Forty-five year old Kanhaiya Yadav from Daina village in Sakaldiha is one of our early lead farmers and a man with one goal – to put his village on the map of India as a model village.

To do that, Kanhaiya devoted all his time to learn about the soil, seeds and sowing techniques from the scientists and other experts that the program helped him to connect with and then passed this knowledge on to his community so that together, they can change their village.

Kanhaiya elaborates, “The opportunity given to us by MITRA to learn from the experts was a big boon. I got step-by-step guidance about crop cycles and information about farming with reduced use of chemical fertilizers & pesticides. And it gave me the confidence to experiment. I adapted about 80% of what was suggested by the scientists and it helped me to reduce my input costs in a big way.”

The efforts paid off and the results were there for all to see. He profited with each season and invested in buying buffaloes.

“I always wanted to start my own dairy. Small landowners like us find it challenging to earn and save for our children, while the dairy business is less time consuming and more profitable.

When I started I had just one buffalo, but now I have a total of ten buffaloes and it gives me great joy to see my dairy dream take shape.”