23rd December the birthday of former Prime Minister, Late Choudhary Charan Singh is observed as the Kisan Divas in India. On this day many organisations conduct  seminars to discuss about farmers rights, agricultural practices, policies, guidelines and their implementation and so on. This aligns with the Sustainable Development Goal 2 which aims at Zero Hunger: to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, making sure all people – especially children – have access to sufficient and nutritious food all year round.

One of the key drivers to achieve this goal would be growth in agriculture sector. Since 1998 Mahiti has been providing technology solutions for the agriculture sector which have helped improve the quality of production and assess the impact of the newly adopted agricultural practices.

Convene MIS Platform to provide market linkage support for Kisan Club and Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO):

Convene is a comprehensive MIS platform. It can be deployed in multiple scenarios. At Mahiti we have customised Convene to support the operations of Farmer Producer/ Cooperative Organisation. The application is an integration of Farmer Member information, Farmer Group information (Kisan Club/Farmer Interest Group), Farmer Group Management, Business initiatives of FPOs, Market linkages and can be customized as per the needs of farmer organisation. The application supports 16 regional languages reducing the barriers for technology adoption.

The application is integrated with an Interactive Voice Response System(IVRS) which pushes voice notifications and alerts in the local language. Information about market prices, market requirements and handholding support can be easily broadcast to members through the IVRS.

The FPOs create the baseline and gather information about some of the key indicators like:

• Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status

• Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture

• Number of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium or long-term conservation facilities

• Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk, not-at-risk or at unknown level of risk of extinction

The facilitating non-profit organisations use Convene platform to gather information in the geographic region for indicators such as:

• Prevalence of undernourishment

• Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)

• Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age

• Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)

The Convene MIS platform enables farmers to increase their agricultural productivity particularly that of small and middle scale farmers(including women farmers), as it helps them make informed decisions. It will help the farmer better farming techniques and reduce the production costs, thereby ensuring higher returns.

Convene provides single touch information about the agro-market, risk management, trends and analysis. Adopting the Convene Platform will help organisations support  farmers in achieving their goals and lead to incremental progress towards SDG 2.

Convene based applications are in use in India, Kenya and Tanzania.

SDG #2 - Targets and Indicators

1. By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round

   1. Prevalence of undernourishment

   2. Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)

2. By 2030, end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving, by 2025, the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and older persons

   1. Prevalence of stunting (height for age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age

   2. Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)

3. By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment

4. 1. Volume of production per labour unit by classes of farming/pastoral/forestry enterprise size

   2. Average income of small-scale food producers, by sex and indigenous status

5. By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality

   1. Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture

6. By 2020, maintain the genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and diversified seed and plant banks at the national, regional and international levels, and promote access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, as internationally agreed

   1. Number of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture secured in either medium or long-term conservation facilities

   2. Proportion of local breeds classified as being at risk, not-at-risk or at unknown level of risk of extinction

2.A      Increase investment, including through enhanced international cooperation, in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and extension services, technology development and plant and livestock gene banks in order to enhance agricultural productive capacity in developing countries, in particular least developed countries

2.A.1 The agriculture orientation index for government expenditures

2.A.2 Total official flows (official development assistance plus other official flows) to the agriculture sector

2.B      Correct and prevent trade restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets, including through the parallel elimination of all forms of agricultural export subsidies and all export measures with equivalent effect, in accordance with the mandate of the Doha Development Round

2.B.1 Producer Support Estimate

2.B.2 Agricultural export subsidies

2.C      Adopt measures to ensure the proper functioning of food commodity markets and their derivatives and facilitate timely access to market information, including on food reserves, in order to help limit extreme food price volatility

2.C.1 Indicator of food price anomalies