Triple Bottom Approach in Agroforestry

SAI’s one acre agroforestry model together with IoT and Blockchain technology lifts BoP farmers out of extreme poverty by transforming their degraded lands with intercropping of traditional food crops together with paired rows of high value tree plantation. 

SAI mobilizes, trains and provides quality agritech inputs, and financial and supply chain support with direct market access to BoP farmers. Rural unemployed youth are recruited and trained as Community Resource Persons (CRPs) to provide hand-holding support to farmer groups. Landless people are provided wage employment during cultivation, maintenance and harvesting.

Farmers become valuable partners for different industries that rely on agricultural produce for raw materials, thus gaining income and food security from previously unproductive land. The model is already being replicated in Africa, and on a global scale can integrate millions of farmers directly into the corporate value chain, alleviating poverty, improving access to nutritional food produce, and reducing desertification globally. 

Addressing BoP farmers' poverty and land degradation. 

Our solution creates sustainable livelihoods and contributes in the fight against global warming and climate change. 

About two-thirds of the developing world’s 3 billion rural people live in about 475 million small farm households, working on land plots smaller than 5 acres. Many are poor and food insecure and have limited access to markets and services. 

Agriculture is the largest source of livelihoods in India. Seventy percent (70%) of rural households depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal. 

Low productivity together with lack of access to improved technology, finance, support services and assured markets are the main causes of poverty among these people. The small farmers are more directly dependent on nature  and have less capacity to adapt to the changing climate. Banks and financial institutions often do not want to lend to them, due to their lack of collateral, uncertain earning potential and long repayment periods. 

SAI has developed a low cost one acre agroforestry model on degraded lands which integrates BoP farmers into a corporate value chain. They grow high value trees next to their traditional crops in paired rows. 

Besides, the model ensures sustained raw materials supply to agrarian industries and improves natural ecosystems to combat global warming. 

SAI’s inclusive business approach  provides farmer(s)  with easy access to finance, quality inputs, training in farming technologies, technical monitoring and market access. All of this right at farmer’s doorstep, without the farmer having to worry about their mobility to access these resources.

At maturity, SAI organizes supply chain with assured buyback at market rate as it has direct market linkage. This model lifts BoP farmers’ families to Above Poverty Line (APL). SAI works with them in a true partnership where they share resources and the returns in equal terms.

The model has been validated in India. NITI Aayog of Government of India facilitated the meeting with key ministries to scale up the agroforestry model at country level.

At international level, SEED-Germany - a donor platform promoted by UNDP, UNEP and EU adjudged SAI agro forestry model as proven business model from eco-inclusive enterprises around the world. 

• BoP farmers, mostly from indigenous/tribal communities: BoP farmers with 1 acre degraded land move from Below Poverty Line(BPL) by earning more than US$1.92 per day within four years period besides getting nutritious food through inter-cropping through SAI's one acre agroforestry model.

• Landless families: Generates 100 person days of wage employment per acre to landless people during cultivation; harvesting & transportation of matured agricultural produce

• Rural Youth: By training and employing Community Resource Person SAI provides full time employment to rural youth. 

• Service Providers – Transporters; tractor owners & inputs providers by engaging them with BoP farmers and paying for their services on behalf of the farmers

• Agrarian Industries: Replace import and save foreign currency by ensuring sustained raw materials supply near to their mills/factories

SAI CRPs mobilize scattered and remotely located BoP farmers and organize them into clusters of eight to ten farmers. Each CRP only manages a limited number of clusters for personalized attention.They train and provide BoP farmers with access to inputs required for growth of good quality produce. They also provide hand holding support to BoP farmers throughout production cycle. SAI considers local socio-economic and community health factors while selecting the crops to be grown.

SAI utilizes sustainable, climate friendly agroforestry technology to convert degraded lands and ensure BoP farmers' income, food & nutritional security. It combines traditional knowledge with biotechnology, ensuring farmers' access to quality inputs and cultivation techniques with direct market linkages. Harvesting & processing provides employment to youth & landless. Resilient local supply chain reduces food loss & carbon emission, and improves farmers' income. The agroforestry model improves soil humus content, adding upto 30 kgs nitrogen/acre, and leads to carbon sequestration of 36.5 tonnes/acre of atmospheric carbon. SAI has engaged 1679 farmers via an offline-online model, generating 8250 person days wage employment.

