What is LAAV?

Aptly named as LAAV, which in Hindi means benefits or earnings, the section caters to the livelihood needs of landless, small & marginal farmers; and foraging/tribal communities living amidst forests, or at forest fringes. We envision to provide ‘Dignified Livelihoods for Community Resilience’. Our program life cycle follows a complete Seed-to-Sale approach.

Working with Women Change Agents and developing them as Community Leaders, we follow a 2-pronged approach for our interventions:

• Co-creating ecosystems to support communities adopt agro-ecological practices.

• Build collective enterprises by bridging gaps in skill, finance, appropriate technology, and markets.

All our interventions have been designed at the trijunction of Ecology, Economy and Equity, and put agro-ecological principles at the forefront, while designing for landscape-scale clusters.

What is RASIN?

Regenerative agriculture for sustained income and nutrition

Our flagship program ‘RASIN’ (Regenerative Agriculture for Sustained Income & Nutrition), rests upon four critical pillars of Jal, Jungle, Beej, Jameen (Water, Biodiversity, Seeds and Soil respectively). FFPC (Forest Forage Processing Clusters) caters primarily to the forest-dwelling communities dependent upon seasonal forest produce (SFP), and works for regenerative forests and better community incomes. A built-in layer of horizontal services through our grassroots, ground partner network and in-house subject matter experts provides access to capacity, capital and consumers.

WoW - Wings of Wellness

1. Organic/natural farm produce - Farm gate collection on fair price from women farmers.

2. Value addtion - Rural Food Innovation Lab by rural women

3. Sale and distribution - Women Marketer in Ajmer and Jaipur

Bindi solution

We have been working in the rural spaces for a very long time and analyzing farmers' situations for quite a long time. We have developed a 360-degree model to transform farming into profitability with sustainable solutions to bring - nutritional security for the farmers and consumers. Building a good income engine model for fair distribution of profits for the farmers and ease on the pockets for the consumers. Building biodiversity and restoring ecological balance.

Proposed initiative

Bindi farming model is for small and marginal farmers to transform their current non sustainable farming practice into sustainable agriculture through natural and ecological ways. Farmers will be supported through its Community Farming School and will be trained over practicing natural farming for the very specific agro climatic conditions. In India there are 15 agro climatic conditions and each has its variety of farm possibilities. So farmers will be trained to optimize in the climatic conditions. Farms are designed on permaculture and regenerative principles for keeping ecology in the center and farmers will be doing multiple varieties in integrated manner with tried and tested techniques.

Benefits would be:

Variety of nutritional food round the year for farmer self-consumption so no need to buy or pay for the food. No external input(fertilizers and chemicals) cost, so no increasing investment and more ROI or high profitability. Direct linkage to local nearby consumers, more profits for farmers and less burden on the pocket of final consumers. In house input generation and recycling and utilizing all the farm residual with zero effect on climate and ecology but positive change on climate by less carbon footprint and increased biodiversity and restoration of natural resources.

Current programme highlights

100 farmers have been identified in Ajmer district, and each farmer has allocated their one acre of land for transforming into natural and ecological farming. While the Rabi crop is on the field and harvest will happen in March 2023, farm designing is in process for the upcoming Kharif/summer season. MOU with local govt is in process and verbally agreed upon MOU with KVK, they agreed to provide support for training, infrastructure, processing facilities and seeds procurement.

MOU with the gram panchayat, they agreed to give 4-5 acres of land for making a model farm and Community Farming School and Learning Lab for farmers. Local consumers have started onboarding to buy natural and organic produce.

Beekeeping

Beekeeping is a great source of earning additional income for rural women. It does not require them to compromise on the primary source of livelihood - working at tea plantations for daily wages. With no aspects of drudgery, beekeeping does not result in side lining of family needs. Additionally, beekeeping as a skill is fairly easy to learn. The proposed intervention facilitates hands-on training and consistent support, provides the needed equipment with a built-in recovery model and ensures income generation.

Our Women Prosper Initiative (WPI), with a systems approach, aims at working with semi-literate/illiterate, smallholder, rural women aged 20-35 years, to ensure that women can prosper, and bring along with them their families and their communities. WPI enables them to create alternate livelihoods for income generation that enhance their dignity, work participation and favourable impact on environment. We take an approach that triggers their aspirations, critical thinking, entrepreneurial skills and confidence to be green entrepreneurs for their village. In the process, they nudge their villages towards thriving and resilient rural communities that respect and value women. 

Beekeeping is one of the sustainable livelihoods that has potential for fast results and income, and doesn’t take much time away from a rural woman’s daily chores. Using native Apis Cerana honey bee species, we aim to provide practical insights about the importance of pollinators and sustainable approaches to farming and waste management that fosters greater respect and protection of the natural environment. 
WPI provides complete end-to-end support to train, equip, mentor and market the product for 2-3 years, post which the women are ready to take on the challenges of their activity with a cluster of fellow green entrepreneurs. We integrate digital technology to strengthen the network.

Existing beekeeping locations

Our Existing beekeeping locations are: Uttrakhand, Manipur, Odisha, Kerala and Assam. Bindi Beekeeping Programme have engaged close to 500 women from 7 countries in acquiring beekeeping skills since 2016, among which 339 women from 5 States of India and more than 150 across Africa, Middle East and Pacific Region, through direct implementation or partnerships with trusted ground partners.

