Opportunities for enterprise, equal access to knowledge, financial support, employability skills and social and infrastructural capital to make informed livelihood choices are some of the biggest needs among socially and economically underserved communities that are grappling with poverty.

In this context, the two segments this portfolio has been designed for are small and marginal farmers which provide end-to-end solutions to improving incomes by growing coffee and horticultural products organically, and marketing them globally from Araku valley , Nagaland and Mahindra Pride schools - institutions that train and economically backward youth from socially marginalised communities with employable skills.

Stable, regular incomes continue to elude a majority of the rural and tribal farming population. And this is largely, as Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India says, because “Farming is increasingly becoming an unviable activity, particularly because of the nature of the land holdings. Small and marginal farms have become can unviable proposition and till we make farming as a whole viable at this scale, it would be virtually impossible to reduce poverty and distress” (editorial in The Economic Times 28.3.08).

Making it viable for small and marginal farmers to live off their land and become successful entrepreneurs is the focus of this portfolio which is attempting to create end-to-end solutions in the agriculture sector to tackle issues of land productivity, crop and pest management and marketing bottlenecks that plague small and marginal farmers .

Focus is also on socially backward youth, who are trained with employable skills to secure gainful employment in the organized sector. Employability finishing schools are set up in partnership with corporates to groom and train young boys and girls. The idea is to equip them with mainstream capabilities and enable them to find competitive employment opportunities in the market place.