We are leading with our unique model of agroforestry on degraded land with following value adds (i) value for money (ii) regularity of income to farmers (iii) easy access to SAI’s technical experts (iv) lower operational cost by engaging local rural youth. We do have competition from big farmers and farmers’ cooperatives like Nagaballi Agricultural Cooperative who are into mono plantation. In time through our transparent and fair practices, we have also turned some of our competitors into collaborators. Our innovation falls under the following categories: 

1. Process innovation: SAI integrates remotely located smallholder farmers into a corporate value chain where they grow traditional crops next to pulpwood in paired rows in agroforestry. The business process is oriented to work in an offline-online mode.

2. Technology innovation: This low cost, one acre agroforestry uses biotechnology. These include clonal sapling technology, seed optimization, soil analysis and testing and fertilizer optimization. We plan to integrate with IoT and Blockchain.

3. Ecosystem innovation: SAI inclusive business approach brings to the farmer's doorstep: training & capacity building; access to finance, machinery; quality inputs together with farming technologies, technical monitoring and market access.

4. Workflow innovation: SAI has designed and implemented innovative Community Resource Persons (CRPs) where it identifies and trains unemployed rural youths and then places them back in the community. These CRPs, in turn, identify, mobilize and provide training and technical monitoring support to 7-8 clusters of 10-12 farmers each for which they receive monthly honorarium and performance incentives.

Our solution is based on a sustainable agricultural model that uses Agroforestry modeling with intercropping techniques which typically fits well in degraded soil condition. The modeling involves soil analysis & reclamation together with optimized community based seed production. Analysis of climatic conditions and optimum seeds, clonal saplings and plantation techniques are part of biotechnology and engineering. 

Our solution currently uses audio/visual media using smartphones, laptops and tablets with wi-fi speakers. We also conduct communication and the impact output on multiple social media platforms, specifically on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

To scale our operations and provide transparency and traceability we want to move to blockchain as the primary technology. SAI would be the governance node representing farmers and investors on a private blockchain network. 

We will also be using geo-tagging techniques for demarcating SAI’s area and for monitoring. With the help of IoT we would be looking to capture sensory information and pictures that can be shared on the blockchain network for other nodes. The use of smart contracts generated on the blockchain network will help in facilitating payments to suppliers, logistics and buyers.

Though evidence of benefits of agroforestry for small farmers are well captured by FAO; and CIFOR. SAI specializes in promoting agroforestry on degraded lands to ensure small farmers’ livelihoods which has been well researched by leading academicians from ‘SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies’ 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  CDM project in SAI JK Paper Mills area in Odisha conducted assessment of the estimates on the anthropogenic removals of CO2-e. The assessment team concluded that over the crediting period of 30 years, a total net anthropogenic removal of 146,888 t CO2-e from 1607.7 hectares (4019.25 acres) project area was expected (or 36.5 tons per acre). The steps of the calculations were fully traceable and adequate for the project conditions.

The use of blockchain in agro industry for tracing farm to table has been commercialized and several papers have been written about it and certain companies like Agrichain and Agriledger have commercial applications available as well. Michael J Casey has covered the use of smart contracts in his book The Truth Machine. The following articles layout more specifics on how IOT and blockchain can work in the Agriculture supply chain:

://www.frontiersin.org/ar...

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.00006/full#B47

SAI’s mission is to improve livelihoods of small farmers at BoP by transforming unproductive land through sustainable agroforestry. It supports them with access to inputs, capital, knowledge & technology together with resilient supply chain with direct market access.

SAI adopts inclusive business approach brings to farmer’s doorsteps the following Key Inputs:

1. Training  & technical support throughout production cycle through CRPs and SAI’s technical team

2. Access to finance,

3. Quality inputs like seeds, saplings, fertilizer, plant medicines

4. Agricultural machinery & equipment like tractors, power tillers and weeders,

5.  Supply chain support during harvesting, storage & transportation,

6.  Direct market access with buyback agreement with industry at prevailing market price or the price at the time of agreement whichever is higher. SAI signed the agreement with JK Paper Mills in 2015 and with ITC Paperboard and Specialty Papers Division in 2019.

