OUR ORIGIN

TASAR DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION: We are India’s leading organization promoting Tasar silk development with poorest communities including forest dwellers. About a quarter of India’s tasar silk production is contributed by our efforts. We have unique expertise in research and implementation of entire Tasar Silk Value Chain including pre-project feasibility, proposal development, and implementation of development projects. We have built the largest private tasar egg production ecosystem.

GENESIS: Tasar Development Foundation, India’s leading rural development organization has promoted Tasar Development Foundation, a public purpose sectoral organization with focus on expanding the business scope of Tasar sericulture to bring economic development to poor communities.

Our Objectives

Tasar sericulture involves a series of interdependent activities within a complex value chain. TDF’s intent is to develop each node of the value chain to become viable generating large scale livelihood of poor communities. The objectives of TDF are:

  1. Expand livelihood intensity particularly for primary producers by innovation, adaptation and creating value chain synergies
  2. Build and retain competent human resources within the sector instilling new technologies, raise standards and open new frontiers of growth
  3. Strengthen critical factors of production, such as production and supply of high quality seeds
  4. Build and strengthen institutions of producers to organize production systems, facilitate attainment of scale of economy in production clusters, attract capital and services of markets in the remote rural areas
  5. Broad base and align stakeholders to foster growth in the sector

OUR TEAM

TDF’s operational area in 2018 is spread across 5 states, 10 districts and 837 revenue villages. Our field team of 25 trained professionals are working in 837 revenue villages with 17,130 families.

OUR Board

The Board of Directors of TDF provides oversight and counsel to TDF management.

Satyabarata Acharyya

Satyabrata Acharyya is in PRADAN since 1991. He is M. Sc (Ag) from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vidyalaya (BCKV) University, West Bengal. He has been part of the senior management team of PRADAN. He anchored PRADAN’s tasar initiative more than two decades and take it forward from dead sector to the next level of development.

His area of expertise is in the development of entrepreneurship in rural area and value chain development with backward and forward linkages. He is also expert in the team building, natural resource management and sustainable agriculture development.

He has experience of anchoring the various livelihood projects in PRADAN. He is also board of Director in Eco Tasar Pvt. Ltd. At present based at New Delhi.

Anish Kumar

Mr. Anish Kumar is part of the lead team at Transform Rural India. He has been on the leadership team at India’s leading non-profit PRADAN, working on rural transformation.

His areas of expertise include creating business organizations run by poor communities and facilitating participation of small-holder farmers in modern value chains. Anish developed and piloted the small-holder poultry prototype; was the CEO of the first poultry co-operative; and then scaled up the model across new geographies. He is a Board member of the National Smallholder Poultry Development Trust, an advisory and policy advocacy body.

Anish has been a member of the Planning Commission Working Group on disadvantaged farmers, and has been involved in designing of policies on producer collectives. Anish has a post-graduate degree in Forest Management from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.

Khitish Kumar Pandya

Khitish Kumar Pandya is an experienced entrepreneur bringing his prior corporate background to his current business: Eco Tasar, an India based member of the Nest Artisan Guild. Eco Tasar has helped provide silk cocoon farmers with a stable source of income. Eco Tasar provides employment to over 2600 families in rural India and encompasses activities from sourcing to marketing of handmade Tasar products.

Khitish has done his B. Com ( Hons) from Ravenshaw College, Utkal University, Orissa and thereafter MBA from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar with specialization in Marketing and Finance. He has been associated with marketing field for over 20 years.