Help poor farmers get access to food grains for their farms and homes by Shramik Bharti

One new community grain bank was set up during this period with the support we received during January- June 2022.

Laxmanpur Mishran is a village and Gram Panchayt in Shivrajpur Block of Kanpur Nagar district in the state of Uttar Pradesh India. There are 205 households comprising a population of around 1400. Major source of livelihood is agriculture and livestock rearing. Most of the farmers are small and marginal farmers. They are unable to store grain for household consumption for the entire year. There is a Woman Self Help Group “Banke Bihari Swayam Sahayata Samooh”, promoted by Shramik Bharti in the village. Members of this group have expressed desire to establish a grain bank to ensure the food security of families of their SHG members during situation when these families suffer food crisis. They have seen the impact of Community Food Grains set up in their neighbouring villages by Shramik Bharti with the support of GiveIndia. So when a new donation came to support a Grain Bank, We informed the group leaders of Banke Bihari Swayam Sahaya Samooh.” There are around 10-15 members in each Self Help Group. Members of Banke Bihari Swayam Sahayata Samooh discussed among the group and they decided to name their grain bank as “Banke Bihari Grain Bank”. Mrs. Rama took the responsibility of managing the Grain Bank being an active, honest and dedicated member & President of Banke Bihari Swayam Sahayata Samooh.

During setting up a community grain bank, members were encouraged to contribute 1 quintal wheat (8-10 Kg. per household) towards setting up their community Grain Bank. A metal bin of 5 quintal capacity for storage and 317 kg of wheat was provided with the support of donation received through GiveIndia. Since the price of wheat was high this time i.e. Rs. 22 per Kilogram so we could support them with 317 Kilogram of wheat with the fund available. The members of self- help group sun dried the wheat and stored the same in the bin. The bin is being kept in the house of Mrs. Rama. She is managing the grain bank very well. This simple and cost effective solution is ensuring the food security of 10-15 member Households comprising nearly 100 people and if there are such most marginalized households/people who are not member of the SHG yet in need of grain to survive, they are supported after the consent of all group members.

After setting up the Grain Bank with the support of donor like you, this becomes self-sustainable as the borrower of grain from the grain bank return back grain to the grain bank by adding 25% to it after the forthcoming harvesting season. Add to this, this is managed by women self-help groups and community takes ownership of Grain Bank.

Thank You for ensuring the Food Security of small and marginal farmers-Our Annadata

This program is running smoothly for last 11 years with the support of Give India. There is only one hurdle that we faced during this period, which was increase in the cost of food grains and storage bins since 2011. So we were facing difficulty in setting up a grain bank @ Rs. 10,000 per grain bank (that was budgeted in the year 2011). The issue was discussed in detail with the field team and we decided to take contribution of around 8-10 Kg. Food grain(that's largely wheat) from group members who would run the Grain Bank. Usually there are 10-12 women members in a group, so there was around 100 Kg. grain is contributed by the group and 400 Kg grain was provided by us from the donation received from Give India( Initially we used to provide 500 Kg grain and there was no community contribution). This has led to ownership among community about the intervention and cost saving as well. Further the budget was also revised in light of inflation during past 11 years in consultation with the team engaged in implementation of said intervention and now it is Rs. 13000 per Grain Bank.

Meena W/O Awdhesh is resident of village Chhabbanivada, a small hamlet in Shivrajpur Block of Kanpur Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. Her family owns 1.5 beegha (around 0.9 Acre) agriculture land where she is doing natural farming to grow safe and nutritious food for her family consumption. There are seven members in Meena's family and every year there are few months in a year when the stored grain at Meena's house gets finished and she faces shortage of food grain to feed her family as the agriproduce from her small farm does not suffice the feeding needs of the Meena's family. Her husband Awdhesh works as a labourer to earn additional income for their livelihood.

Meena is member of a Self Help Group in her village (promoted by Shramik Bharti) and in the year 2017, the group set up a Community Grain Bank " Jai Ganga Maiya Anaaj Bank" in the village to provide grains to their members during lean period. Since then she borrowed 200 Kg. wheat every year (4 times since the formation of grain bank) when there is shortage of grain in her family. Every time she returned the grain (after the harvesting) by adding 25% to it, to its grain bank. Thus ensuring the sustainability of grain bank.

" Now I don't need to take debt from money lenders for purchasing grain from the market at higher price. Nor I need to work just as bonded labour on the farms of big farmers in return to the grains I used to borrow from them before the formation of our grain bank. "My grain bank is my pride" tells Meena with twinkling eyes.

We set up 3 community Grain Banks (one in Rasoolabad block of Kanpur Dehat district & 2 in Shivrajpur Block of Kanpur Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh) during this period from the support received from GiveIndia.

