Anma Integrated Development Association provides equipment to farmers’ clubs in 4 villages

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian-run Anma Integrated Development Association (AIDA) provided farm equipment to farmers’ clubs in the four villages of Urra, Khriezephe, Bade and Diezephe in India. The donation was part of the SBI Gram Seva program in Dimapur, India, to help improve agricultural yield and help farms economically while reducing their need for manpower. According to an article in the Morung Express, the farm equipment included power tillers, tiller trolleys and grass cutters.

Farmers’ clubs are formed in each village and put an investment share toward the purchase of equipment. Under the responsibility and ownership of the farmers’ club, the farming equipment will be rented out to other farmers to generate revenue and aid in better agricultural production.

A short ceremony was held to provide the farming equipment. Father Roy George, executive director at AIDA, welcomed those gathered for the event, and Father Nebu Mathew, rector of Don Bosco Dimapur, said the invocation and blessed the equipment. A video presentation of SBI Gram Seva’s work in the villages was shown.

Fr. George noted, “India is one of the top countries with respect to agricultural production, but it is behind the world average in terms of farm mechanization. Marginalized farmers believe that higher technology is complex and the cost of the equipment required is beyond what they can afford. The SBI Gram Seva program is helping farmers to improve their working environment and equipment that is used. These farmers’ clubs now have the farming equipment they need.”

Access to professional training and workforce development services is highly valued in India. The country, which is home to 1.34 billion people (18 percent of the world’s population), will have overtaken China as the world’s most populous country by 2024, according to the World Economic Forum. While India has the world’s largest youth population, it has yet to capitalize on this, leaving some 30 percent of this population without employment, education or training.

India has the world’s fourth largest economy but more than 22 percent of the country lives in poverty. About 31 percent of the world’s multidimensionally poor children live in India, according to a report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

India’s youth face a lack of educational opportunities due to issues of caste, class and gender. Almost 44 percent of the workforce is illiterate and less than 10 percent of the working-age population has completed a secondary education. In addition, many secondary school graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.

###

Sources:

Photo courtesy of Anma Integrated Development Association

Anma Integrated Development Association

AIDA Facebook

Morung Express – AIDA provides farm mechanization equipment

Salesian Missions – India

World Bank – India