Collectives for Integrated livelihood Initiatives (CInI), an associate organisation of Tata Trusts, will host a two-day Chili Convention 2016 in the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand under its focused programme Mission 2020 – lakhpati Kisan : Smart Villages.
Under the Mission 2020 program, CInI aims to bring farmers irreversibly out of poverty with increased life choices. One of the key strategies employed towards realising this goal is enhancing agriculture-based livelihoods with focus on high value crops. This is undertaken through a three-pronged approach of production stabilisation, creation of farm mechanisation hubs and developing market linkages.
“The focus of the Mission 2020 programme is towards meeting the growing aspirations of the community. Within the production clusters the women led community institutions will ensure competing with the open market for better returns to their members along with bringing in the best technologies and systems to further strengthen the action. The Chili convention will show us directions towards reaching the overall goal,” said Ganesh Neelam, Executive Director, CInI.
The two-day interactive convention will be hosted in Deoghar (Jharkhand) on October 27 and 28, 2016. The workshop focuses on improved agronomic practices, technologies such as shed net for better nursery-raising, poly mulching with drip for optimal utilisation of water and value addition for better returns – all leading to production stabilisation. The expected outcomes of the convention are: (i) knowledge dissemination to farmers and practitioners on the best practices available and (ii) developing a future roadmap for the region for transforming it as an chili focused agriculture production cluster along with strong marketing linkages.
CInI, which is currently working with 28,000 households in Jharkhand, has worked with 6,000 farmers on chili in the Santhal Pargana region during the kharif season this year.
This two-day convention will entail field visits to CInI’s project locations for developing an understanding of the current situation on the first day followed by interactive sessions on the second day. The convention will bring together 60 participants with a wide range of perspectives from multiple disciplines, such as progressive farmers, community representatives researchers, companies (Agriplast, Finolex, VNR Seeds), traders, farmers, government officials (NABARD, DRDA), and many more.