The University of Birmingham leads the project, and Dr Fraser Sugden is the PI. Dr Sugden designed and led the piloting of the farmer collectives in 2015 while leading the Nepal office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and has continued to lead the monitoring of the groups since joining the University of Birmingham. He has 15 years of in-depth experience working in the Eastern Gangetic Plains conducting research on land inequality, collective action and gender empowerment, including several action research initiatives with land-poor communities.
The Centre for Development of Human Initiatives (CDHI) leads the West Bengal collective pilots. CDHI has over 20 years of experience working with marginalised communities in Northern part of West Bengal in the fields of gender empowerment, entrepreneurship and skill development. Dhananjay Ray who will lead the West Bengal team has a mechanical engineering background with MBA. He has 22 years experience in micro and small enterprise development through community based institutions. He has been immersed in development activities in the region for decades, and has a rich knowledge of the local social and economic dynamics. Prasun Deb Kanugoe, was also instrumental in supporting the piloting of the farmer collectives, is supporting the interventions on the ground.
Sakhi Bihar was established in the 1990s and has extensive experience of supporting women’s groups in Madhubani district, and have previously pioneered women led fisheries collectives. The team is led by Suman Singh who has been working with the women farmers and specially with the fisherwomen community since 1990s and has rich experience as well as acceptance in the community. She will be supported by Ritesh Kumar and Neetu Singh, who have been working with the farming community of the area since 2006, and are managing the current farmer collectives. Both have considerable technical knowledge of Makhana processing. Sakhi are based in their field centre which is in the same village where the collectives and the enterprise will be based