Social Alpha & Sustain Plus tie-up with PRADHAN to strengthen agri value chain in Jharkhand
Jharkhand Agriculture Minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey with member of Jharkhand Women FPO in Ranchi
Bangalore-based Social Alpha, an innovation curation and venture development platform, and Sustain Plus in partnership with multiple stakeholders have announced a plan to strengthen agri value chain in Jharkhand impacting about 100,000 small and marginal farmers.
Over the next four years, Social Alpha and Sustain Plus will work on strengthening agricultural value chains from pre-production to post-harvest stages, directly empowering 40,000 women across 20 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in 20 blocks of Jharkhand, who will be leading the implementation on the ground.
This effort will be implemented under the Sustain Plus–PRADAN partnership, with PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action), a development organisation working to improve rural and tribal livelihoods through women-led collectives, leading on-ground mobilisation and capacity building. The partnership is built on stabilising production and enabling households to move up the value chain. This will serve as a foundation for scaling similar models across districts in central India in collaboration with civil society organisations, technology providers, and government departments.
The plan was announced during the innovation & technology showcase event held in Ranchi on October 16, 2025. The event brought together government leaders, innovators, CSR partners, and community representatives to explore how community-centric technologies can drive inclusive rural development in Jharkhand.
Shilpi Neha Tirkey, Minister, Department of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Cooperative, Government of Jharkhand, graced the event as Chief Guest and launched the Sustain Plus–PRADAN partnership.
“Our farmers should not be limited farming alone, they must also they must be engaged in other agricultural and allied activities as well. To create better solutions, we must first understand the problems on the ground, and ensure that these solutions reach our villages through organisations like yours. It is encouraging to see organisations like Social Alpha and Sustain Plus reaching unreached and underserved regions, bridging the gap between communities and technology. We must work together to integrate these innovations into government schemes so that their benefits reach every farmer in Jharkhand,” Tirkey said.
Social Alpha’s full-stack architecture takes ideas from Lab to Communities. At the event, fourteen start-ups developing solutions in clean energy, agri-tech, and livelihood enhancement were showcased.
Living lab
Ganesh Neelam, Co-Founder, Social Alpha, said, “Jharkhand has become a living lab for testing and scaling high-impact technologies. Through partnerships with the communities, government stakeholders, and other civil society organisations we aim to bring our full stack approach of ‘lab to communities’ to create a positive impact for people and the planet. Creating large scale impact by empowering communities through technology adoption is what drives Social Alpha and Sustain Plus.”
Over the last five years, Social Alpha and Sustain Plus have integrated decentralised renewable energy (DRE) into rural livelihood systems across thirteen districts of Jharkhand. More than 4,300 clean energy systems have been deployed across 900 villages, directly benefiting over 16,000 agricultural households through the Production Hub approach. These interventions have enabled irrigation expansion across 7,600 acres, including 4,700 acres of newly cultivable land, primarily through solar lift irrigation and other DRE-powered livelihood solutions. Nearly two-thirds of these systems are individually owned, reflecting strong local adoption and sustainability.
The programme has also worked with the Jharkhand Milk Federation, through the strategic National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)–Sustain Plus partnership and others, have deployed 125 units and a slurry processing system. It’s further working on strengthening the dairy value chain, envisaged to impact more than 10,000 dairy farmers in the state.
Published on October 17, 2025
