Small and marginal farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plain (EGP), covering Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, have long been trapped in rice-wheat monocultures, facing poverty, food insecurity, and climate vulnerability. Despite decades of available technologies, adoption has remained low due to weak extension and advisory services (EAS), misaligned policies, limited mechanisation, water scarcity, credit constraints, and poor market linkages, especially for small and landless farmers.
The Rupantar project, launched in 2023, aims to transform smallholder food systems across four districts in the EGP by promoting sustainable and diversified farming. It moves beyond one-time top-down advice by integrating technical guidance, service delivery, participatory pathway design, and multi-stakeholder coordination. The project leverages local networks to demonstrate inclusive diversification pathways, define scaling processes, and generate evidence for enabling policies.
Rupantar begins with in-depth context analysis, including surveys, case studies, focus groups, and stakeholder workshops. Using the Scaling Assessment and Discussion (ScAD) tool, interventions are selected collaboratively to ensure relevance to diverse farmer typologies, including landless, smallholder, and women-headed households. The project implements three main pathways—plot-based, non-plot, and irrigation-constrained—linking advisory services to actionable inputs, credit, markets, and technical backstopping.
Gender-responsive approaches and inclusive training have been central, particularly in non-plot pathways where women lead adoption in poultry and goat rearing. The project’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) framework tracks outcomes at individual, household, community, and system levels, informing adaptive management and sustainability. Digital tools like WhatsApp support routine advisory needs, while field visits address complex issues, balancing technology with local realities.
Challenges include last-mile input delivery gaps, misaligned incentives among actors, digital advisory limitations, and social barriers for women and landless farmers. Rupantar addresses these through partnerships with cooperatives, NGOs, and Farmer Producer Organisations, along with context-sensitive training, gender-segregated sessions, and real-time coordination.
The project has delivered measurable benefits in 3–4 seasons: households adopting zero-tillage mustard, improved dairy, or poultry have increased incomes, nutrition, and dietary diversity. Knowledge levels have risen, gender inclusion has strengthened, and circular farm integrations have enhanced resilience and household stability. Positive economic returns encourage continued adoption without ongoing project support, while ScAD-based participatory pathways ensure local ownership and scalability.
Lessons highlight the importance of context-driven, participatory extension: field staff must facilitate, women’s priorities must be pre-consulted, input availability must be mapped ahead, adaptive feedback loops are essential, and advisory services must be linked to tangible actions. Technology-push, tokenistic consultations, or one-size-fits-all approaches are ineffective; integrated, system-level approaches drive lasting adoption and impact.
