M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF)

Organisation name 

M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF)

Country 

India

Contact details 

Website http://www.mssrf.org/
Email pckesavan@mssrf.res.in

Testimonial

"MSSRF is delighted they have been short listed by the Alcan Prize team as one of the ten sustainability charities committed to the mainstreaming of sustainability parameters in all research, education, development and outreach programmes, in order to pave the way for a better common present and future for humankind."

Financial resources

US$3.8M in (2005-06)

Geographical focus

India/Asia

Issue focus

Technology, environment, poverty alleviation, health

Key achievements

• Restored 1500 hectares of degraded mangrove ecosystem ensuring their long term security through alternate livelihoods to the mangrove-dependent communities
• Made innovative use of modern ICT (information and communication technology based on satellite and computers) to provide time-and locale-specific, demand-driven information to rural communities for sustainable development through poverty reduction, abolition of social exclusion, and empowerment of women
• Founded gene-seed-grain-fodder-water banks in biodiversity-rich 'hunger hotspots' to ensure agrobiodiversity conservation and elimination of hunger

Mission

The mission of MSSRF is to harness science and technology for sustainable management of natural resources, and creation of livelihoods. Its strategy involves blending frontier science and technology with ecological prudence in order to impart pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to technology development and dissemination in the rural areas. The basis of MSSRF's work is 'ecotechnologies' which incorporate the following five qualities:

• Environmentally friendly
• Economically viable
• Equitable (gender and social)
• Employing renewable, solar or biomass energy
• Employment-led

These ecotechnologies then become 'ecoenterprises' which are adopted by self-help groups. MSSRF facilitates training (through learning by doing), capacity building, microcredit through rural banking and market linkages for the products of these rural ecoenterprises.

Background

MSSRF was registered in 1988 as a non-profit Trust by Professor M S Swaminathan. Its mission is to harness science and technology for the sustainable management of natural resources to fight the famine of livelihoods and food insecurity in rural India.

The following programmes help achieve its goals:

• Coastal Systems Research for ecofriendly livelihoods and mitigating the adverse impact of sea level rise
• Biodiversity, for supporting marginal farming communities to adopt strategies for eco-agriculture
• Biotechnology, for genetic shielding of coastal crops against abiotic stress
• Ecotechnology, for linking livelihood security with ecological security
• Food security, for developing models for operationalising the Millennium Development Goal Number 1 (Eradication of Poverty and Hunger)
• Information, Education and Communication, for facilitating learning in different ways, such as online Village Knowledge Centres and internet-cell phone synergy for sustainable development
• Special projects, for integrating sustainable development with disaster preparedness

Partnerships

Partnership in all activities of the MSSRF begins with local rural and tribal communities and elected representatives of grassroot institutions (Panchayats), local government officials of the departments of rural development, forest, fisheries, agriculture as also with other non-governmental organisations. MSSRF also links the enterprises of the community groups it works with sellers, distributors and providers of banking and credit. To achieve the transformation of all the 600,000 plus villages of India into Village Knowledge Centres, MSSRF partners with several hundred national and international academic, and corporate agencies.

Impact achieved

MSSRF categorises its achievements into two main areas:

1. Developing appropriate national policies through the Parliament of India to strengthen conservation e.g. MSSRF played a key role in the development of the 'Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Right Act - 2001' (PPVFR-2001), which creates an economic stake in the conservation traditions of rural and tribal farming families
2. Harnessing appropriate science and technology blended with traditional knowledge and ecological prudence to link rural livelihoods sustainably with ecological security

Some of the impacts in the second category include:

• Investing US$45,000 in biovillages to generate annual employment of 20,000 labour days in rural areas and a profit of US$67,500
• Explaining the hydrological and anthropogenic causes of degradation of mangrove ecosystems, and proving how the use of appropriate technologies can restore them
• Establishing gene-seed-grains-fodder-water banks in the hunger spot region of Koraput (Orissa) to save agrobiodiversity and prevent starvation deaths
• Using Information and Communications Technology- based Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) for capacity building of rural poor for sustainable development
• Developing salt-tolerant transgenic rice using the r-DNA technology, which helps build the sustainable cultivation of the staple crop in coastal regions despite sea level rises due to global warming