Improving Livelihoods of Smallholder Farming Households in Karnataka

TechnoServe is implementing a livelihoods support program for 5,000 smallholder farming households in the Davangere district of Karnataka.

The key objective of Project Saathi, a livelihoods support program, is to insulate household incomes and provide holistic livelihood opportunities for the entire household. To this end, the program has adopted a multi-pronged approach, including components such as agriculture development and diversification, creation of livelihood opportunities for youth through the Cargill Agri-Fellows program, and economic empowerment opportunities for women, etc.

As of December 2018, the program has trained 5,000 participating farmers to adopt enhanced and diversified agricultural practices to increase productivity, leading to a 40 percent increase in incomes for the participating farmers, and supported 25 Cargill Agri-Fellows to set up their own agri-enterprises.