Jaya Organic Yojana

Smita Shah has been dedicated to uplifting the poor, raising awareness, seeking solutions and innovating methods for ecologic/economic solutions since her teenage years. She is passionate about rejuvenating soil and recharging ground water which has led her to organic and sustainable farming in rural India. An early achievement was the film series “Rain Harvest” she produced which helped to persuade the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his advisers to take up water management on a national scale. The running theme to her work has been on issues closest to her heart – the environment, empowerment of women and upliftment of the poor. She has thrown a spotlight on Entrepreneur Development, and conducted thousands of EDPs for micro businesses in South Indian villages. Her goal is to improve the livelihood of small and marginal farmers. She has been the Founder-Trustee and CEO of Jaya Organic Yojana since 2014.

We are solving problems of Degraded Soil, Climate Change, Health, Food Security, and Livelihood.

JOY skills farmers as well as their families to enhance livelihood, rejuvenate soil, recharge groundwater, produce healthy and nutritional food for all, providing local opportunity to mitigate migration and revive the village economy. Multiple members of the same family are trained in complementary job roles in horticulture, ethical and sustainable agriculture with higher yields, animal husbandry, and micro enterprise, making every family an entrepreneurial unit.

The entry point for our interventions is vermicompost technology and organic farming. The soil is rejuvenated and carbon sequestered. Farmers are the first to appreciate the improvement in their land and become committed to our process of total transformation. 

Within this tame and typical scenario our potential is to completely change the current ecological and economic paradigm. It is in the What We Do as well as How We Do It.

The problem is gargantuan. The existing paradigm of Infinite Growth on a Finite Planet has resulted in degradation of land and ecosystem, and lopsided distribution of wealth. 600 million people in India are underprivileged and oppressed.

Land degradation can exacerbate climate change and threaten agricultural productivity, water quality, biodiversity, sustainable development, and the living conditions of humans and wildlife, among other effects. As per Government data 30% of soil in India is degraded. Globally, a third of our land is degraded, affecting 3 billion people, and it is expected to worsen with rising demand for food.

Issues such as growing water scarcity and the ecological hazards posed by the increasing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and higher temperatures and unreliable rainfall make farming difficult. Climate change not only impacts crop but also livestock, forestry and fisheries, and can cause grave social and economic consequences in the form of reduced incomes, poor livelihood and adverse health impacts.

Specifically in India the problem is not only degraded soil and depleted ground water but also the lack of food security, opportunity, education, finance, which leads to hopelessness, malnutrition, poverty and migration and lands that lie fallow.

Very simply, our project aims to establish a new paradigm that respects Nature, while improving the lives of the Rural Poor.

Our program for multi seasonal “in-situ”  training at the farmer’s location, both theoretical and practical, one-on-one, suits the current scenario of social distancing.

The trainer’s regular weekly visit, for 40 weeks in the year, is accompanied by experiential learning on farmers’ own fields. Conversion by choice happens when farmers’ own success is before their eyes. The JOY motto is “Seeing is Believing, Doing is for Real.”

A minutely detailed 40 week syllabus propels the project forward. Weekly reports, data and documentation, and MIS make the program a replicable model. Vernacular language content brings globally current information, eco-innovations and opportunities to the Last Mile.

What we achieve is deep intervention because transformation unfolds slowly - it’s a process not an instant fix. The explicit stated target of joint family income is Rs 3 lakhs per year. Families eagerly strive to reach this goal. Even if only 50 families in 5 villages achieve this, it is 1 M USD or Rs.7.5 crore in annual circulation in a small radius of 15 kms.

This alone can revive the Indian Economy.

Our project serves the rural, small and marginalized farmers, their families and neighbors, empowering women and widows, elders and youth.

The farmers and their families are taught a gamut of activities and complementary job roles by trained trainers, over 40 weeks in a year for each member to contribute to the joint family income.

We also provide the means of production - for example, Vermibeds and earthworms + pegs, as well as help to facilitate loans for cows, grants for goats etc. and give the family the basic EDP training. This we do keeping in mind what it really means in paucity of resources when one is so poor.

We have practical lessons to grow a variety of nutritional foods and teach farmers to cultivate 30% of crops for their own consumption. We train farmers in sustainable farming best practices, to increase yield and income, to rejuvenate soil and recharge ground water. Some amount of financial and digital literacy is required and easily grasped, with the advent of telephone technology, game playing, and TV exposure.

All this is possible because ours is multi seasonal, long term learning which creates an intimate relationship between the trainer and the family.

Soil Rejuvenation is at the core of JOY, however our work goes beyond the physical training of farmers and spreads into the community to ensure all who are impacted by this knowledge fully understand the benefits of organic and ethical & sustainable farming both locally and on a wider global scale. 

Our team also works directly with local and national politicians and change-makers to promote our mission and remove the reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides within the Indian agriculture sector. Our proven track record has opened discussions around holistic agriculture and social benefits beyond the immediate economic ones.

