Activities within the grant and expected impact:
The project is aimed towards developing an integrated farming system model, covering about 400 households in 22 tribal dominated villages in Yavatmal district. The district has seen a spate of suicides in the recent past, due to issues revolving around crop failure and resultant indebtedness of the farmers.

Within this project, the integrated livelihood based interventions are undertaken with key focus on promoting better agriculture practices in cotton to reduce input cost and enhance productivity.

The transfer of technology with a focus on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is being promoted with the farmers through the extension network of the university, thereby ensuring low input costs and enhancing productivity. The project acts as a pilot, wherein all the improved package of practices relating to cotton and other crops are promoted through the network of scientists from the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), and Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth.

Key components of the project include:

	Training and capacity building of the community with the help of regular capacity building inputs to the farmers through the agriculture scientists towards better agricultural practices
	Soil and water conservation under watershed approach to reduce soil erosion and provide irrigation support
	Agriculture productivity enhancement through scientific interventions, coupled with farmers’ indigenous knowledge, and promoting IPM technology among the farmers to reduce the input cost for cotton crop
	Lac and honeybee promotion to enhance forest based livelihoods, thereby providing additional sources of income
	Promotion of micro-credit linkages for the farmers through self- help groups to provide them with immediate and low interest loans

The interventions would expectedly enhance the household level income from Rs12,000 per annum to about Rs20,000 per annum. The regionally traditional Phad irrigation system would also be revived as an integrated part of the interventions. The 22 villages would hence act as a model for promoting systematic cropping technologies in the field towards enhancing crop productivity along with strengthening livelihood of the communities.