Sustainable Farming Practices: How Farmers in India Restore Water and Soil
In India's maize belt, farmers are reclaiming their land from the worst drought in 150 years by embracing regenerative agriculture to restore water and soil health. See the faces and hear the stories behind this transformation in our latest photo essay.
In 2018, Karnataka, India, experienced its worst drought in over 150 years. Revansidappa, a smallholder farmer in the region, remembers the fear and uncertainty during that time. “People had to buy water from tankers at a high cost, which was a big burden.”
The crisis passed, but the underlying problems remained. Chemical fertilizers had degraded the soil, and rainfall became harder to predict. For the 750,000 farming families who grow maize in Karnataka, each season felt riskier than the last.
Project Srishti, launched by TechnoServe in 2023 with support from Cargill, works with nearly 10,000 farming households across five districts to adopt regenerative agricultural practices. Since 2023, the project has trained 3,029 women, established 668 farmer field schools, and helped farmers save or restore more than 24 million liters of water.
See some of the faces behind this transformation in our latest photo essay.
The Impact of Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Farming Practices
Pampa Naik, 44, is a maize farmer who participated in Project Srishti. He cut his fertilizer costs from ₹16,000-17,000 to about ₹5,000 by switching to organic inputs. In this photo, he shows the cob growth in his regenerative maize field in Davanagere, Karnataka.
Meenakshi Shivappa, 48, is a farmer and Project Srishti beneficiary. She generated an additional source of income for her household by selling vermicompost, a type of organic manure. With support from the project, women like Meenakshi earned around ₹6,400 selling vermicompost they produced themselves.
Meenakshi Shivappa holds earthworms in her vermicompost pit in Davanagere, Karnataka.
Lead farmer Chandru Hotteppanavar, 36, dedicated one acre of his land for a demonstration plot and saw the benefits within one season. “The crop on which we sprayed Jeevamrutha [a biofertilizer] has 40-45 roots, whereas the conventional maize crop only has 19-20 roots.” In this photo, Chandru sprays biofertilizer collected from the biodigester on his land in Chitradurga, Karnataka.
Latha Manjangouda is a farmer who participated in Project Srishti. In this photo, she harvests vegetables from her organic kitchen garden in Rattihalli block, Haveri District.
