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16 Years Of Experience NSFI is now Act Impact
Agriculture & Livelihoods

Agriculture & Livelihoods

The Problem

For the smallholder farmer, agriculture often feels precarious: a season's income riding on an uninsured monsoon, produce sold through layers of middlemen for lack of a direct buyer, a landholding too fragmented for a loan or a tractor, and a bus ticket to the city when the season runs dry. These individual struggles trace a wider pattern, value chains with too many intermediaries, rural infrastructure that hasn't kept pace with production, enterprise ecosystems still forming where needed most, and institutional support that reaches the well-connected before the remote. These are frictions of an agricultural economy still transitioning from developing to developed.

The Solution

At ActImpact, we treat agriculture as one connected ecosystem, not a series of isolated fixes: linking farming with entrepreneurship, technology, finance, renewable energy, and market systems, so a single intervention changes what's possible for a household over years, not just one season. Our programmes span climate-smart agriculture, Farmer Producer Organisations, value addition, digital agriculture, renewable energy applications, enterprise incubation, market linkages, and financial inclusion, delivered alongside government departments, research institutions, and rural enterprises already working this ground. Because prosperous rural communities need more than one income source, we also support non-farm enterprises, producer collectives, and youth-led businesses.

Our Projects

Developing Critical Agriculture Skills Courses in India

Developing Critical Agriculture Skills Courses in India

ONGOING
  • Location: Pan India
  • Focus: Identified agri-skill gaps and developed five courses with India-Australia experts, followed by training of farmers in these courses.
  • Impact Numbers: 5 full + 20 short-term courses developed; 75 Digital Agri Extension Promoters trained (Tamil Nadu); 75 farmers/FPO members in training as Carbon Farming Practitioners, Livestock Green Management Promoters & FPO Managers, 25 each (West Bengal)
Capacity Building in Post-Harvest Loss Management (PHLM) in Horticulture Crops for Climate Resilient and Gender Inclusive Value Chains

Capacity Building in Post-Harvest Loss Management (PHLM) in Horticulture Crops for Climate Resilient and Gender Inclusive Value Chains

ONGOING
  • Location: 9 states
  • Focus: Delivers certificate-linked PHL management training, plus cluster-based interventions under NHB's CDP Programme; builds capacity of master trainers, FPOs & women stakeholders.
  • Impact Numbers: 1,400+ farmers
Climate Smart Sustainable Sugarcane Production Project

Climate Smart Sustainable Sugarcane Production Project

ONGOING
  • Location: Nellikuppam & Pugulur district, Tamil Nadu
  • Focus: Driving behavioural change among smallholder farmers to adopt climate-smart sugarcane practices.
  • Impact Numbers: 1,000 farmers
Training of Trainers for GAP in Apple Cultivation & Post-Harvest Loss Management

Training of Trainers for GAP in Apple Cultivation & Post-Harvest Loss Management

2024–2025
  • Location: 5 states
  • Focus: Developed GAP training modules for apple cultivation and delivered ToT to extension workers, NGOs & farmer groups; also created PHLM training modules for other horticulture crops.
  • Impact Numbers: 400 farmers trained on apple cultivation & 60+ certified master trainers; 25-35% women farmers; PHLM modules developed for 4 crops (mango, brinjal, potato, tomato)
Capacity Building for Sustainable Tea Production

Capacity Building for Sustainable Tea Production

2020–2025
  • Location: West Bengal & Assam
  • Focus: Promotes sustainable tea production by engaging garden workers and strengthening cultivation practices.
  • Impact Numbers: 8,000+ small tea growers trained in safe, climate-resilient methods; 79 million kg of tea certified across 62 production units
Specialized Agricultural Training Programs

Specialized Agricultural Training Programs

2012–2014
  • Location: Rajasthan; Andaman & Nicobar Islands
  • Focus: Technical training in clean milk production for milk collection agents (Sahayaks) and in scientific beekeeping.
  • Impact Numbers: 1,700+ trained: 1,100+ Sahayaks and 600 honey bee keepers
Training of Farmers in Ultra High-Density Mango Plantation (UHDP): Unnati

Training of Farmers in Ultra High-Density Mango Plantation (UHDP): Unnati

  • Location: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
  • Focus: Enabling adoption of Ultra High-Density Mango Plantation technology through behaviour change communication, rejuvenation techniques and Good Agricultural Practices.
  • Impact Numbers: 14,000+ farmers trained through a mobile training bus
Financial Literacy Programme for Sugarcane Drip Farmers

Financial Literacy Programme for Sugarcane Drip Farmers

  • Location: Tamil Nadu
  • Focus: Enabling informed financial decision-making among sugarcane farmers on sustainable agriculture practices and drip irrigation adoption.
  • Impact Numbers: 15,000+ farmers trained on cost-benefit analysis and financial planning
Promoting Advanced Agricultural Innovations and Technologies

Promoting Advanced Agricultural Innovations and Technologies

  • Location: Himachal Pradesh
  • Focus: Accelerating adoption of hydroponics, mulching, app-based input procurement and modern farm equipment through behaviour change communication and demonstration.
  • Impact Numbers: 1,000+ hill farmers exposed to advanced technologies
UKIERI Agricultural Training Ecosystem Project

UKIERI Agricultural Training Ecosystem Project

  • Location: Pan-India and the UK
  • Focus: Strengthening India's agricultural training ecosystem by adapting the UK model, with a Licensed Instructor framework and National Occupational Standards.
  • Impact Numbers: 1,000+ reached; Licensed Instructor framework piloted; National Occupational Standards developed

Gallery

Farm pond excavation

Community members trained to engage in soil and water conservation efforts, excavating a farm pond (Doha/tanka) to capture monsoon runoff.

Beautician training

Women Entrepreneurs undertaking Beautician Training under Project Sabala in Sanga Reddy, Telangana, Tamil Nadu.

DCASCI field visit

Field Visit under the DCASCI Project to understand the adoption of modern and climate-smart agricultural practices and support the development of future-ready courses for agricultural workers in India.

Participatory assessment

Project coordinators and agricultural experts conduct a participatory assessment with local farmers.

Focused group discussion

Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) with rural women to identify suitable livelihood opportunities and design and deliver relevant skills training.

Baseline assessment

A Field Executive sits with community members outside a village home to conduct baseline assessments and collect household-level data.

Solar light distribution

The field team distributing solar lights through a library rotation system managed by a solar librarian.

Health and nutrition module

A trained local facilitator leads a group of rural women through a visual health and nutrition module.

Sabal Sakhi pine needle products

Rural women entrepreneurs showcasing pine needle-based products under the Sabal Sakhi project in Mashobra block, Himachal Pradesh.

PEARY cow dung products

Young rural entrepreneurs making products from cow dung waste under a technical training programme under the PEARY Project, Anand, Gujarat.

Soap making training, Project ELEVATE

Women participants listening closely to the instructions provided by the trainer during soap making technical training under Project ELEVATE, Mumbai.

Learning soap making by doing

Women & PwD participants learning through practice during soap making technical training under Project ELEVATE, Mumbai.

PEARY biogas plant

A biogas plant installed at our Khakhra Unit recently inaugurated under PEARY Project, Gujarat.

PEARY entrepreneurs at Kala Samagam

Our young entrepreneurs under PEARY Project, Gujarat showcase their creations at Kala Samagam, Gurgaon.

Candle making, Project ELEVATE

One of the PwD participants learns candle making under Project ELEVATE, Mumbai.

Sustainable sugarcane practices

A woman actively working in her field by using the sustainable sugar production practices she learned under SSP Project in Tamil Nadu.

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