Organizational Profile

The Government of Bihar (GoB), through the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS), an autonomous body under the Department of Rural Development, is spearheading the World Bank-aided Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP), locally known as “JEEViKA” to enhance the social and economic empowerment of the rural poor. JEEViKA was initiated in 2007 in 6 blocks of 6 districts with the intention to scale up to the entire State. The program mobilized women from the poorest households into federated institutions to enable better access to services, credit and assets from public and private sector institutions. JEEViKA’s reach has expanded to over 820,000 groups across 534 blocks covering all the 38 districts of Bihar – i.e., over 10 million women, spanning a population of 47 million (37% of Bihar; 42% of rural Bihar). In 2017, a new initiative, “Bihar Transformative Development Project (BTDP)” was launched to be implemented over 6 years in 300 blocks across 32 districts with a budget of $415 million ($290 million World Bank loan plus $125 million from GoB).

JEEViKA is also designated by the GoB as the State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) for implementation of National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) operating in 234 blocks across 25 districts. The budgetary allocation under NRLM is based upon the poverty ranking of the state. In FY 2018-19, the allocation is $103 million ($62 million Government of India and $41 million GoB). Since its inception, JEEViKA has adopted participatory, gender-centric and integrated approaches to reduce the impact of vulnerabilities that excludes social groups, exhausts productive skills and neutralizes savings / investment capacity of rural households. JEEViKA is at the cusp of mobilizing almost 10 million women members; and soon, they will transition over 1 million farmers and small producers to higher order production activities and link them to various market channels, develop end to end value chains and create higher returns per unit of inputs used by these farmers.

Following the successful completion of the two phases of JEEViKA, the World Bank launched the Bihar Transformative Development Project (BTDP) in 2017. This initiative will run until 2022 with a total funding of $410 million, of which $330 million is dedicated to three components: 1. Community institutional development ($115 million, of which $80 million is a loan from the International Development Association or IDA); 2. Community investment funds ($200 million, of which IDA loan is $140 million). 3. Component 4 of the project on Innovations, partnerships and technical assistance (Total $15 million of which IDA loan is $10.5 million). Together, in the three Components, a total of $110 million is dedicated to agriculture, including value chain work in crops and livestock. The recently approved National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) funded NRLM over a five-year period (2018-2023) with a total investment of $500 million, of which 15-20% is expected for Bihar through JEEViKA for value chain enhancement work (with approximately $100 million for agriculture). 

Together, the two World Bank investments total approximately $235 million for agriculture and work related to value chains in Bihar. In addition to the investments mentioned above, JEEViKA leverages significant resources from the GoB as a preferred implementation partner for several livelihood focused government programs including poultry, rearing of goats and other small ruminants, dairy and honey production. JEEViKA is also the implementing agency for the $130 million State Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) to create viable farm and non-farm enterprises for 100,000 ultra-poor households through a combination of asset transfers and intensive handholding. Growing annual allocation under NRLM indicates that JEEViKA is expected to receive an annual budgetary allocation of more than $100 million in the coming years, of which significant resources will be assigned to transformative work around livelihoods. 

                    One of the major focus areas of the program is value chain development through farmers led community institutions aimed at increasing farm income. With this focus a farmer’s collective was registered as FPC in Saharsa District of Bihar named SAHARSA WOMEN JEEVIKA PRODUCER COMPANY LIMITED with member base of 1061 small and marginal women farmers, it is majorly involved in agri-input marketing as well as produce marketing including on future commodity exchange. Recently, it has also ventured into direct consumer marketing of mangoes.

The M/s SAHARSA WOMEN JEEVIKA PRODUCER COMPANY LIMITED is a farmer producer company is associated with trading, processing and marketing of agricultural and horticultural produce for about 5 years. The unit was incorporated on 13/06/2018 as producer company limited under Company’s Act. The authorized capital of the company is Rs. 10,00,000 and the paid-up capital is Rs. 10,00,000 as on 31st March 2020.Total 1810 no of  shareholder associated with this company.

  It has started with agri-input sale and had subsequently ventured into spot trading of maize as well. Over a period of time, it has started trading of wheat, makhana etc

• SWJPCL operates in three out of the four maize-producing blocks in Saharsa. However, it does not have a presence in  Banma Itahri. The general consensus among the traders is that these four blocks contribute to more than 70% of the total maize produced in Saharsa
• Rabi maize has slightly more productivity than the Summer maize.Official statistics for Kharif maize for FY 17-18 and 18-19 indicate that no production has happened in Saharsa.
• The railway rack points in Saharsa and Simri Bakhtiyarpur blocks are the only means of market access in the absence of other market options.This is a long form text area designed for your content that you can fill up with as many words as your heart desires. You can write articles, long mission statements, company policies, executive profiles, company awards/distinctions, office locations, shareholder reports, whitepapers, media mentions and other pieces of content that don’t fit into a shorter, more succinct space.