COVID-19 update and our response

Creating a New Tomorrow,
Together

  • HCL Samuday, a flagship program of HCL Foundation, is an outcome of HCL’s Commitment to uplift rural India.

    Established in 2015, Samuday intends to develop a sustainable, scalable, and replicable model – a source code for economic and social development of rural areas in partnership with central and State Governments, local communities, NGOs, knowledge institutions and allied partners. We do this through optimal interventions across Agriculture, Education, Health, Infrastructure, Livelihood, and WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) in selected villages.

    The program is designed to help the local people identify their problems, co-create solutions, and then implement the same on their own with professional support from team Samuday, thereby, lending the dimension of sustainability and ownership to the whole vision of development. Currently implemented in three blocks – Kachhauna, Behender and Kothawan – in Uttar Pradesh, HCL Samuday is operational in 765 villages from 164 Gram Panchayats, comprising of 90,000 households and impacting around 600,000 people.

  • A source code for sustainable
    rural development

  • Achievements

    • 40,000+ marginal farmers benefitting from multiple agriculture-related interventions
    • 55,000+ children receiving education in 357 Happy Schools (Primary and Upper-primary govt. schools)
    • 68,000+ adults supported to attain functional literacy
    • 32,000+ pregnant women and 25,000+ children provided with improved healthcare
    • 90,000 households with increased access to general healthcare (OPD and diagnostic services) from Telemedicine centers and Mobile Health Clinics
    • 32 solar mini grids bringing electricity to 41 villages
    • 12,000+ marginal households experiencing increased income from dairy, poultry, and goat rearing interventions
    • 11,500+ women being economically empowered through Self-Help Groups
    • 67,000+ Open Defecation Free households practicing safe sanitation
    • 11,000+ households supported to avail potable drinking water
  • Work Areas

  • Training and Extension

    Agriculture is a dynamic sector that deals with specialized knowledge which is ever changing. HCL Samuday regularly makes associated farmers aware of latest developments through Training and Extension intervention. The farmers are empowered to address existing issues and mitigate and adapt for future challenges.

    With the objective of bringing agriculture technologies at farmers’ doorstep by establishing a ‘Center of Excellence’ in Uttar Pradesh, HCL Samuday is setting up Center for Agriculture Technology Transfer (CATT) in Hardoi district. It shall act as a ‘single window’ / ‘one stop support system’ aligning various interventions of state department of Agriculture with HCL Foundation as an intermediary and farmers as end users in a learning, decision making and problem-solving exercise.

    Nutrition Garden

    Nutrition Garden is a low cost, scientific model of home garden organically producing a variety of nutritious vegetables and fruits throughout the year. The primary objective of promoting nutrition gardens is to make ½ kg of fresh vegetables available for daily consumption to rural households. Secondary objectives include reduction in daily expenditure of HHs and increase in the consumption of green vegetables for improved nutrition.

    2,714 households have benefitted by adopting a Nutrition Garden.

    Community Mobilization and Institution Building

    Interventions aimed at mobilizing community and facilitating institution creation lend long-term sustainability to the efforts for agriculture development.

         a. Farmer Clubs

    Farmer Clubs are formed with the objective of propagating the idea of collective, uniting farmers in groups which work for the benefit of their community. 199 such clubs established so far under this intervention are providing a platform for knowledge dissemination and better market linkages.

            b. Farmer Producer Organisation

    HCL Foundation is the promoting agency of Hardoi Kisan Producer Company Limited (HKPCL), a Farmer Producer Organization constituted in 2017 to address challenges faced by farming community in the project area. Comprising of 2,350 shareholders and governed by an 11-member board of directors, HKPCL registered a turnover of ₹ 6.85 crores in last financial year (2019-20).

           c. Vegetable Aggregation Points

    Ensuring market is a crucial part of vegetable supply chain. To facilitate better linkages with market, 7 vegetable aggregation points have been set up across 3 blocks and regular communication is made to enable farmers to choose and opt for most suitable option. Realising better prices for produce, 917 Tonnes of vegetables, worth ₹ 1.30 crores, got aggregated at these centres in 2019-20.

           d. Farm Mechanization

    Through Farm Mechanization, focus is on increasing income of farmers by improving affordability and accessibility of machines for precision agriculture. It is aimed at reducing farmers’ cost of cultivation and easing farm operations. Carried out in an entrepreneurial model, thus far 3,249 farms have been supported with advanced agricultural machinery and development of 45 entrepreneurs has been facilitated.

    Crop Diversification

    Due to lack of awareness and perishable nature of produce, few farmers practice vegetable cultivation. Crop Diversification intervention aims to bring sustainable income enhancement by adoption of diversified crop practices. HCL Samuday is pushing this agenda and the concurrent efforts made have engaged 13,500+ farmers so far in vegetable production.

     

    After successful response of vegetable cultivation, various add-ons in Crop Diversification have been introduced so that farmers having disparate needs may opt for most suitable cropping pattern. These include –

    • Nano Orchard- a small area of land ranging from 840–1680 sqm is devoted exclusively for cultivation of fruit crops like Guava, Papaya, Banana, Apple, Ber and Thai Lime (seedless) along with vegetables taken as intercrop. 425 farmers have successfully established Nano Orchards.
    • Floriculture - promoting flower cultivation, HCL Samuday is propagating better practices and solving farmers’ erstwhile problem of unavailability of good variety. Marigold cultivation is being promoted under floriculture in project area.
    • VASUNDRA -Village Action for Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resource and Demonstration of Resilient Agriculture (VASUNDRA) has been initiated to enhance productivity of degraded fallow lands having high pH value. Adopting scientific methods of land reclamation through cultivation of resilient crops like Lemon Grass and Palmarosa combined with PH resistant horticulture crops like Amla, Ber and Lemon, so far 140 acres of land has been reclaimed.

    Traditional Crop Promotion

    Traditional Crop Promotion intervention focuses on training and demonstration of traditional crop farmers (Maize, Paddy, Wheat, Urad etc.) and bringing them under Package of Practices (PoP) based production system to increase productivity and adopt better crop management practices.

    HCL Samuday has worked to enhance productivity by adopting soil and nutrient management, land development and institutional building for effective market linkages. 26,000+ farmers are currently engaged through this intervention and have adopted better practices on their farm.