The program is working with a range of technologies, practices and methodologies to promote sustainable rural livelihoods. The salient models are;
Seed Villages – Demonstrated a model to promote a social contract between seed growers and with seed industry through seed villages by how small farmers can benefit as well as on how to add value to the time and labour of rural women agriculture labourers by improving their skills. Here decentralized production of quality seeds was promoted in identified clusters as ‘seed villages’ backed up with capacity building on production, processing, storage and marketing in conformity with Indian seed laws and regulations. Smallholders were trained in the hybrid seed production in ten different vegetables and 2376 women and 236 men farmers were trained in seed production technologies and linked with three main seed companies.
Integrated Farming System Models for Coastal Agro-Ecosystem: Crop diversification, integration and recycling of resources were promoted in the paddy mono-cropped region with the introduction of livestock, vegetables, pulses and aquaculture as allied enterprises with paddy, adopted to demonstrate coastal areas, Water use efficiency, soil conservation, crop diversification and disaster management. 800 farmers adopted the concept in different levels of diversification to improve resource use efficiency, reduce external inputs, and generate additional employment and farm income.
Eco-Enterprises Development: Through demystification of technologies, eco-entrepreneurship was promoted among rural women by enhancing their technical, managerial and marketing capacity to mobilize and organize themselves as entrepreneurs and to produce environmentally friendly products and services for Sustainable Development. Under this theme, technologies for 15 different biological inputs were demystified and women members were trained to develop into eco-enterprises. The enterprises were managed by a group of women members and this initiative helps in improving their human, economic, social and physical asset levels.
ICT Enabled Functional Literacy for Livelihoods: The Community Learning Centre approach with learner-centric principles adopted by the programme to promote functional literacy among women and men farmers are recognised as a best practice by UNESCO. Over 1000 women and men have become functional literates and applying the new skills to improve their livelihoods.
Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture: Promoted integrated crop management technologies such as the use of quality seeds, biofertilizers and biopesticides, composting of crop residues, use of micronutrients, soil test-based chemical inputs application, Economic Threshold Level based pest management strategies etc to improve the productivity of paddy, banana and vegetables, and rainfed crops like pulses, cotton, maize, more than 9500 ha of agriculture land has been enhanced, over 4400 farmers including 45% women farmers have been adopting sustainable agriculture practices and 310 hectares were converted into organic farming in coffee-based multi-tier cropping.
Bio-Industrial Watersheds: The Centre has scaled up the bio-village approach at the micro-watershed level through the concept of Bio-industrial watersheds in five major soil regions of India. It is demonstrated that the techniques of natural resources management on a watershed scale by constructing 108 water harvesting and conservation structures covering 675 Ha of land. Alongside, it created an impact among 2684 smallholders by increasing their income by 10-30%. An integrated farming model was developed in 23 farm ponds and an agroforestry plantation model was established in 195 Ha. Value chains were built for fresh milk, vegetables and pulses and diverse product lines were promoted.
Groundwater Augmentation and Recharging Models: Evolved methodology and demonstrated technologies for recharging groundwater and deepening the agriculture open wells for small-scale irrigation in the rainfed region, so far more than 100 open wells were renovated and the system is institutionalised at the community level.
Plant Clinics: Tablet-mediated extension system conducted in a common location at a village twice in a month for the small and marginal farmers by trained plant doctors, who are agricultural extension officers and progressive farmers, to diagnose pests and diseases of the affected crops and provide appropriate recommendations. MSSRF currently runs 31 plant Clinics covering 155 villages in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam and Odisha. This timely diagnosis and advisories helped the farmers in reducing input costs by 55–65 per cent and enhancing productivity by 12–15 per cent with a net gain in income ranging from 12.5 to 16 per cent