1,00,000 women. 4 years. A harvest that lasts 40.
In Jharkhand’s tribal districts, women have long worked the land, tending to it, depending on it, and passing that relationship on to the next generation. What they needed was not motivation. It was access.
Access to a crop that works as hard as they do. Access to markets that value what they grow. Access to a system built around them, not the other way around.
Industree Foundation has signed an MoU with Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), a convergence of government commitment, community potential, and ecological opportunity – to integrate one lakh smallholder women farmers into the bamboo value chain, beginning this monsoon, across five tribal districts in Jharkhand.
This partnership is part of the DAY-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) Bamboo Sub-Sector Initiative, a national mission under the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, working towards connecting one million rural women to regenerative, bamboo-based livelihoods.
Bamboo is one of the most regenerative natural resources available to smallholder farmers in India. Women who plant bamboo begin earning steady incomes from the fourth year, with yields continuing for over 40 years. It sequesters carbon, restores fallow and degraded land, and builds long-term financial security for farming families and their communities.
As the technical and knowledge partner, Industree brings a seed-to-market approach, from FSC®-certified bamboo plantations to traceable supply chains linked to national and global demand. Industree has signed similar MoUs with State Rural Livelihood Missions in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, and Tripura.
The Jharkhand partnership is the next step in scaling women-led, nature-based livelihoods across India.
Because when rural women have the right tools, training, and market access, they don’t just grow bamboo. They grow communities.
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