Mr Sunil Khairnar is a social entrepreneur. He is a BTech in Agriculture Engineering and a Management Post Graduate from IIM Ahmedabad.
Post a corporate career between 1993 to 2000, Mr Khairnar has devoted 20 years of his life to work in the agri-rural development sector. In past two decades, he has co-founded a number of social ventures in agriculture and health sectors.
In Feb 2001, he founded the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) with the aim of instilling economic stability in rural areas by empowering farmers living in hinterland areas through knowledge dissemination and skill building using ICT.
He himself comes from a Farming Family. He firmly believes that filling of knowledge gaps can help in addressing the plights of small farmers to a great extent. In fact, ISAP’s mantra has been ICT – information and communications technology. Today, more than one million agri-professionals are connected with ISAP through its various field and digital interventions.
Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP)
ISAP works to revitalise and transform rural communities through access to expert knowledge, technical innovations and livelihood and business skills for farmers, women and rural youth.
The Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) is a non-profit development agency, established in 2001 and headquartered in New Delhi, India by a group of Agriculture and Management Professionals with the aim to revitalise rural India through providing access to sustainable farm and rural community livelihood development. ISAP is one of the largest networks of agriculture and allied sector professionals in India and acts as a bridge between a network of Indian rural communities and other stakeholders, including government, development organisations and corporate entities. ISAP does this through large-scale field implementation projects with integrated deployment of technological innovation for efficiency and scale
Our Approach
Whether it's a knowledge transfer or livelihood development projects, ISAP works to create sustainable programmes and enterprises that improve the lives of rural populations and contribute to building more economically viable, and tech-progressive agri-based communities. We work with farmers, youth and women across five core areas; Sustainable Agriculture through Tech Intervention, Institution Building, Skill Development and Placement Programs, Market Facilitation and Natural Resource Management.
Objectives
- To alleviate farmer poverty by providing access to knowledge gaps and technical innovations for abundant harvests and increased income through opening market access
- To expand and diversify rural livelihood opportunities through facilitating impactful vocational training for forward facing employment areas including placements for an accelerated start
- To ensure that communities remain resilient through proper provision and maintenance of natural resources to support agriculture and community living conditions
Interventions
ISAP is involved in Agriculture Development for around 2 decades
Livelihood & Ag Extension
- 200 Producer Organizations with 1000 Farmers each
- 46 Custom Hiring Service Centres with catering to 15000 farmers
- 20 Single Window Centers in Jharkhand catering to 120,000 Farmers
- Working with 7200 rural elderly people on social inclusion, medical help, financial, digital and legal literacy and livelihood enhancement.
Women Empowerment
- 500,000 rural women trained on safe usage of kitchen fuel
- Ongoing training of 160,000 plus adolescent girls on life skills and livelihoods
- 20,000 Women empowered through 1500 SHGs
Climate Change Adaptation practices
- Water shed (6 Anicut, 65 Farm Ponds)
- Drinking Water (26 Arsenic &16, UV RO plants)
- Integrated Farming System for 20000 farmers
- 11 KV Hybrid Electricity Grid, Kauthamal Village, Beed, Maharashtrasss
Entrepreneurship & Skill Development
- Trained more than 6100 agri-graduate and set up 2400 plus ag-based MSMEs
- Trained more than 20,000 BPL rural youth on vocational skills
- Trained more than 750,000 farmers for different skills
Digital Interventions
- ISAP actively deploys digital technology to engage and educate our target communities in remote rural regions.
- Nearly one million agri-professionals are connected with us on social media including Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Linkedin etc.
- We have promoted the largest Network of Indian Agriculture Professionals (IAP) on Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/agribiz4u).
- IAP is one of the biggest groups (330,000) of members cutting across industries like Agri-inputs, Agri-machineries, Irrigation equipment and Hi-tech agriculture, Agtech Startups and Farmers owned organizations like Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Cooperatives. More than 50% of the group consists of tech-savvy early adopters and influencers amongst progressive farmers.
- IAP provides a phenomenal service to its members by enabling sharing and learning among members.
Impact
With more than 600 staff and experts across 17 field offices in 11 states, ISAP's interventions have contributed to enhancing livelihood opportunities for more than one million farmer households, 2458 agri-preneurs, more than 20,000 youth and 20,000 women in 8000 villages in 250 blocks across 100 districts in India. ISAP has physical establishments at 100 locations, which include 12 Agribusiness Village Resource Centres (AVRCs), 20 Single Window Centres (SWCs), 20 Skill Development Centres (SDCs), 46 Custom Hiring Service Centres (CHSCs) and a hospital. We are driven and motivated through the impact our work can bring and care deeply about real and tangible change.
Contact
Location:
INDIGRAM Houses, B1/B1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate, Mathura Road, New Delhi - 110044