Solution: Women Prosper Initiative – Beekeeping Programme

Apiculture Curriculum:

With a holistic approach to Apiculture, our aim is to engage rural women in production of raw, natural and pure honey, and other by-products. The curriculum facilitates an initial one week structured, hands-on and practical apiculture training. The focus is on eco-friendly practices that create a positive environmental change through keeping and nurturing native species of Apis Cerana honeybees. The curriculum educates on the environmental value of pollination, and obtaining quality end-products and other by-products by harvesting and processing beeswax. The women are equipped and trained on a full range of equipment such as bee colonies, multiple bee boxes, super chambers, boxes stands, gloves, protective veil, smoker, among other tools. 

These are sourced from apiculture support departmentsof respective State governments. The beehives and bee colonies will be distributed in 1-2 tranches over 1 year post training to allocate enough time for women beekeepers to grow their capacity and to facilitate logistics: 1-2 bee hives immediately after the training with all the equipment, additional 1-2 beehives depending on scalability. 

For long-lasting confidence and participation, monthly mentoring support in their villages is provided to fresh women beekeepers through field experts and local project coordinators. The curriculum has been adapted to provide training support to State-level beekeeping interventions as well as deployed in a decentralised approach with vetted and committed grassroots organisations. 

How Do We Support

Bindi aims to strengthen and streamline efforts to support marketing and selling of women’s production from its livelihoods programmes, such as Solar products, Honey, Coffee and Super5 (a nutritional supplement from 100% natural & rural traditional recipe) by and for the women. Our team’s mission is to leverage market mechanisms as a viable option for rural women by unlocking their confidence through mastery of their craft and the product itself, enabling the development of strong enterprise skills.

To multiply the market openings, we have initiated the B.Barefoot brand in order to market some of the products made by the women. We are also having discussions with major honey brands, interested in sourcing honey from native honeybees Apis Cerana. There are also District or Regional level players known by our rooted Ground Partners that are interested to source local honey for their retail channels. Finally, we strongly support women to have a honey product that fits their community level market first, in order for the people to have a nutritious, trusted product locally available, as well as to ensure women with faithful customers.

Sustainability of the Project 

The beekeeping initiative is a viable Social Enterprise model. Our long-term goal is to provide continual support to women beekeepers by reinvesting the profits from sales of Honey and bee by products. Our investment in the local ground partner management capacity, technical expertise and financial capabilities reinforce the local support mechanism. The assets transferred to the participants (here in the form of beehives, beekeeping tools and protective gear)  reinforce the sense of ownership and responsibility to pursue these livelihood opportunities. We have learnt that once they are able to make some profits, women trained as beekeepers are willing to re-invest revenues in their activity to grow their production capacity. In addition, we focus on identifying/training local suppliers for all equipment whenever possible. The end goal always being that the Government takes forward the initiative, with Bindi International providing the Marketing support (through assured buy back) and technical expertise.

Why Super5?

In India, approximately 44% of young children below the age of 5 suffer from underweight malnutrition. Apart from that, about 73% of infants, as well as 53% percent of women, suffer from anemia and related conditions. When it comes to the economy, malnutrition can increase overall healthcare costs, eventually reducing productivity and resulting in slow economic growth. Thus, this can enhance the cycle of illness and poverty, bringing about further economic problems. 

According to the data from the Rapid Survey on Children(GoI and UNICEF 2014), India continues to face a severe crisis of child malnutrition, especially in rural areas where 42% of children are stunted, 15% are wasted and 32% are underweight. The inadequate mental and physical growth among malnourished children would translate to lower labour productivity if the low levels of nutrition persist when they become adults. This would confine them to a poverty-nutrition trap.

Reason why Super5

Super5 is a traditional nutrition recipe, prepared using natural produce grown by identified and vetted farmers from Bindi communities. Inclusion of Super5 in daily diet ensures that the family is well nourished. It is a tried and tested high nutritional-value product, which serves nourishment needs and combats iron deficiency, making it a health treat for all ages. The product had a good amount of Protein, Calcium and Iron. An amalgam of five natural commonly used ingredients - Wheat grains, Peanuts, Sesame seeds, Bengal Grams and Jaggery - cooked in specific proportions is an age-old and long-lost remedy to combat undernourishment in children and iron deficiency in women.

Bindi International has revived and refined the recipe to make a complete nutritional mix - Super5. A healthy treat for all ages, it is not only nutritious but also sweet for the palate. Previously in observational studies, the product has proven to be effective in alleviating malnutrition levels in children and women without having any side effects. 

Co-Creating Livelihood Opportunities for Women in Need

A Wellness Micro-Enterprise Initiative by Bindi International

The program aims to create livelihood opportunities for women in need through a full-cycle program, which addresses the needs of rural and peri-urban women alike. Starting with  procurement of primary produce at the farm gate, it targets to reach end consumers through an end-to-end women network of growers, production unit staff, and marketers. 

Program Lifecycle and associated Benefits: 

1. Sourcing inputs directly from natural farmers, giving them fair prices at the farmgate, which would incentivise them to continue natural / regenerative farming practices

2. Rural women engaged in the entire production process - procurement to packaging. Supporting rural women by giving them employment opportunities near their villages

3. Supporting peri-urban entrepreneurial women, aspiring to increase their earnings. Capacity building and ease of resource access to be ensured by providing seed capital through sponsored stock, continued hand holding, marketing assistance, and further capital access. This should set them on a path to self sufficiency.    

4. Providing naturally-grown, and hygienically-processed, traditional nutrition supplement to urban / peri-urban consumers for their overall health and wellness needs.

5. Margins generated for the enterprise to be utilised to cross subsidise similar requirements in the rural scenario where purchasing power is a challenge.