My mother instilled in me a love of plants and all things green at an early age. My father taught me compassion and responsibility towards the poor. I still have his silly aluminium plaque which states, “The tree laden with fruit always bends low”. 

When a friend of my daughter’s introduced me to Vermibeds in 2013 I was intrigued. As I discovered more about this technology the activist and social change maker in me kicked in, I could instantly see the far reaching impact of this simple technology if it was implemented in a sustainable fashion. Historically, vermicomposting has been dismissed as a failed technology project as it requires training and commitment from the farmers that had not been validated previously. Without the proper guidance and initial supply of earthworms these valuable tools are often discarded or repurposed. 

Creating our mobile trainers project solidified our concept, allowing for farmers to receive their training on the actual vermibeds on their own farms and to continue their normal operations without needing to travel. 

As our partnerships grew I was excited to move beyond agriculture, to ensure a completely holistic approach to supporting rural livelihoods and our communities.

While producing films about rainwater harvesting for public television, I studied water and drought in depth. 

I am passionate about this project because I have seen firsthand the amazing positive impact Vermicomposting can have on the soil, environment and surrounding communities. Within three months plants grow taller, healthier and sturdier. The yield increases and the earth becomes aerated. Microbial life rejuvenates the soul. With mixed crops, a complex network of roots at different depths bring up different minerals. 

I have also witnessed the devastating impact chemical fertilizers have on the top soil across India. In recent years an increasing number of landslides have occurred around me, last year in Kerala and Coorg, devastating our communities and towns. 

Breaking the cycle of reliance that the farmers have on the chemical industry is my organization’s first step. But the greatest thing about vermicompost technology is that it completely frees the farmer from purchasing expensive and poisonous chemical fertilisers. 

From this starting point, I have grown our project to all round holistic development of the rural poor, empowering all members of the family, and bringing total transformation to the community.

From a young age I have been unable to contain myself. I interfere in public policy, in government campaigns, even social dynamics. People follow my lead and I am able to move people’s hearts and minds. 

I am tireless, and more energetic even than a marathon runner despite being physically handicapped since 2011. I am obsessed with scale. The world is in crisis and climate change is looming. I have an irrepressible, relentless urge to fix it. 

I have been involved in social interventions from the last 48 years, since I was 16. My twin concerns have been environment and poverty.

It has taken me five years to build all the components of this project. It takes time to build a grassroots base. When I started, vermicompost technology had a bad name. University professors, agriculture department officials, and bioenzyme promoters all dismissed vermiculture. But the beauty of the technology is it not only works very well on plant yield but also rejuvenates the soil and recharges groundwater. The best part is that it is available right there, it needs no money to purchase nor does it need any transportation. I painstakingly proved this in different geographies and cultural contexts, with different crops and climates. 

I am somehow a magnetic personality - I am not attractive and I am short. But when I speak it is with a passion, sincerity and belief so people listen. This talent is particularly useful in convincing groups of farmers to convert to ethical agriculture.

During the early stages of scaling up the Vermiculture project we received a grant from the National Skill Development Corporation of Rs. 10,000,000. With these funds we created a full curriculum of 10 months of training for farmers to become “Vermiproducers”. In partnership with a national bank, we secured loans of Rs. 11,000 for 1,840 farmers in 4 regions to participate in our program. Based on the success we had seen with high yields through correct usage we chose an ambitious 18 month pay-back schedule with the bank. 

As introducing rural banking was a high priority at the time we rode this wave happily into the project. However, we were unaware of the need to educate farmers to repay loans and the longstanding benefit this would have to their community. Thankfully, we were stringent about documenting our work, both through official documentation and also through video and photographs so we were able to confirm to govt auditors that they were aware of their obligations from the beginning. Since then we have added components into all our programs around financial responsibility with planning pay-back schedules, follow-ups, and ethics conversations with all the farmers who become our students. 

I guess I am a born leader. On my first day in Kindergarten I saw a child crying so I gave her my coat. At 11am she was still crying, so I gave her my lunchbox. Sometimes I think the urge to help is genetic. My family name is Sanghrajka, which means “Community leader”. If I see injustice or inequality I jump to the fore, and fix it.

Once, I was fascinated by an institution that had wonderful knowledge on medicinal plants. The Director would train only forest guards. I however saw immense possibilities for preventive health care if people could grow their own medicinal plants. I persuaded their staff to come on Sundays and over three months brought them together with officers from the Forest, Soil, Wasteland, and Agriculture departments. We trained 32 women from 8 nodal villages in medicinal plants, soil erosion, and how to grow trees from seeds - because seeds are everywhere. The officials who had erstwhile not thought of Planning together began to do so. The concept of primary home healthcare with Kitchen Herbal Gardens took root. As did the cluster concept. The women further trained others from 10 villages in a cluster around them.