AFPRO as a secular socio-technical development organization with Christian inspiration visualizes itself as working to enable the rural poor – including women and men belonging to small and marginal farmers and the landless, dalits, tribal people, fisher folk and unemployed youth – to move towards sustainable development, through and overall increase in their knowledge and skills in areas that directly affect their standard and quality of life. It visualizes itself as an organization which over the next decade will enable the marginalized rural groups to achieve enhanced socio-economic and personal status in society through appropriate technologies for the management of natural resources … (about 1/2 /vision).
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About 2/2 /Mission: … AFPRO dedicates itself to its mission of alleviating rural poverty by promoting and working through voluntary organizations; with a focus on enabling the marginalized and weaker sections of rural society to participate in the process of rural development by strengthening their resource base and capabilities through improved knowledge and skills, both in the technical and socio-economic development areas.
AFPRO was established in 1966 by Christian development organizations in response to the Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Maharashtra drought, as a non-governmental organization that would provide technical support for development and rehabilitation work.
In 1967, it was registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. Originally set up as an action committee which adopted the name “Action for Food Production”, it was eventually established as a “Joint Service Organization in India for coordination, support and technical guidance of food production projects of church related and voluntary agencies”.
Indian Social Institute (ISI), Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), Indo- Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), CARITAS-India, Catholic Relief Services, OXFAM, YMCA and YWCA were among the main organizations that set up AFPRO.
Initially the new organization’s concentrated on developing groundwater to augment food production. Subsequently, it shifted its focus from merely providing sources of groundwater to educating and capacitating people for its proper utilization, conjunctive use of water, and other water conservation practices. This included the adoption of the watershed development approach and an integrated approach to rural development.
AFPRO today provides socio-technical support for ensuring food security and developing livelihoods through proper natural resource management, continuing its unique focus on the development and management of water resources. It reaches out to poor and marginalized communities throughout India, particularly small and marginal farmers, landless, tribals, and others having urgent needs.