BAIF Institute for Sustainable Livelihoods and Development (BISLD), is a not-for-profit Organisation registered under Section 8 (formerly Section 25) of the Companies Act, 1956 and formally established on April 16th, 2012. BISLD is closely associated with BAIF Development Research Foundation (BAIF), a reputed Non-Government Organisation founded in 1967 by Dr. Manibhai Desai, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. BAIF started its journey towards rural development in 1967 with the cattle development programme. It later took a multidisciplinary approach to create sustainable livelihoods that covers management of natural resources, tree based farming system through the wadi programme and women empowerment leading to improved lives.

BISLD is committed to promote sustainable livelihoods of the rural poor with an innovative and integrated approach to rural development and environmental conservation. The flexibility of the programmes enable BISLD to serve the most disadvantaged by addressing the specific needs of each family, village and local area. Community participation is the foundation of all the programmes.

The relevance and effectiveness of this work is vindicated by the fact that presently it has the overwhelming participation of farmers in over 98,000 villages in 13 states. The programme outreaches to over 5.15 million families.