World’s first Sustainable Castor program
02nd February, 2024
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Outcome of Project Pragati Year 7 initiated by founders, Jayant Agro-Organics Limited, Arkema, BASF along with implementation partner Solidaridad. The partners now commit to a third phase for the world’s first sustainable castor program.
| • | More than 7,000 farmers have been trained, audited, and certified. |
| • | Over 74,500 tons of certified castor seed have been cultivated. |
| • | Year 7 yield is 36% higher than the yield published by the local government for this region. |
| • | Over 7,000 hectares are now being regularly farmed in accordance with the SuCCESS sustainable castor code (see www.castorsuccess.org) – more than 27,000 hectares cumulatively. |
| • | Pragati farmers are increasing their land dedicated to castor farming as it is seen as a profitable crop. |
| • | The practices followed in the Pragati project have resulted in a lower water consumption compared to conventional practices. The data measured in the demo plots for these practices showed about 21% less consumption of water. |
| • | Over 7,000 safety kits and crop protection product boxes have been distributed free of charge. |
| • | More than 100 medical camps organized in all project villages this year successfully conducted health monitoring of 8,500+ farmers, workers, and their family members, of which 65% were farmers enrolled in the Pragati program. |
| • | Farmers from more than 100 villages in North Gujarat now participate in the program. |
| • | This year, more than 380 capacity-building training sessions were held with farmers. |
| • | Over 475 lead farmers have been identified and trained to guide certified farmer groups. |
| The project was driven by a baseline survey of more than 1,000 castor farmers in Gujarat, India, where most of the world’s castor supply originates. The original baseline study highlighted the fact that farmers see castor as a highly remunerative and profitable crop – easy to grow, and easy to sell. | |
The goal of the project has been to enable sustainable castor crop production by:
