2022 Seed Grant Award Problem Statements 

Agriculture / Food Security

Problem #1: Technology for Receiving Weather Forecasts / Information at the Village - Micro Level for the Small and Marginal Farmers

Country/Region of execution: India
Collaborating Organization: Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded by Smt. Elaben Bhatt is a member-based organization of 1.6 million poor women workers from Informal Economies across 18 States of India. SEWA also has its presence in neighboring Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. SEWA’s strategy involves working around achieving twin goals of (a) Full employment - employment that provides work, income, and food security and Social Security and (b) Self-reliance – economical & decision-making.  By organizing these women workers to attain full employment, SEWA helps them become autonomous and economically self-reliant both individually and collectively, including decision-making ability. To achieve its goals, SEWA follows an integrated approach:  (a) Organizing for collective strength,  (b) Capacity building to stand firm in a competitive market,  (c) Capital formation for risk mitigation & fight poverty, and  (d) Social security to enhance well-being & productivity.
Problem Statement Description: The absence of micro-level weather information to the small and marginal farmers results in heavy losses due to unaccepted heavy rains, extended monsoons, and the situation of drought. They cannot take advantage of the insurance schemes as there is no system for measuring accurate weather information at the grassroots level. The lack of weather forecast solutions at the micro-level is directly related to the twin goals of SEWA, i.e... (a) Full employment - employment that provides work, income, and food security and Social Security; and (b) Self-reliance – economical & decision-making. In the absence of solutions, farmers cannot optimize their farm yields and incomes, leading to them being trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty.  Given that SEWA is a member-based organization of poor women workers from informal economy, all its initiatives need to be supported by following: Cost-effectiveness and affordability by the poor women workers from the informal economy;  Technology that is easily adaptable and replicable across the members of SEWA:  Environment friendly and preserving the natural resources.  The solution needs co-creating support and designing the effective technology keeping in mind the end-users who are poor women members / small and marginal farmers from the informal economy.