Project Harit Gram Samriddhi

Small land. Shared technology. Multiple livelihoods.

Limited land should not mean limited livelihood opportunity.

Project Harit Gram Samriddhi is Vision India Talent Foundation's integrated rural livelihood initiative. It helps small and marginal farming households earn more from the land they already have, through shared access to farm technology and several complementary sources of income.

A small farmer may not be able to own every technology. But every small farmer should be able to access it.
Explore the model Partner with us Donate Now
harit-gram-right-hero
HorticultureLemon, banana, local fruit crops
Scientific beekeepingHoney income and pollination
Women-led poultryShort-cycle household income
Agri-entrepreneurshipLocal youth as the service layer
250Rural householdsin the first cluster
24Months of implementationplus a year of follow-up
5Livelihood pathwaysin one village ecosystem
1Community-run servicefor shared farm machinery

Most rural families depend on one crop, one season or one wage.

Meanwhile the machinery that would make their land more productive is priced and sized for far larger farms, and farm labour is scarce and costly when it is needed most.

The project answers both problems at once. It gives farmers shared access to equipment no single household could justify owning, and it builds several income streams that arrive at different points in the year.

Where we begin

The first demonstration cluster is planned around Basudevpur Chaputa and six surrounding villages in Vaishali, Bihar, with the ambition of building a rural livelihood model that can be replicated elsewhere.

Why this initiative

  • Designed for small and marginal landholdings

    Boundary plantations, backyard units and land-light activities make more productive use of the land a household already has.

  • Shared technology instead of individual asset handouts

    One community-run machinery service gives every participating farmer access to equipment no single household could justify owning.

  • Prioritises women and rural youth

    Women lead the poultry component; trained local youth operate the machinery service and, with women, form the local enterprise layer.

  • Promotes soil health, pollinators and responsible resource use

    Composting, mulching, water management and pollinator-friendly practice are built into the model.

  • Builds local enterprise and market-linkage capability

    Producer records, aggregation and transparent market information help the cluster continue beyond the grant.

  • Measures household livelihood outcomes, not just activities

    People reached, assets established, production achieved and verified income change are reported separately.

One rural ecosystem. Shared technology. Multiple income streams.

The project is not built around one crop or one livelihood. It creates a layered system in which each activity has a distinct role and reinforces the others.

Harit Gram Krishi Sewa Kendra - tractor at work 01

Harit Gram Krishi Sewa Kendra

A community-run farm machinery service. Tillers, weeders, augers, sprayers, a residue shredder and pumps are available for participating farmer on a booking & user-fee basis.

Horticulture - banana plantation 02

Horticulture

Banana and suitable intercrops for earlier income, lemon along farm boundaries as a long-term asset, supported by soil testing, drainage and better crop management.

Backyard poultry 03

Backyard Poultry

Women-led, household-scale poultry creates faster-cycle income while strengthening livelihoods through veterinary guidance, biosecurity support, training, and care.

Beekeeping - bee on flower 04

Beekeeping

Scientific beekeeping helps farmers earn steady honey income while improving pollination, crop yields, and farm resilience across all farms in the wider cluster area.

Agri-entrepreneurship - woman with seedlings 05

Agri-entrepreneurship

Local youth and women manage nurseries, machinery, poultry and bee services, aggregation, farm records, and market linkages, creating jobs and local enterprises.

Tractor tilling a farm field

A machinery service, not a machinery donation

Farmers book equipment through the Kendra and pay a user fee set below local private-hire rates. The fee covers fuel, the operator's income and a maintenance and replacement reserve, so the service pays for its own running costs and keeps working long after the grant period. One tiller serves farmer after farmer, season after season.

From beneficiary, to producer, to rural entrepreneur

Six stages, each with a defined output, moving a household progressively towards self-sustaining enterprise.

  1. 1Assess

    Baseline and household livelihood planning based on land, resources, interest and feasibility.

  2. 2Train

    Scientific training and practical field demonstrations for each livelihood pathway.

  3. 3Enable

    Starter livelihood support and shared equipment access through the Kendra.

  4. 4Handhold

    Technical handholding through the first production cycles, with veterinary and agronomy inputs.

  5. 5Aggregate

    Producer records, aggregation, grading and transparent market information.

  6. 6Link to market

    Buyer-neutral market linkages and a local service layer that outlasts the grant.

