Beyond Participation to Leadership: How Ambuja Foundation is Advancing Women Centric Rural Transformation

Across rural India, women are increasingly emerging not merely as participants in development programmes, but as decision makers, entrepreneurs, climate leaders, and custodians of community resilience. As the country grapples with the interconnected challenges of climate stress, water insecurity, and livelihood instability, sustainable rural transformation is becoming deeply tied to the empowerment and leadership of women at the grassroots. From regenerative agriculture and water conservation to financial inclusion and collective enterprise building, women are playing a defining role in shaping more resilient and self reliant rural ecosystems.

In this conversation, Mr. Chandrakant Kumbhani, COO, Community Development at Ambuja Foundation, discusses how the Foundation is advancing women centric rural transformation through integrated and community driven interventions. He highlights how women across villages are moving beyond traditional roles to lead self help groups, manage water resources, adopt regenerative farming practices, operate rural enterprises, and strengthen local institutions. Drawing from the Foundation’s extensive grassroots experience, he reflects on the importance of building ecosystems that combine agriculture, livelihoods, water management, skill development, and behavioural change to create lasting resilience for rural communities across India.

Scroll down to read the full interview:

Q. In today’s rural development landscape, how do you see CSR evolving from traditional philanthropy to becoming a catalyst for long term community resilience and self-reliance?

A. CSR is steadily shifting from traditional philanthropy to long-term, strategic investment across multiple dimensions—livelihoods, education, health, and infrastructure. There is a clear move from ‘giving’ to co-creating solutions, where partnerships play a central role in value creation.

In my experience, CSR is increasingly effective when communities are not passive recipients but active co-designers and custodians of development outcomes. Additionally, continuous, long-term investment is what drives meaningful impact.

Today, CSR is evolving from asking, “What can we give?” to “What capabilities, systems, and institutions can we help strengthen so communities thrive on their own?” When done well, CSR becomes seed capital for rural self-reliance—unlocking local leadership, resilient livelihoods, and community confidence that endures long after corporate funding ends.

Q. Organisations often work across multiple thematic areas such as water, agriculture, and livelihoods. How does Ambuja Foundation ensure that its interventions remain integrated rather than fragmented?

A.  Our program interventions: water, agriculture, skill, women, health and education are intricately interwoven—each one reinforcing and depending on the others. To truly empower rural populations and promote sustainable development, we must embrace integrated solutions that acknowledge and respond to such intersections.

The introduction of climate-resilient farming systems combined with water conservation measures—such as rainwater harvesting, drip irrigation, and watershed development. These not only improve agricultural productivity but also ensure that water sources are recharged and made sustainable over time.

Similarly, combining water and sanitation programs with nutrition education and kitchen gardening can significantlyimprove health outcomes. School-based WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) interventions that promote behaviour change, handwashing and availability of toilets etc helps in reduce absenteeism and improve learning outcomes—especially for adolescent girls.

Crucially, involving communities in decision-making and management—especially women—ensures that solutions are grounded in local realities and more likely to be sustained over time.

Q. Rural India faces layered vulnerabilities, from climate stress to income instability. How does your approach redefine CSR as a tool for building systemic resilience rather than addressing isolated challenges?

A. The approach moves beyond grant-making or philanthropic support toward designing strategic, long-term interventions that address the root causes of vulnerability rather than just the symptoms. Instead of tackling challenges in isolation, it focuses on building ecosystems—where water security, agriculture, livelihoods, health, and skills are interconnected and mutually reinforcing.

A key part of this is strengthening community governance and local institutions, so that communities are not dependent on external support but are able to plan, manage, and sustain their own development journeys. Alongside this, enabling access to appropriate technologies, promoting behaviour change, and building local capacities ensures that solutions are both practical and scalable.

Collaboration is central to this approach. By working closely with governments, NGOs, and communities, efforts are aligned with existing systems and schemes, creating convergence rather than duplication. This helps move from fragmented interventions to coordinated action at scale.

Importantly, this ecosystem-based approach recognises that rural vulnerabilities—climate stress, income instability, resource degradation, and social inequities—are deeply interconnected. By addressing them simultaneously, it builds resilience not just at an individual or farm level, but across households and entire communities, ensuring long-term sustainability and self-reliance.

Q. The idea of resilient agriculture is gaining traction. From your perspective, what distinguishes resilience building from conventional agricultural support programmes?

A. Ambuja Foundation works with over 2.75 lakh farmers across 13 states, in terrains that range from deserts and coasts to mountains, arid plateaus, and the Gangetic plains. In recent years, building resilience in agriculture and water has been central to our approach.

