From Paani Foundation: Jan-Feb 2026 Updates

Rainmatter Partner Updates
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A New Chapter: Farmer Cup 2026

Starting January 5, 2026, Paani Foundation officially kicked off 3-day residential trainings for farmers across Maharashtra. This marks the first step towards participating in our annual competition on collective and sustainable agriculture - the Satyamev Jayate Farmer Cup.

From January 5 to Feb 23, a total of 12,109 farmers have completed the training, with 59.1% being women. Additionally, a total of 535 officers working with the Govt. of Maharashtra (either with Krushi Vibhag or UMED), have also attended the training alongside farmers, and will support Paani Foundation in enabling farmers to form groups to participate in the Farmer Cup.

Partnership with the Govt. of Maharashtra for effective scaleup

To enable effective statewide scale-up of the Satyamev Jayate Farmer Cup, Paani Foundation has partnered closely with the Government of Maharashtra, especially collaborating with UMED under the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MSRLM) and the Department of Agriculture.

Through phased capacity-building efforts in late 2025, Paani Foundation trained state and district leadership of both departments, as well as block-level officers and village-level Community Resource Persons (Gram Sakhis). A total of 30,359 UMED representatives were trained across 521 sessions. Of these, over 21,000 women registered to participate in the residential training of Farmer Cup 2026, which is now ongoing. From the Dept. of Agriculture, Paani Foundation trained 9,917 officials, of which 7,300 signed up to be ‘Mentors’ for participating farmer groups in 2026. This deep institutional partnership has created a powerful grassroots support ecosystem, combining Paani Foundation’s mobilisation and training strengths, with the government’s strong on-ground presence. It has enabled us to embark on an 8x scaleup, without scaling up our team size proportionally.

KPI Status - April 2025 to March 2026 (as per Mou):

  1. Formation of 2500 farmer groups for Gatsheti Premier League - Yes
  2. Rollout of Pan-Maharashtra Digital Sheti Shalas - Yes
  3. Training 25,000 govt. staff across various departments on mobilisation for the
    pan-Maharashtra Farmer Cup - Yes
  4. At least 20,000 farmers engaged in implementation of agricultural SOPs - Yes
  5. Training 35,000 farmers in the residential training for Farmer Cup 2026 - In Process

Projected Outcomes: Jan - May 2026

  1. Total number of farmers trained in 3-day residential training: 35,000
  2. Total number of Govt. officers trained in 3-day residential training: 1,000+
  3. Total number of farmers registered as ‘Nimantraks’ to make farmer groups: 24,000+

Can Rainmatter be of help with anything
We are uploading a few questions on Innovation Guild, which could be explored.

Key Video Links:

    1. Mr. Amit Chandra (Founder - ATE Chandra Foundation) joined one of the batches of the Farmer Cup training. This was his experience on the training as well as the overall initiative: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MEG1OB_Tm28

  2. Watch a glimpse of the training here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bplQ-8Kell4

  3. Farmer testimonias here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/krVpRv78kE8