards meeting their household nutrition needs, medical needs, and educating their children.

*Your contribution of Rs 6,000 will help two farmers scientifically manage their farm soil and increase profits by Rs 5000 per acre per season for 4 seasons steadily helping them to pull themselves out of poverty.

*A donation of Rs 2,500 will support an organic kitchen garden program for 50 households (including children's) complete nutrition needs from vegetables for 3 months.

Details of the proposed programs (for additional information please go to  http://www.magasool.org/) complete nutrition needs from vegetables for 3 months.are below -

1. Modified System of Rice Intensification (MSRI) through mechanized transplanters – The main advantages of MSRI are –(i) The nursery is transplanted when the saplings are young, anywhere between 12 to 18 days decreasing the disturbance to roots as well as allowing time for higher tiller growth. This leads  to robust foliage growth, (ii) Increased distance between plants in SRI allows for better access to sunlight and more space for root growth.


Between May 2012 and June 2016, the program has reached more than 600 farmers  in Trichy, Cuddalore, Kanchipuram and Thanjavur districts. Most farmers have reported  yield increase of 10 to 20 % resulting in an increased income  of anywhere between Rs 2500 to Rs 5000 per acre (translating to more than 30% increase in profits).

Our existing machines are at the end of their lifetimes. We request  a total of INR 7.5 lakhs for 3 new transplanters which will let us continue providing services to beneficiaries in an uninterrupted manner.
 
2. Soil test based nutrition management – 
“Soil Degradation is one of the biggest challenges in increasing farm productivity. Hence agriculture must be brought back to its roots by emphasizing on the importance of soil health through natural sources of plant nutrition and judicious use of mineral fertilizers.” Agriculture Department Policy Note, Demand No. 5, 2014-15.

There is need to develop cost-effective and scalable models of intervention to provide intensive farmer support via a combination of agriculture extension infrastructure + IT-enabled information campaigns + demonstration plots to encourage adoption of soil nutrient management practices. 

As a pilot Magasool, has started work on 10 farmers’ fields in  2015. Soil samples have been analysed at an accredited lab and  nutrient recommendations have been obtained. Magasool will implement the recommendations on small plots in the farmers fields. Farmers will benefit from improved soil quality, increased organic content and reduced usage of chemical fertilizers. 

We request INR 2 lakh to expand the nutrition management pilot from 10 farmers to 60 farmers by the end of December 2016. We believe that a more intensive demonstration in a village will lead to more farmers taking better care of their soil on a permanent basis due to peer learning and reduction in behavioral barriers. 

We expect nutrition management to increase yields and profitability by 20-30% for farmers (Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 per acre).





3. Organic Kitchen Gardens: Marginal farmers with little or no landholding often cut down on vegetables when they face economic hardships. Vegetables often show huge seasonal variations in price, leaving farmers and labourers with no choice but to forgo including them in their diets. Children and women are especially mal-nourished, and pregnant and lactating mothers receive inadequate nutrition. 39% of India’s children under 5 years of age are stunted and a large fraction of pregnant and lactating women are anemic.
Magasool solves this problem by distributing vegetable seeds, manure and providing assistance in setting up kitchen gardens around homes. We have seen that gardens increase vegetable access for  poor farmers and labourers significantly
We will distribute seeds for at least 10 to 12 types of vegetables, and help at least 1000 poor rural households in Tamil Nadu  between October 2016  and January 2016 to prepare vegetable gardens to meet their nutrient needs. We request Rs 50, 000 for procuring seeds and partial salary support for staff.


Help make agriculture a sustainable practice, not through just training and preaching, but through actual hands-on implementation, resulting in improved yields, better soil health, up-skilled workers, healthier farm households, and a vibrant and thriving agricultural ecosystem. 

Join the Magasool movement!  

Indian passport holders who want to contribute in foreign currency, please contact us at emailmagasool@gmail.com
We will share the necessary details.





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