What distinguishes resilience-building from conventional agricultural support is its focus on long-term adaptability rather than short-term productivity gains. Conventional programmes tend to emphasise input support—seeds, fertilisers, subsidies, or market linkages—aimed at improving yields in a single season. While these remain important, they do not fully equip farmers to deal with increasing climate variability and uncertainty.

In contrast, resilience-building takes a systems approach—strengthening soil health, promoting crop diversification, integrating allied livelihoods, and building farmers’ knowledge and decision-making capacity so they can respond to changing conditions over time.

At the same time, resilience must go hand-in-hand with improved productivity and profitability. We work with farmers to enhance yields and incomes over the long term by harnessing natural and regenerative farming practices that reduce input dependency, improve soil fertility, and restore ecological balance. These practices not only lower costs and stabilise production but also address broader climate sustainability challenges—making farming systems more efficient, viable, and future-ready.

Equally important is building collective strength and market resilience. By mobilising farmers into Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), we enable them to learn, experiment, and tackle challenges together. These platforms open up opportunities for aggregation, value addition, and engagement in activities such as processing, branding, and packaging. Strengthening market linkages helps farmers reduce dependence on intermediaries, improve price realisation, and optimise incomes.

Ultimately, resilience-building goes beyond supporting a single crop cycle—it is about enabling farmers, their farming systems, and their households to remain viable, productive, and adaptable in the face of ongoing climate and market uncertainties.

Q. You have highlighted the shift from input heavy to climate smart farming. What behavioural or structural barriers do farmers face when transitioning to regenerative agricultural practices, and how does the Foundation address them?

A. Farmers are often highly risk-averse, hesitant to adopt new practices due to the fear of crop or financial loss. This creates a significant barrier, as any crop failure directly impacts their income. There is also limited awareness of regenerative methods, along with gaps in knowledge about available schemes and benefits. In many cases, deeply rooted cultural norms and traditional practices make regenerative approaches seem unconventional or impractical.

As climate change intensifies, its impact on rural life—particularly agriculture—is becoming more urgent. To help farmers adapt and build resilience, Ambuja Foundation has implemented a range of solutions that enable them to navigate these challenges. The answers already exist—we simply need to make the right information and techniques accessible so farmers can adopt them with confidence. This is why we mobilise farmers into collectives such as Farmer Producer Organisations, creating spaces for shared learning, experience-sharing, and the collective confidence needed to transition toward regenerative practices.

Q. Water management has historically been central to rural sustainability. How do your water focused  initiatives intersect with agricultural productivity and long term livelihood security?

A. Ambuja Foundation was set up in 1993 with water resource management as its flagship initiative. Over the years, drawing on extensive experience in rural water management, it has expanded its model by working closely with communities and individuals to address the water crisis—delivering significant results. Today, the Foundation focuses on improving water-use efficiency in agriculture by educating farmers and promoting technologies such as micro-irrigation to enhance productivity. Key interventions include micro-irrigation systems, efficient use of canal water, farm ponds, SRI/DSR techniques, and watershed development.

At the same time, extensive efforts are underway to drive behaviour change within rural communities around water conservation. Given the critical water shortages in many regions, responsible water use has become essential. Farmers, women, and children are all engaged in understanding the role they can play in conserving water. Villages are increasingly adopting a collective approach to water management, with Water Management Committees and User Groups established to oversee community water bodies, monitor usage, and ensure water quality.

Participatory water management programmes are enabling villages to become self-reliant and accountable for their own water resources, making the approach inherently sustainable. This focus on community ownership is the cornerstone of Ambuja Foundation’s work in water.

Importantly, this progress has been driven through strong partnerships. By collaborating with corporates, government, communities, and civil society organisations, Ambuja Foundation has been able to scale its efforts and support the development of more water-resilient communities across rural India.

Q. The concept of diversified income streams for farming households is critical. Could you elaborate on how Ambuja Foundation enables farmers to move beyond mono income dependence while remaining rooted in agriculture?

A. Moving away from monocropping and dependence solely on agriculture is essential for increasing earnings as well as income security, especially as the climate turns harsher. Farmers, both men and women, are being encouraged to rotate crops and engage in allied activities such as poultry and fisheries. Some of them are already leading the way. Himanshu Mandal from Farraka, West Bengal, ventured into aquaculture with the support of Ambuja Foundation. He aimed to raise fish scientifically and achieve the state average of 10 quintals but went on to produce 24 quintals from his 3 bigha pond. He was recognised by the Government Agriculture Department and today supports and educates other farmers.

Youth from farming families are also encouraged to build skills through our Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institutes, which provide market-linked training in trades such as retail, electrical, hospitality, digital services, automobile repair, and other high-demand sectors. These vocational courses enable young people to secure stable jobs or start local enterprises, giving households a dependable income buffer against agricultural shocks.

