Education
NAF has developed need based demand-driven training and capacity development programmes with new modalities and technologies, providing opportunities for rural people and creating a culture of “sustainability” by bringing behavioral transformation among the farming and rural community. This will not only increase farmers’ ability to test, try and adopt new technologies in agriculture but will also improve employability and livelihood opportunities, reduce poverty, enhance productivity, ensure agricultural sustainability and bring rural prosperity.NAF covers a wide range of stakeholders under its training and capacity building including farmers, youth, women, unskilled work force, students, entrepreneurs, professionals, bankers and service providers. The uniqueness of NAF’s training initiatives is its flexibility to accommodate the needs and aspirations of the target audience thereby making it more relevant and interesting to achieve the desired results.
Focus Areas:
- Training and Capacity development
- Agri Clinic and Agri Business Centers
- Farm School Program
- Digital Literacy for farmers
- Entrepreneurship Development Program
- Students' Training.
Environment
Watershed development is being undertaken by NAF to prevent the loss of soil and water and to conserve and sustain the natural resources, in several parts of the country. The basic essence of watershed is not only the conservation of natural resources but also the accrued benefits derived out of ground water increase, cropping intensity and improvement in farm productivity. “Lean Farming Model”, a process innovation by NAF with a holistic approach to farm production systems, including judicious combination of organic, bio and inorganic inputs has been found to be effective in addressing and impacting positively on the economic and environmental performance of the farming sector in a sustainable manner.
Focus Areas:
- Promoting Soil & Water conservation through Integrated Watershed Development
- Promoting Lean Farming Technologies for sustainable Agriculture development
- Afforestation & Biodiversity conservation
- Comprehensive rural development Programs
- Integrated Natural resources management
Economy
Over the years the agri sector has seen a shift in focus from mere sustenance to market oriented and business development approach, while farmers continue to struggle due to the vagaries of nature, poor market linkages, deteriorating soil fertility and other issues making farming an unprofitable venture for majority of the farmers in India. This shift in approach from “Agri – Culture” to “Agri – Business” also augers well with the economic performance of agriculture sector in India.
NAF has been working on process innovation in reducing the input costs, while focusing on yield improvement and productivity enhancement on one hand addressing the entire value chain of agriculture and allied sector activities on the other hand, for improving the economic performance of farming in its project areas.
Focus Areas:
- Enhancement of Farm productivity through Front Line Demonstration across crops
- Promotion of Rural Micro Enterprises and agribusiness activities including processing, value addition and marketing of farm produce through Farmer Producer Organizations
- Promoting Integrated Farming Systems
- Women empowerment through sustainable on farm and off farm enterprise management
Empowerment
NAF firmly believes that rural prosperity can be achieved through effective participation of rural people and rural communities in the management of their own social, economic and environmental needs. Empowerment can be achieved only trough active engagement of stakeholders and user community and creating opportunities for their self reliance. To address these inter-linked challenges in an effective manner, organizing the rural communities into community level institutions is a pre requisite. Towards achieving this , NAF is promoting and nurturing various community-based institutions like Farmers Producer Organizations, Farmer producer companies, Water user groups, Watershed committees, Farmers Clubs, Self Help Groups, Joint Liability Groups, etc. for collective decision making , growth oriented action as well as to sustain the benefits derived out of development interventions and self reliance.
Focus Areas:
- Promotion of Community Based Institutions such as FPOs, Water User Groups, SHGs etc
- Awareness Generation
- Capacity Building and Institution Building Programs
- Women Empowerment