Members of three Women's Self-Help Groups convened meeting of their groups and discussed the idea of setting up community grain banks in their village to support members of their groups with grains when they face food crisis. It was resolved that members will contribute 100 Kg. Wheat for the formation of Grain Bank and Shramik Bharti will provide 400 Kg. wheat and a Storage Bin of 500 Kg. capacity to store grain and training for proper storage of wheat without using chemical preservatives. The process was followed and 3 community Grain Banks were set up comprising 12-13 members in each grain bank.

These three grain banks have ensured food security of 36 small farming families comprising around 200 people including men, women, children, elderly, pregnant and lactating women.

This is a very simple, community managed, self sustainable and effective solution being carried out since the year 2011. There are no challenges we faced in its creation or operation.

We aim to set up 30 Grain Banks in the next 6 months.

Meera is a member of Mahima Grain Bank set up in village Bargadiyapurwa in Shivrajpur Block, Kanpur Nagar, Uttar Pradesh in the year 2017 with the support of GiveIndia. This Grain bank is self-sustainable and functioning well till today without any external support.

Her family owns around 1.5 Beegha land for farming which hardly suffice the survival needs for the family. This year Meera and her family of 4 comprising her husband and two children faced food crisis. They were also not having cash to purchase wheat/wheat flour, which is the staple food in the area, from the market. Meera approached Mahima Grain Bank and borrowed 75 Kilogram wheat with the promise to return the grain by adding 25% more to it after harvesting.

In nutshell, the community grain banks are providing food to needy farming families when they need it most at the same time these are protecting farmers from the clutches of big land owners and Gombeen men who used to exploit them by providing loans at high rate of interest.

During this reporting period, 9 Community Grain banks were set up in 6 villages of Shivrajpur Block of Kanpur Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. These 9 Grain Banks will ensure the food security of 100-120 households belonging to small and marginal farmers, thus benefitting more than 600 people. These Grain Banks are being managed by Woman Self Help Groups promoted by Shramik Bharti in these villages. One Grain Bank supports the families of 12-15 woman members of SHGs by providing them grain when they need it the most.

There were travel restrictions due to COVID 19 and subsequent lockdowns so the implementation got delayed. However, the groups who have demanded Grain Bank in their community were informed and required preparations were done by them and soon after unlocking the process of setting up Grain Banks such as training of a person for storage of grain without using any chemical preservatives, managing the record of grain bank, purchase of storage bin and grain and contribution of grain from group members etc. was done.Grain Banks are much in demand. We are aiming to set up 30 more grain banks this year

It was January 2017 when a woman self-help group in village Chhabanivada in Shivrajpur Block, Kanpur Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh was supported with donations from GiveIndia to establish a Community Grain Bank. The group leader Mrs Geeta took the responsibility of managing the grain bank. Soon after its formation, Grain Bank started supporting the member families with grains when any family faced a food crisis. "Borrowing Grain from Grain bank was like taking grain from our storage. With this feel return of grain by adding 25% to it, was religiously followed by all borrowers. The time came when the quantity of grain got nearly double after regular returns by the borrowers. Then our group decided to sell some grain and we purchased one more storage bin to store surplus grain" recalls Geeta.

Marginal farmers and agricultural laborers in our villages face shortage of food grains sometime during the year. It happens when the rates of food grains in the market are higher and there is no money in hands to purchase. They borrow food grains from bigger farmers and return them at the time of harvest but they are bound to harvest their fields first and at a lower wages.
Shramik Bharti with the support of Giveindia and our donor community has been able to provided a simple yet effective solution to this problem in the form of Community Grain Bank which women in village can easily manage.
This year 8 New Community Grain banks(Wheat) have been set up in 5 villages in Shivrajpur block. These grain banks are owned and managed by women self-help groups (WSHG) in these villages and each grain bank benefit the families of 10-12 women SHG members belonging to farming families. During lean season or during adverse conditions the member family borrows grain from their community grain bank and return in-kind adding 25% at the time of harvest. Thus making their Grain bank sustainable.
An innovation was done this year and during setting up a community grain bank members were encouraged to contribute 1 quintal wheat (8-10 Kg. per household) towards setting up their community Grain Bank. 4 quintal grain and a storage tank was provided through Giveindia Support.
Today more than 100 Community Grain Banks ,set up through support of GiveIndia are ensuring food and nutritional security of small and marginal farmers in Kanpur Nagar & Kanpur Dehat districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Community Grain Banks ensuring food security of marginalized communities in Rural Kanpur

During this year Shramik Bharti helped poor rural communities to set up 12 Grain Banks by engaging women self help groups promoted by Shramik Bharti. These Grain Banks have been a great help to 120+ marginalized households, nearly 600 people to get access to food grains during lean season and any other emergency situation when food stock is finished.

Farmers happy to receive the foodgrains