ABSTRACT
The farming community in India is a marginalized and relegated lot, whether they belong to the foothills or higher mountains or the eastern flood-prone plains. Owing to poor returns, weather extremities and uncertainties, they have been on the brink of shifting, if not already, from this unrewarding profession. TERI has been working for almost for almost eight years to enhance the food, nutritional and livelihood security of marginal farmers from Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Assam. Using a region-specific approach, we have been implementing a strategy of crop diversification to ameliorate the income levels along with efforts to conserve local agro-diversity to promote food and nutritional security among the local population. In addition, the usage of chemical inputs for nutrient delivery and crop protection was reduced through employment of biofertilizers and biopesticides. To further enhance productivity per unit land holding, measures were taken to increase water and land use efficiency. Market access, which is one of the key determinants for economic viability, was also provided to the farmers. As an add-on, crop-specific relevant technologies for value addition were introduced to help farmers get higher returns for their produce. These strategies were strengthened by designing holistic capacity-building programs for the farmers to enhance their access to technology and inputs and their skill sets. All the interventions introduced by TERI intend to equip farmers with modern and forgotten traditional knowledge which can be brought to practice in order to attain sustainable livelihoods.
