Vedanta Aluminium transforming lives of farmers at Jharsuguda

Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has been transforming the lives of farmers in Jharsuguda, Odisha, through its Jeevika ‘Samriddhi’ project.

This initiative is envisaged as a sustainable livelihood project in agriculture, which aims to introduce small and marginal farmers to better, more efficient, and sustainable methods of farming, thereby increasing their quantum of yield and sustained return on agricultural investments.

Now in the second phase of its operations, the project, has positively impacted over 300 farming households across five villages of Jharsuguda, namely, Siriapali, Keldamal, Gudigaon, Katikela and Kurebaga.

Speaking about the company’s endeavours to create sustainable livelihoods for local communities, Sunil Gupta, CEO of Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda, said, “Creating sustainable livelihoods is a key focus area in our community development efforts. To that end, we run several high-impact projects on skill development, women’s empowerment, agriculture, entrepreneurship, etc. at Jharsuguda. With agriculture as the primary source of livelihood in the region, and its criticality towards ensuring food security and proper nutrition for the local communities, we have taken it upon us to work with farmers on improving their access to better agricultural practices, new technologies, effective land & water management techniques, etc. Our Jeevika Samridhhi project is fast becoming a holistic solution for farmers in Jharsuguda to improve yield and household income.”

Vedanta’s social interventions in the domains of sustainable livelihood, quality education, women empowerment, health, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to over 79 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting nearly 1.7 lakh people in a year. It empowers more than 4000 women from over 339 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 32,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 6400 students, has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with locals at the community level.