 The Key Outputs till date are:

1.1679 farmers collaborated & trained by SAI

2. 8250 person days of wage employment to landless

3. Full time employment to 12 rural youth

4. 3170 acres of unproductive land brought under cultivation

5. 1.8 millions trees planted on unproductive land 

6. 400 tons of millet, linseed, sesame and maize produced as intercrops

7. 2750 MT of raw materials delivered to the paper mills

8. Improved crop productivity by 40% to 50% due to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

9. Lower cost of production by 30% due to agricultural technology and GAP

 The Key Outcomes are: 

1. Improved farm income

2. Improved food security

3. Better health and nutritional status

4. Increased farmers’ productive time due to hassle free operation

5. Reduced vulnerability and poverty

6. Reverse migration and settlement

7. Prevention of sexual exploitation of women and adolescent girls

8. Empowering women through skill development and livelihood generation

9. Sustainable supply chains that are resilient to climate change and price       fluctuations

We have collaborated with 1679 small farmers’ families till date. SAI revenues are being re-invested for the next round of farmers. The earlier rounds of farmers continue getting the benefits due to coppice plantation and seed availability through community based seed production. We will be able to cover 2164 farmers’ families in one year, and 2544 families in two years without getting external funding support.

However, as banks and financial institutions are now coming forward to lend to SAI, we are expecting to bring another 400 farmers in one year and 7500 farmers in five years.   

Therefore, in total we expect to cover 2500 farmers in one year and 10,000 farmers’ families in five years. 

We are also scaling-up the model together with entrepreneurs in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through our USA office. In that case, we expect to bring another 50,000 families in five years. Thus, our solution will directly impact 60,000 BoP farmers' families or 300,000 persons (average 5 members in each family) who are part of smallholder households. This does not include landless people, rural youth and service providers who also get direct benefits through SAI. By including them, we expect to benefit 500,000 persons in five years.

With our blockchain integration platform, we will connect farmer clusters, investors, logistics providers and buyers, thus positively impacting another 200,000 people within five years. 

We are currently operating in 5 countries across Asia and Africa. We plan to operate at scale in at least 10 countries in next five years, also expanding to South America.

Our aim is to have a minimum of 60,000 BoP farmer households in five years, and 250,000 in ten years. This would mean impacting at least 1.25 million people directly and another 500,000 people as part of the complete supply chain.

Our model is proven and can be taken from one region and implemented across other regions, depending on climatic conditions and the local demand of the produce. We are following a two pronged approach for scaling up:

1. Direct implementation through CRPs in India, thereby reaching about 10,000 families in five years;

2. Mentoring young social entrepreneurs in other countries and replicating the model through them, thereby reaching 50,000 families in five years. 

Therefore, our goals within next year are:

1. Scale-up the model in South Africa, Ghana, Uganda and Bangladesh where SAI model has already been piloted;

2. Pilot the model in high altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh & Uttarakhand states of India with clonal apple rootstock as plantation, and beans & other  vegetables as intercrops. 

3. Pilot the model in Bihar and Jharkhand states of India with herbal trees (Arjun) and shrubs (Mentha and lemon grass) 

4. Identify and select additional promising social entrepreneurs in Asia, Africa and South America and start mentoring them for replication
   

Like any other social enterprises we also have barriers to growth which falls under following categories.

Cultural: The biggest barrier we face is the mindset of the people – both the communities we work with, and the stakeholders we engage with. The tribal community we work with, have been exploited for generations, and therefore look at outsiders with suspicion. They have been content with their existing life. Any intervention or support is met with resistance to change. 

Financial:  The financial institutions normally do not like to bank with these BoP farmers as they do not have any collateral and thus giving them loans could be risky. They also treat social enterprises in the same category – without collateral a loan could be risky. On the other side, the government is willing to support these farmers and the key support is through subsidies which further promote dependence. The government also offers ‘Kisan Credit Card’ (KCC) to the farmers for getting easy loans without collateral, but due to the high non-repayment rate, many of the KCCs are defunct. In other countries and regions there are similar structural barriers.

Legal/Policy: The existing government policies do not allow social enterprises to collaborate with or leverage the government scheme. Therefore, while NGOs can participate in government schemes, SAI is not able to do so even though the government has a sub-mission on on Agroforestry. 

Cultural: To overcome cultural and social barriers of the tribal communities, SAI follows a Community Resource Persons (CRPs) concept by recruiting, training local rural youths, who are otherwise unemployed. Being local, these youths have better ability to communicate and engage with the tribal communities as CRPs belong to the same community. It has been found that at many times these CRPs find relations with farmers. 

