Mennonite Central Committee is supporting Social Education & Basic Awareness with the second year of a three-year agriculture and livelihoods project in Bastar district in Chhattisgarh, India.
Households in these villages depend on agriculture as their prime livelihood, yet face high levels of food insecurity throughout the year due to the rapid growth of commercial agriculture. Households also struggle to afford other necessities such as education, health, and transportation, and must migrate or struggle to find work or other sources of income.
This project is working with community-based organizations to provide necessary agriculture inputs to farmers, trainings, opportunities to strengthen self-help groups and gender awareness workshops. Agriculture trainings focus on implementing organic agroforestry and farming techniques that work to restore ecologically degraded land and allow farmers to grow diverse crops.
Over three years, the project aims to reach 1,249 households (approximately 6,245 individuals).