Results of the 4th year of the Pragati program

The founding members of the Pragati project for sustainable castor crop – Arkema, BASF, Jayant Agro-Organics along with implementation partner Solidaridad – recently finalized and published the final audited and certified results of the fourth year of their program.

The Pragati project was launched in May 2016 driven by a baseline survey of more than 1,000 castor farmers in Gujarat, India, where the majority of the world’s castor supply originates.

The goal of the project is to enable sustainable castor crop production by:

Using good agricultural practices to increase yield and farmer income
Efficiently using water resources and maintaining soil fertility
Driving adoption of good waste management practices
Enabling better health and safety practices and respecting human rights.

After successfully completing the initial 3-year Phase 1 of the program, the founding members committed to a further 3-year Phase 2 beginning in late 2019.

In December 2020, the members officially updated the impacts of the program so far:

Over 4,500 farmers have been trained, audited, and certified - an increase of 45% in year 4
24,000 tons of certified castor seed have been cultivated - an increase of 70% in year 4
Yield has improved over 50% versus comparable yield published by local government in the region for 2019, 2020
Over 8,700 hectares have been farmed in accordance with the SuCCESS sustainable castor code (see www.castorsuccess.org) – an increase of 71% in year 4
More than 12,000 hours of classroom teaching have been concluded
Approx. 5,000 safety kits and crop protection product boxes have been distributed free of charge
Water consumption has been lowered by approx. 19% in the demo plots where accurate measurement and control is in place
Farmers from more than 69 villages in North Gujarat now participate in the program
One customer event was hosted early in 2020 in order to create end-user awareness and involvement – this involved a guided tour of the farms, trading yards, and castor processing facility. A second event will be planned in the near future once travel restrictions are eased.