We also follow a demonstration approach by identifying and selecting progressive farmers in different clusters (group of villages), and piloting agroforestry models in their field. Gradually, other farmers started coming to us for similar collaborations. Now we are getting demands from large numbers of farmers at the BoP to collaborate.

Financial: To overcome financial barriers and the mindset of the financial institutions, we engage them through discussions, sharing of progress reports and organizing their field visits to directly interact with the communities. We are also open to share our financial model, audit reports and account books with them to verify our claim of a profitable revenue model. Recently, one agri finance company sanctioned a loan to SAI without collateral. With one financial institution coming forward we expect that others will also open their doors. 

Legal/Policy: We have been engaged with Indian policy makers such as ‘NITI Aayog’  to influence them to support social entrepreneurs through favourable policies on concessional loan and involvement in implementation of government schemes. NITI Aayog facilitated SAI’s workshop with concerned ministries to replicate the agroforestry model.  

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Full time: 15

Part time: 12

Contractors: 10

Other workers: 100+

Volunteers: 4 professionals from TataEngage are volunteering in SAI in different domains such as social media, fundraising, as well as business plan development for African partners.

Our multidisciplinary team brings together agroforestry, innovative digital solutions, and proven community mobilization techniques. Some of our team members have been working with ethnic communities for decades, and are well versed with the socio-cultural complexities that need to be addressed to create a long-term, sustainable impact. 

Jitendra Sinha is co-founder & CEO of SAI who has been working in the field of Agriculture and Rural Development for more than 28 years. A triple Masters in Agriculture, Rural Development & Development Planning, he has served as Chief Technical Adviser to UNDP/GEF, Ministry of Agriculture in Iran, in addition to being a Senior Adviser for the World Bank/IFC Farm Forestry Program in India. He established SAI with the aim to develop a truly inclusive, and sustainable business model that uplifts people at BoP globally. He has also been mentoring entrepreneurs in resilient agriculture supply chain development across Asia & Africa. 

Vaibhav Sharma is the Founder Director of SAI SPC USA. An innovator and a technology executive, he has led large transformational programs for the Banking and Financial Services Industry across the globe. He has partnered with fintech to deliver solutions in emerging technologies like cloud, blockchain and IoT. 

Shivani Prasad is the Founder Director of SAI India. She brings in more than 15 years of teaching experience and has worked with rural women for their social & economic upliftment.

Deepshikha Dalchand is a biotechnology engineer who has implemented community-based rural tourism and livelihood generation projects in several states.

Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR): SAI & IIMR, a government organization, are working on millet value chain which is a gluten-free, highly nutritious traditional crop that is well suited to the SAI model. 

Krimanshi: SAI & Krimanshi - is a dairy feed startup, are working on a zero waste supply chain to utilize crop-residue into animal feed products which improve milk quality.  

JK Paper Mills & ITC Paper Mill: SAI is working with two of the largest paper mills in India by entering into long term advance purchase agreements for pulpwood at current or future market prices at harvesting whichever is higher. 

SEED Germany: SEED is engaged with entrepreneurs in Africa to link them with successful eco-inclusive enterprises around the world (Originators). SAI has partnered with SEED to mentor selected entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa since 2017 as Originator.

Trafigura Foundation:Trafigura Foundation provides long-term funding and expertise to selected enterprises around the world. In addition to funding support, it has assisted SAI with developing communication materials. 

TATA Engage: TATA Engage has been partnering with SAI since 2017 to provide us with voluntary support.

UnLTD India: UnLTD India mentors & support early-stage social entrepreneurs to build high-impact organizations. UnLtd has been mentoring SAI cofounder 'Jitendra Sinha' since 2014.

GSBI, Miller Center, USA: Based at Santa Clara University, the Global Social Benefit Institute(GSBI®) accelerates social impact enterprises that have developed innovative solutions to address poverty. GSBI has mentored SAI co-founder Jitendra Sinha from 2015 to 2019.

We operate on a diversified B2B and B2C model to maximize profits for SAI and farmers. Via our B2B model, SAI partners with agrarian industries for providing assured supply of raw materials within their core area of operations at no upfront cost. We enhance the industries’ public image by collaborating with BoP farmers on a closed supply chain, thus providing the farmers better price for their produce.  In India, we have tapped into $8.6 billion paper industry which relies heavily on imported pulpwood. With our agroforestry model and location proximity, we are able to offer matured pulpwood at approx 50% of landing cost of imported pulpwood. For each ton of raw material provided, SAI gets an incentive of 5%/ton of the market price from the mill. 