At the same time, women are mobilised into individual and group-based micro-enterprises—from producing and selling products for local markets to tailoring, craft-based businesses, and small retail ventures. Self-help groups strengthen financial literacy, promote savings, and improve access to credit, helping women expand these enterprises.

Q. From an implementation standpoint, what role do local communities, especially women, play in co creating and sustaining these agricultural and livelihood interventions?

A. At Ambuja Foundation, we believe that people and communities are central to rural development. When we work on a watershed, it typically involves the treatment of an area of around 1,000 hectares from ridge to valley, with the aim of conserving rainwater through structures that prevent runoff, along with appropriate agronomic practices. A watershed is community-based and community-paced, and therefore must be community-managed—this is of primary importance. This is their area; they bring their traditional knowledge, their expectations, and ultimately, they will manage these interventions going forward.

We therefore mobilise communities into groups such as Water User Groups, FPOs, SHGs, and federations, so they can collectively sustain the interventions we introduce. We aim to build an ecosystem around each family or individual—engaging them and supporting them through an integrated set of programmes spanning health, agriculture, skills, women’s empowerment, and education. Efforts must be made through all channels within the community to effectively reach and support them.

Women farmers typically work as labourers or cultivators—sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, and more—roles that often align with care and nurturing responsibilities. Traditionally, as long as farm work involves tedious manual labour, women undertake these tasks, but when mechanisation is introduced, men tend to take over. Ambuja Foundation’s agricultural programmes have made a focused effort to bring women farmers to the forefront. This has had a ripple effect—moving from enabling participation in livelihood programmes to building confidence to explore new opportunities, inspiring others, and gaining recognition as experts in areas traditionally seen as male domains.

The Maa Santoshi Swayam Sahayata Mahila (MSSSM) Self-Help Group in Hingna, Nagpur ventured into the farm machinery business in 2023–24. The shredding machine used to process leftover crop stalks and improve soil fertility has proven to be a viable enterprise. In the first three months, the group earned a profit of Rs. 24,000 by servicing 80 acres of cotton fields owned by 30 farmers. In addition, they rented out the machines at affordable rates, generating a profit margin of 17% on each rental.

Women in our regions are now actively involved in producing bio-inputs, adopting technology, managing finances, and training other farmers. They have clearly accelerated the adoption of more sustainable practices and contributed to a shift in how male farmers perceive their roles and expertise in agriculture.

Q. Could you share any measurable outcomes or data points that reflect the impact of your sustainable agriculture and water management initiatives, particularly in terms of income enhancement, water conservation, or climate resilience?

Q. In 2022–23 and 2023–24, Ambuja Foundation implemented a series of water resource management initiatives in Baloda Bazaar, Chhattisgarh, aimed at improving water security, enhancing livelihoods, and strengthening community well-being. A mixed-method impact assessment and SROI study showed an increase in the adoption of sprinkler irrigation from 6% to 22%, an increase in average irrigated land from 2.7 acres to 3.34 acres, and a shift from single to double and mixed cropping—leading to higher yields and improved farm incomes.

Ambuja Foundation also implemented a range of livelihood promotion initiatives in Marwar Mundwa, Rajasthan, tailored to the region’s specific challenges. These interventions focused on water resource management, agriculture, and goat-based livelihoods. The assessment revealed a 70% reduction in water usage and irrigation costs, along with improved yields through micro-irrigation. Additionally, 90% of farmers increased cropping intensity, there was a 7% increase in land under cultivation, and a 25% increase in crop yields due to soil conservation practices. Goat-based livelihoods also saw improved profitability, with a 59% reduction in rearing costs, a 33% reduction in goat mortality, and a corresponding 19% increase in herd sizes.

Overall, the study highlighted a significant improvement in livelihood security, income, and resilience for rural households in the region.

Q. Looking ahead, how do you envision scaling such models of regenerative agriculture through CSR? Do you see greater collaboration with corporates, government bodies, or grassroots institutions to amplify impact across rural India?

A. Scaling regenerative agriculture will require much deeper collaboration across stakeholders, and this is where CSR can play a truly catalytic role. Beyond funding, it can help integrate regenerative practices into corporate supply chains while supporting farmer training, demonstration plots, and peer learning networks that address behavioural barriers on the ground.

At the same time, CSR can contribute to building stronger markets for regenerative produce—through certification, branding, and consumer awareness—so that farmers are not just producing differently, but also earning better from those practices. When aligned with government schemes, these efforts can be further amplified through co-investment in infrastructure, research, and last-mile delivery.

At Ambuja Foundation, we strongly believe in the power of partnerships. For decades, we have worked with like-minded organisations, international agencies, NGOs, and governments to drive impact at scale. Because ultimately, meaningful and sustained change cannot come from isolated efforts—it requires coordinated action, shared intent, and the coming together of diverse capabilities to achieve a common goal.