Dharani
The Dharani initiative of the Timbaktu Collective works with 2072 smallholder farmers from 70 villages spread across 10 mandals of Sri Sathya Sai and Ananthapuramu Districts. It promotes sustainable and climate-resilient organic farming and works for better returns to smallholder farmers by gaining increased control over the agricultural value chain. These farmers cultivate diverse food crops such as millets, groundnut, lentils, etc. Under this initiative, the Collective has promoted Dharani (Dharani Farming and Marketing Cooperative Ltd/Dharani FaM Coop) as a member-owned business enterprise of smallholder farmers. Dharani does procuring, processing, value addition and marketing of the organic crops under the brand Timbaktu Organic.
The Collective’s field team facilitates with farmer groups (sanghas) meetings at the village level and ensure that the members implement a robust Package of Practices (PoP) as per organic practices. They also facilitate crop planning, farmer trainings, farmer field schools and interfacing with farmers on complying with Dharani FaM procurement protocols.
They also support the farmers in documenting their farming practices and facilitates certification under Participatory Guarantee System (PGS). The farmer groups are certified under PGS with PGS India and PGS OC (Participatory Guarantee Organic Council). Under Dharani, the latest initiative of the Collective is piloting an enterprise in organic vegetables specifically with women farmers and local youth. A package of practices (PoP) for vegetables is being developed.
