BAIF’s work among the rural masses since the late 1960s, especially in dairying and women’s empowerment, has helped lift thousands out of poverty.
February 2, 2026 : Uruli Kanchan village, located some 30 km from Pune, first emerged on the map in 1946 when Mahatma Gandhi came to start a nature cure ashram here. He selected Manibhai Desai, still in his 20s, to manage it. Desai was later involved in a raft of rural initiatives, such as India’s first cooperative lift irrigation scheme in the 1960s, even a sugar cooperative, before launching Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF) in 1967.
In 1970, BAIF pioneered the doorstep delivery of artificial insemination (AI) services for dairy farmers. “This helped boost milk production from the two litres per animal then…. If cattle breeds had not improved, milk production in India would have stagnated,” says Bharat Kakade, the current president and managing trustee of the BAIF Development Research Foundation, while pointing to its role in India’s ‘White Revolution’. BAIF has created a cadre of technicians to help in AI procedures and animal healthcare, a model replicated by state governments and dairies, and has also developed a number of varieties of fodder. The organisation is also part of a consortium that has developed Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) chips for cattle and bualoes, the DNA markers helping to identify superior quality animals. A few BAIF centres are now even furnished with unique ‘milk ATMs’ that dispense quality homogenised milk.
In 1982, BAIF launched the ‘Wadi’ programme to help boost incomes of families in the tribal areas of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Wadi combines agriculture, horticulture and forestry practices, and includes rejuvenation of village ponds and development of nurseries. Surveys, Kakade says, suggest it has helped increase green cover and reduce poverty in Gujarat’s tribal districts. The programme is now being replicated in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli.
