Dated 23rd December 2025
The Passing Gifts Pvt. Ltd., a unit of Heifer International, has been implementing the Bihar Sustainable Livelihood Project (BSLD) in 6 districts of North Bihar. The project aims at enhancing the income of around 70,000 households through goat rearing and adopting Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). An amount of Rs 10,000 is given to a woman, who is a member of a Self Help Group (SHG), as Goat Enterprise Development fund. Once she starts earning the amount is returned to the group, which passes that amount to another member of the group to start goat rearing. For training on goat rearing and CSA, Farmer Field Schools have been established. The project has skilled local youths, mostly women as entrepreneur to provide services related to goat rearing and CSA against fees to earn their livelihood. The project has also established Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) for enhancing market linkage and arrange for value-based literacy and holistic community development training.
SIGMA Foundation was commissioned as the third party to take up an independent outcome monitoring survey. A mixed method approach was followed for the study. Quantitative data was collected from 854 smallholder farmers, 250 progressive farmers, and 304 entrepreneurs. For collecting qualitative data, 36 Focus Group Discussions were held with 5 types of stakeholders and 90 Key Informant Interviews were conducted with 12 types of stakeholders. The performance of the project was assessed using a few global indicators of Heifer International linked to SDGs and some project specific indicators. Based on these indicators, the project was found to have performed very well. 24% households had closed the living income gap (USD2.15 per capita per day) and 53% were on the path of closing the gap. There has also been a remarkable improvement of the status of women who participated in the BSLD.
The findings of the project were disseminated in a workshop at Patna on the 19th December, 2025, which also discussed the Bihar Agri-food System Strategy. Dr. N. Vijay Lakshmi, IAS and Additional Chief Secretary Dairy, Fishery & Animal Sciences was the Chief Guest. Dr Siddharth, the former Development Commissioner of Bihar, other officials of Bihar Government, academicians from Bihar Animal Science University and representatives of several reputed NGOs working in Bihar participated in the workshop. Dr. M. N. Roy (President) and Mr. Sangram Mukherjee (Assistant Director MEL) of SIGMA Foundation participated in the workshop. The findings of the OMS of the BSLD project were presented by Dr Roy, which was much appreciated.