Monsanto Executives |
NGO SEED AND MONSANTO FUND’S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE IN CHHATTISGARH TO POSITIVELY IMPACT A MILLION LIVES
Rural poor, marginal & small holder farmer and women from 1000 villages in Rajnandgaon & Dantewara to benefit-
Raipur, September 22, 2010: In keeping with the mission of helping improve farming communities worldwide, Monsanto Fund in association with SEED - an acknowledged CSR-Planning & Implementing Agency, have collaborated to empower a million lives across 1000 villages in Rajnandgaon and Dantewara districts of the Central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. |
|
Aptly titled as the `Alternative Economic Development Project’, the program is working on empowering underprivileged
communities in these districts, thereby allowing them to augment their household income and also participate in the
nation’s development process. Adopting the universally-accepted SHG-Model of livelihood promotion, the program is
supporting formation of 9000 Self Help Groups (SHGs)/Farmers’ Groups across the target villages. Comprising almost
a lac people as members the groups will be equipped with trade-specific technical and financial training, assisted with
backward and forward linkages for them to source raw material and identify buyers for their end product and suitably
be provided credit facilities from nationalized banks.
The main beneficiaries of the initiative are the rural poor, marginal and small holder farmer and women of the above
mentioned tribal districts. The project commenced with awareness creation and dissemination of information to the
tribal communities through various education and communication activities on income generation which is being
followed up by formation of SHG’s/Farmer Groups for collective economic development.
Krishana Kumari Gajbhiya, a beneficiary of the Alternative Economic Development Project said, “We have new
opportunities for employment and we have been able to keep some amount aside as savings. Our future looks brighter
and our families can look forward to a brighter tomorrow.”
The members of these SHGs are being equipped with entrepreneurship skills and financial knowledge by organizing
cluster level training programs. In addition, mutual understanding, trust, self-confidence, developing team work and
leadership qualities are adequately persuaded within the members towards self management and development.
Anirban Roy, Managing Director, SEED said, "The ongoing initiative for livelihood promotion is a clear testament
to Monsanto Fund's philosophy of supporting the shared agenda of sustainable and balanced development and will
positively contribute to a stable society and healthy eco-system.”
This initiative adopted an innovative credit-driven sustainable model to link SHGs/Farmers’ Groups and members of
these groups with various public sector banks like Punjab National Bank, Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank etc. With this
model, the one lac members are being enrolled in the banking system by initially creating saving accounts. As these
Groups become more cohesive and garner more savings, bio-metric smart cards will be provided to the beneficiaries. In
addition, affordable credit facilities will be facilitated at door step through technology platform to enable them to have a
regular income from their micro-enterprises.
Speaking on the occasion, Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Director - Corporate Social Responsibility, Monsanto India said, “At
Monsanto, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stems from our Pledge - the Company values that guide the way we
conduct business and measures progress in key areas of sustainability. Our focus continues to be on strengthening
farming communities. We employ our knowledge and experience of decades of farmer engagement in India across all
our initiatives. Our partnership with SEED to improve the earnings of 100,000 small holder farmers and women through
better access to micro credit and in farm and non-farm income generation in Chhattisgarh is one amongst our important
commitments to improve farmer livelihoods.”
This Monsanto Fund initiative being executed on-ground by SEED has already led to a noticeable socio-economic growth
in project villages. Meaningfully engaged and with more earnings to take back home, the targeted population are
leading improved lives with a promising future. Based on the ground conditions and community inputs, the many trades
identified for these Groups for starting micro-enterprises and the Groups already in place are engaged in - Agriculture
Farming, Horticulture, Dairy, Poultry, Pig Rearing, Goat Rearing, Tailoring & Stitching, Forest Produce Processing and
Basket Weaving.
About Society for Educational Welfare & Economic Development (SEED)
With its remarkable journey of many years, SEED is at the forefront of strategizing & implementing grass-root level socially relevant projects for
Corporate Houses and Government Agencies. For Corporate Houses, SEED implements CSR and R&R projects, whereas for Government Agencies, it
implements development programs involving community mobilization, skill up-gradation, sustainable income generation activities etc. At present,
SEED provides services to over 1, 20, 000 families spread across 10 states of India.
About Monsanto Fund
Monsanto Fund - the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company was established in 1964. For more than 40 years, the Monsanto Fund has
worked to substantially and meaningfully improve the lives of people around the world by bridging the gap between their needs and their
resources. Monsanto Fund has sought to improve the well-being of people by supporting projects in four primary areas of Educate (Science
Education), Benefit (Nutritional Improvement through agriculture), Protect (Healthy Environment) and Support (Our Communities). More
than $30.2 million /Rs. 140 crores were distributed worldwide in 2008 and 2009. |
