Although Krishi Utthaan is registered as Section 8 Company in Dec 2018; field visits and learning from the farmers itself started from mid-2017. The Sole purpose was to gain ITK (indigenous Technical Knowledge) from Tribals as well as Non-tribal farmers. On weekends they interact with the farmers and established a sense of cooperative farming or collectives run by SHGs. The Director of the Organisation is Ravi Singh Choudhary. They deal with Horticulture perishable items thus dealing in hyperlocal ecosystem and the method of Cultivation is Natural & Organic; Indigenous Cow based farming
Contradictory to the belief that Agriculture needs to be supplemented with modern techniques of farming with modern value and chain to uplift the sector, Krishi Utthaan Foundation being a full fledged Non-profit organisation, they still solve all the solve the information asymmetrically among the farmers using whatsapp groups and connecting with consultants. They try to benefiting the farmers with Block level Govt Schemes and all. On a non-commercial basis they are connected to more than 10000+ farmers in Jharkhand and still in the process of learning the professionalism in farming from harvesting to post-harvest management. They have different pilot projects running in different parts of Jharkhand accessing the feasibility of growing different kinds of fruits and vegetables. As Jharkhand is having a grave situation of Soil erosion issue due to Chhotanagpur Plateau region.They are also involved in teaching farmers how to maintain a fertile soil then grow the crops. Even doing diary is not feasible by local farmers because it is dominated by Subsidised cooperatives of the State level and National level. Sustainability could be achieved here by bringing cow based Natural & Organic farming. Cow based farming is of paramount importance here because that gave them a potential to bring the farming cost down.
In the COVID-19 crisis they have successfully been able to directly Link with farmers in Jharkhand and some parts of Bihar and Odisha Farm to Fork model for Ranchi via Vegcure.in (Our Supply chain partner) started during Covid19 crises. Supplying farm fresh locally grown fruits and Vegetables directly to the apartments taking order from App and Whatsapp and as per pre-booking status they decides to supply having minimum threshold volume to make the chain running smoothly and minimising their operational cost. The pivotal village is Aara-Keram in Ormanjhi, Ranchi where farmers are PGS green certified and also this village was mentioned in Radio Programme ‘Man ki baat’ by our Prime minister Narendra Modi, Pointing out the excellence that this village achieved in terms of being liquor free, deforestation free, open defecation and chemical free farms too. This could be termed as model village in Jharkhand.
Building a strong bond with the farmers is key to us, says the Director. Rewarding the best farmers annually to bring a sense of dignity and respect is what we see they need he continues. Digital revolution of 4G in 2016 supported us a lot. Even they got connected to many traders, wholesalers at national level. Their team learnt many techniques from progressive farmers at National level. Sending Flash cards, Videos in local dialect doing interaction in Video call also supported them to reach many farmers. As the penetration of Chemical fertilisers company is still not dominant in many parts of Jharkhand, there is always great chance to have a big boom in Natural farming and these tribals have already been doing it since ages. KrishiUthaan just connected them with collection centres and set up market linkages. Jharkhand is still lucky to have been a state where still Greenery and forest cover is there.
