It has been seen that vegetable cultivation is one of the best options for providing additional incomes to small and marginal landholders. The overall goal of the project is to enhance rural livelihoods in tribal areas of Jharkhand by providing scientific knowledge to the farming community for promoting and enhancing vegetable cultivation, thereby leading to rise in income, as also improved dietary habits.

The project is divided into two sub-projects, namely:

	Safer vegetable production, where the main aim is to enhance safe, commercial vegetable production besides propagating growth of vegetables as cash crops
	Promoting home gardens for diet diversification and better health

The vegetable initiative of the AVRDC-WVC, in partnership with the CInI Cell, will result in bringing around 40,000 hectares under improved vegetable cultivation. The project is particularly targeted at marginal and small farmers. It is expected that on an average, farmers would benefit by an additional Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per annum. Annually, 1,440 farmers in 72 villages in Jharkhand would be targeted. Over, 12,500 farmers from neighbouring villages are expected to be benefit indirectly over five years.

The key activities include:

	Transfer of integrated pest management technologies to farmers
	Demonstration of quality seeds to the farmers for better crop productivity
	Promoting local agriculture resource persons through technical training inputs
	Promotion of various vegetable varieties suitable to the field sites
	Developing better market strategies for better market prices for vegetables
	Promotion of year-round home garden plots for better nutritional diets for households
	Formation of community based training centres for skill promotion and technical knowledge development.