The programme is designed not to depend on subsidy approvals, so that implementation speed and community momentum are protected.Where government schemes for farm mechanisation, horticulture, beekeeping or poultry are available and timely, VITF helps households access them, as additional support that extends the project's reach and never as a substitute for committed funds.
See livelihoods CSR partnership

Five livelihood pathways

Practical opportunities for farmers, women and rural youth, each with its own inputs, training and route to market.

Pathway A

Shared farm mechanisation: Harit Gram Krishi Sewa Kendra

Access to equipment that no small farmer can economically own alone.

  • Power tillers and compact cultivators for small-plot land preparation
  • Power weeders and brush cutters that reduce dependence on scarce manual labour
  • Earth augers for orchard and plantation work
  • Sprayers, a crop-residue shredder and portable irrigation pumps
  • Trained local operators, open booking records and transparent user fees

Pathway B

Climate-resilient horticulture

Support for small and marginal farmers to make more productive use of the land they have.

  • Banana and locally suitable crop diversification for earlier returns
  • Lemon and other fruit plants along farm boundaries as a long-term asset
  • Soil and water testing and drainage planning
  • Compost, mulching and integrated crop management
  • Harvesting, grading and market orientation

Pathway C

Women-led backyard poultry

A decentralised livelihood designed for household-scale enterprise close to home.

  • Improved and desi poultry birds in phased batches
  • Low-cost shelters and basic equipment
  • Vaccination, veterinary care and biosecurity protocols
  • Feed, flock-record and enterprise training
  • Aggregation and local market linkage

Pathway D

Scientific beekeeping

A land-light livelihood that also supports pollination and biodiversity.

  • Bee boxes and colonies, starting with a manageable number per beekeeper
  • Colony-health and seasonal forage management
  • Safe extraction, hygienic handling and honey quality testing
  • Pollinator-friendly and bee-safe crop practices
  • Market linkage and traceability

Pathway E

Rural agri-entrepreneurship

Local youth and women become the service layer that keeps the cluster running beyond the grant.

  • Machinery operation and farm-service enterprises
  • Nursery and planting-material supply
  • Poultry and beekeeping services
  • Aggregation, grading and logistics
  • Digital farm records, market information and financial literacy

When each livelihood begins to earn

Different pathways mature at different speeds, and the project is honest about this from the start.

Income source Earning begins Within the project period
Machinery: labour cost and time saved From the Kendra's launch Yes
Backyard poultry Months 5 to 7 Yes
Beekeeping (honey) First flow season, months 6 to 12 Yes
Banana and intercrops Months 10 to 14 Yes
Lemon Year 3 onwards Tracked in follow-up
Partner with us View impact framework

A CSR platform for measurable rural livelihoods

Project Harit Gram Samriddhi offers CSR partners a structured rural-livelihood platform that combines productive assets, shared technology, capacity building, technical handholding, market linkage and measurable household outcomes. Designed for catalytic, community-owned impact.

  1. Input
  2. Livelihood asset
  3. Capability
  4. Income
  5. Resilience

Why this is catalytic

A distributed asset helps one household once. A shared machinery service helps a hundred households every season, for years, and earns enough from user fees to maintain itself. The project moves CSR from giving an asset to a beneficiary to creating a village platform that makes many beneficiaries more productive.

Mobilise and plan

  • Beneficiary mobilisation
  • Baseline study
  • Household livelihood planning

Shared technology and livelihood assets

  • Harit Gram Krishi Sewa Kendra: shared equipment, trained operators and a self-financing service model
  • Horticulture planting material and farm-support interventions
  • Women-led poultry livelihood units
  • Beekeeping units, tools and training

Capability and market

  • Technical experts, demonstrations and exposure visits
  • Aggregation and market linkage
  • Producer institution building

Measure and report

  • Digital MIS
  • Monitoring and audit
  • Independent impact measurement

Governance commitments

CSR capital should enable livelihoods, not create dependency.

