With a population of 1.27 billion India is the world’s second most populous country. It is the seventh largest country in the world with an area of 3.288 million sq km. India’s climate varies from humid and dry tropical in the south to temperate alpine in the northern reaches and has a great diversity of ecosystems. Agriculture, with its allied sectors, is the largest source of livelihood in India. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal. However, India still has many growing concerns. While agriculture in India has achieved grain self-sufficiency but the production is, resource-intensive, cereal centric, and regionally biased. The resource-intensive ways of Indian agriculture have raised serious sustainability issues too.

Considering the above scenario, Caritas India with the support of Caritas Switzerland and Caritas Austria, ensured all possible knowledge, skills, and capacity enhancement pertaining to their agriculture production and income for sustainable development through its implementing partner organizations. Enhancing productivity from the available piece of land has been a continuous effort under the Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Biodiversity Network (SAFBIN) program. The Program is being implemented by Caritas India through her implementing partner organizations in 20 villages of Sagar and Mandla districts of Madhya Pradesh.

The integration of the various interventions (e.g., enhancement of small farm components, re-use, and recycling of on-farm resources, promotion of various agro-ecological practices, diversification of small farms with possible components, etc.) has brought impacts in the lives of smallholders not only in the production side but also transforming their lives for a better tomorrow.

To evident the impact that successfully brought in the lives of smallholders, Mr Thomas Preindl and Mr Sunil Simon from Caritas Austria visited the SAFBIN project on April 5, 2023. The delegate was accompanied by Caritas India and Father Thomas Philip, the Director of Manav Vikas Seva Sangh, Sagar. The visit was to witness the result achieved and to interact with the members of smallholder farmers collectives (SHFC) to learn the SAFBIN form of integrated farming system and the ways towards sustainable development.

The delegates were exposed to interact with smallholder communities and also visited their diversified small farms with allied components. they also learned the significance of the component enhancement in making these small farms more resilient towards climate change. They could witness almost 12 components (i.e., Water, Land, Cattle, Biogas, Vegetables, Crop, Pulses, Fodder, Fruit Trees, Botanicals, Bio-pest Manure, and Medicinal Plants) are well managed by these smallholders even during this summer season.

SAFBIN has made us take responsible risk while managing our small farms with a collective strategy now. The knowledge provided to us by the SAFBIN team has brought many qualitative changes in our lives. With only 50 decimal lands, I have now more than 10 farm components now, and my children are placed with a decent jobs. Earning Rs. 40,000.00 per month now is a huge thing for me as I recall my days back in 2013-14, I was struggling to get three meals in a day to feed my family. Now what I am today is because of the knowledge and skills provided for holistic development. – delighted said by Kishore Rai, a SAFBIN farmer from Vanpura village

The delegates were welcomed by the members of the smallholder farmers collective at Bagrohi village. They were also explained the overall process of SAFBIN intervention and especially the smallholder-led integrated farming system with live reference to the agro-ecological map and bio-resource flow chart which was highly appreciated by both the visitors.