Via our B2C model, we provide the farmers doorstep access to technology, training, finance, logistics and market in a unique crop-tree plantation model on degraded lands throughout the production cycle. We charge a fee of 2 cents per sapling for 800 saplings per acre. This nominal amount transforms relationships-from recipients to clients, inculcating a sense of dignity among them. With this money we train and hire the local CRPs. Our end to end supply chain management takes burden off from our farmers, removes their reliance on exploitative agents, and ensures food & income security. For provision of market linkages, we have 1:1 revenue sharing agreements with the farmers.  

Via SAI SPC registered in USA, we are replicating our model in Africa with local entrepreneurs.

If our solution gets selected by Solve, the funding will give us the opportunity to conduct further community mobilization in our region of operations, thus allowing us to expand our network and integrate more farmers into our agroforestry model. A portion of the prize money will be utilized to purchase sensors for geotagging in the fields, as well as in developing Phase 1 of the blockchain platform. The chance to secure additional capital will provide us the opportunity to implement our agroforestry model in other states in India as well as other countries. This will help us to generate income and food security for BoP communities worldwide.

Being a part of the Solve network will open a lot of doors for us. The increased visibility will give us access to networking and partnership opportunities that will help us to enhance our on-ground impact. The opportunity to be mentored for 9 months will be invaluable in helping us streamline our operations further, especially with the technology integrations that we are planning on implementing.

All the money raised through investors and additional funding avenues will go towards scaling the operations into funding more farmers, hiring local operational help and technology.We have elaborately benchmarked data for every acre. There are defined ROIs that we can deliver to our investors, partners and farmers. 

Board Members and Advisors will help us with sharpening the revenue model, as well as provide us with outreach. In particular, we are looking for Advisors who can assist us with their regional expertise that will enable us to implement our model in new areas. 

Mentors and partners with expertise in marketing and PR will be invaluable to help us expand our social media presence further, as well as connect with potential collaborators. Some of the products we sell are in high demand in urban areas, and a more robust social media platform will enable us to connect with more customers as well.

SAI would like to engage MIT to partner for Advisory and fundraising support across the globe. We would like to engage with people who can help us with international programs and partners and with implementing our model in other regions. We would like to particularly partner with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. 

SAI would continue to look for partners that are committed to the same cause. An example would be - International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) - They invest in rural people, empowering them to increase their food security, improve the nutrition of their families and increase their incomes.

The other entity we would like to partner with is Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The reason being, is that they have an agricultural focus and a global reach.

The migration rate from tribal communities around India is 55%, mostly due to a lack of work opportunities available at home. In recent years, it has been estimated that around 3.5 million tribal people have left agriculture and have chosen to enter informal labour markets. Migrants, especially women and adolescent girls, are at increased risk of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The SAI model works in such a way that generate sufficient livelihood opportunities are generated within the vicinity of tribal communities so as to reduce the need for migration outside for work, thus reducing the chances of sexual exploitation among women and adolescents. Currently, around 30% of the farmers and landless labourers we work with are women. In addition, our end-to-end supply chain system employs women in the packaging process as well. In addition, the improved food and income security that the farmer gets also affects their families, as this reduces the need for any family member to migrate outside for work. With the prize money, we will be able to add more women farmers into our network, provide additional employment opportunities to female migrants who have returned due to Covid-19, and will also be able to implement additional sustainable branding and packing processes which will employ more women from the community.  

SAI has plans to support the scaling of its operations through digitization. To build transparency within the participants, we plan to move to a private blockchain network. For capturing information on the progress and movement of produce, the solution will be supplemented with IoT and AI. The integration of AI will provide authenticity and integrity to the data as the data is as good as it enters the network. For building this solution out we are looking to raise funds and apply the digitization in phases.

SAI has been working in impacting lives of thousands of people living below poverty line. We have made this happen in certain regions of the world by  facilitating finance for sustainable agriculture solutions. We have been limited in our reach to other regions for scaling of our operations due to availability of funding options.

As we plan to scale our  operations a funding of $200,000 will be helpful in setting us up for scale. This particular funding will be utilized in operations in specific regions for our impact goals, and the revenue generated will be shared with our primary stakeholders.

We can share our additional materials as and when required.