Aga Khan Rural Support Programme

Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), known as AKRSP(I), is a non-denominational, non-government development organisation that works with rural communities in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. It describes itself as a catalyst for improving rural communities and gives direct support to local communities.

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Its work covers agriculture, water, renewable energy, youth employment and local governance, and its agriculture work aims to raise incomes, build climate resilience and improve food security. It works mainly through community-based organisations that it has helped set up in villages, and puts smallholders at the centre of how it designs its programmes. AKRSP(I) began work in Gujarat in 1986 and has since expanded to Madhya Pradesh (2004), Bihar (2008) and Maharashtra (2022).

Headquarters: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Major Areas of Work

• Agriculture and climate resilience: Helps smallholder farmers cope with droughts, floods, cyclones and irregular rainfall, with the aim of making them secure in nutrition and income and making their farming sustainable.

• Water and irrigation: Water harvesting, water conservation and water-efficiency work that gives farmers assured irrigation.

• Work and enterprise: Creates non-farm jobs and self-employment for rural youth as landholdings shrink and farm incomes become less certain.

• Community institutions and rural governance: Sets up community-based organisations and builds up their leaders so they can help Panchayats and other local governance bodies work better.

• Women's empowerment: Treats women as the core group for its programmes and supports them to raise local issues through forums such as Mahila Sabhas and Gram Sabhas.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• Yuva Junction: The umbrella name for its work and enterprise programme, which runs courses that help rural youth assess their skills, build job and customer-facing skills, and move into non-farm jobs or their own businesses.

• Multiple Input Area Development (MIAD): The integrated approach it uses for development work in Bihar, in districts including Muzaffarpur, Samastipur and Saran.

• Natural farming and bio-inputs: Supports farmers and women's producer groups to take up natural farming and to make and sell their own bio-input products.

• Solar irrigation and solar energy: Solar-powered irrigation and other solar energy work, including in the tribal areas of South Gujarat, which the organisation says has scaled up in recent years.

• Natural resource management in Maharashtra: Its newest programme, working on land and water in hilly tribal villages of Sakri block, Dhule district.

Impact

AKRSP(I) states that it works in 3,255 villages across 27 districts in four states and has reached over 3.5 million people (3,539,665 by its own count). It says its water harvesting, conservation and efficiency work has brought more than 75,000 hectares of land under assured irrigation. By its own figures, over 80% of the households it reaches belong to marginalised communities, including tribal, Dalit and minority households, and over 60% of participants are women. Gujarat is its largest programme, covering 2,380 villages across 15 districts.

AKRSP(I) suits people who want hands-on rural development work in long-running community programmes. Staff work across agriculture, water, solar energy, youth livelihoods and local governance in very different settings, including Gujarat's coastal saline belt, drought-prone areas and tribal South Gujarat, central India, north Bihar and the tribal hills of Maharashtra. Field teams work from regional bases such as Mangrol, Sayla, Dangs and Netrang in Gujarat, which keeps the work close to communities. It fits agronomists, water and natural resource management specialists, livelihoods and enterprise professionals, and community organisers who want to work directly with smallholder farmers, women and rural youth.