  • Dedicated project accounting and utilisation reporting
  • Beneficiary-wise intervention and asset records
  • Transparent procurement, with a bill of quantities approved by the partner and multiple vendor quotations
  • Funds released in milestone-linked tranches against verified progress
  • Shared equipment held by the farmer producer collective, under an ownership arrangement approved by the partner
  • No use of CSR funds to subsidise promoter-owned commercial assets
  • Buyer-neutral and non-exclusive market linkages
  • Baseline, midline and endline measurement, with independent verification

Partnership formats

Partners may support a complete village cluster, a single livelihood vertical such as the machinery service, women-led poultry or beekeeping, technical capacity building, or replication into additional geographies after a successful demonstration. An indicative full cluster of 250 households runs over 24 months; component-level support is equally welcome.

About Vision India Talent Foundation

Legal status
Registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013; established 2016
CSR registration
CSR00002895
NGO Darpan
UP/2018/0202972
Tax exemption
Registered under Section 12A; 80G valid until 31 March 2027
Reach
40,000+ candidates trained; 9,000+ people reached through health and safety education; 23,479+ trees planted; skill centres across more than a dozen states
Request a partnership discussion Request the concept note

Transparent targets. Verified progress. No inflated claims.

The project distinguishes clearly between people reached, training completed, livelihood assets established, production achieved and verified income outcomes.

Indicator How it will be evidenced
Households supported Unique beneficiary households with documented livelihood plans
Women and youth participation Share of women and youth directly participating in livelihood activities
Livelihood units established Verified horticulture, poultry, beekeeping and enterprise units
Equipment utilisation Booking and usage records: farmers served, hours run, operations completed
Labour cost and time saved Farmer-reported and record-based comparison against manual or hired operations
Service self-financing User-fee income measured against the Kendra's running costs
Training completion Participants completing defined practical learning modules
Production and survival Crop survival and yield, poultry mortality and production, bee-colony performance
Income change Baseline-to-endline change attributable to supported livelihood activities
Market linkage Verified aggregation, sales or buyer connections
Environmental practice adoption Soil health, composting, water management and pollinator-friendly practices

Proposed targets for the first cluster

24-month targets for Basudevpur Chaputa and six surrounding villages, Vaishali, Bihar.

24-month target Proposed
Rural households directly covered 250
Households establishing horticulture 100
Farmers using shared machinery 100+
Women earning from poultry 75
Active beekeepers 50
Rural entrepreneurs in business 25
Households trained in financial and digital literacy 250
Increase in household income over baseline 20 to 30%
Become an impact partner

Start a partnership conversation

Fields marked * are required. Takes about two minutes.

0 / 2000
4QHYBR

Frequently asked questions

Clear answers for beneficiaries, partners and visitors.

Who is Project Harit Gram Samriddhi for?

The initiative is intended for eligible rural households, including small and marginal farmers, women and rural youth, depending on the approved project design and geography.

What is the Harit Gram Krishi Sewa Kendra?

It is a community-run farm machinery service. Equipment such as tillers, weeders, augers and sprayers is held in common and made available to participating farmers on booking, operated by trained local youth.

Will farmers have to pay to use the equipment?

Yes, a modest user fee, set below local private-hire rates. The fee covers fuel, the operator's income and maintenance, so the service can keep running after the project period. Fees are displayed openly and recorded.

Who owns the shared equipment?

The equipment is a community asset, held by the farmer producer collective or by VITF on its behalf under an arrangement approved by the funding partner. It does not become the property of any individual or commercial entity.

Is participation free?

Any beneficiary contribution will be communicated transparently before enrolment. No person should pay an unauthorised fee for selection.

Does registration guarantee selection?

No. Interest or registration does not guarantee selection, financial support, assets or employment.

Will every participant receive all the livelihood interventions?

No. Support is based on household suitability, interest, technical feasibility and the approved project design. Many households take part in more than one activity, which is by design.

How soon can a household expect additional income?

It depends on the activity. Poultry and honey can begin earning within the first year, and savings on labour begin as soon as the machinery service starts. Fruit trees such as lemon are a longer-term asset that yields from the third year.

Is the programme dependent on government subsidy?

No. Government schemes may be accessed where they are useful and timely, but the core programme is designed not to depend on subsidy approvals.

Does VITF guarantee income?

No. Income enhancement is an outcome objective, not a guaranteed return. Results depend on production, management, markets and local conditions.

Can CSR organisations support the project?

Yes. VITF welcomes CSR and institutional partnerships for village clusters, specific livelihood components, technical support and replication.

Support a village cluster, a livelihood vertical, or the model's next geography.

Partner with us