Project Detail

Sustainable Land Management and Promotion of Farm and Non- Farm Livelihood Among A tribal Community in the Semi-Arid Tropics of India

During 2002-04, Samrakshan had successfully implemented a SGP project for community mobilization, watershed planning and medicinal plant cultivation in the same set of villages. The proposed project has its origin in the earlier project and aims to scale up the interventions of the first project. The project is a part of a larger five-year livelihood plan for the Pataar-Palpur watershed area. Community based institutions of women and men are envisaged as the agency for implementation of the livelihood strategy under the project. Watersheds have been selected as the geographical unit of intervention, since agriculture is the mainstay of the population and the poor quality of land received after displacement from the Kuno wildlife sanctuary. Sustainable land management will be introduced and profitability of agriculture increased through crop protection, watershed treatment of agricultural and community land and provision of irrigation. The entire work will be done through community mobilization and participation. Samrakshan has already mobilized four (4) Village Development Committees (VDC) and 10 women SHGs in the area under the earlier project. Thirty (30) new women SHGs will be formed in the area in the six (6) villages in the Patar and Palpur watersheds, their capacities will be built to undertake sustainable land management initiatives and set up non-farm micro enterprises to enhance their incomes. Community based institutions are planned as the basic agency for implementation of all project activities thus making for a high degree of participation. Moreover the project envisages an exit strategy in the year five (5) and to hand over all the activities and initiatives undertaken during the project to these institutions.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Samrakshan Trust

Country:

India

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

Phase 3

Grant Amount:

US$ 24,630.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 284,510.89

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 40,602.47

Project Number:

SGP/GEF/IND/OP3/1/06/MP06

Start Date:

3/2006

End Date:

2/2008

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

? Co-financing of over Rs.2,150,000 was generated for the various intervetions initiated with GEF support

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

? Small water harvesting structures were constructed in 4 villages as entry point activities ? ¬Village and sub-village level community institutions were mobilized in 3 villages of the Pataar watershed ? A participatory land development plan was developed for the Pataar watershed by the local community with the help of Samrakshan?s soil and water conservation team ? ¬A medicinal plants nursery was set up to enable easy availability of planting material ? ¬A demonstration plot was developed to showcase production of 5 medicinal plants and 3 species of aromatic herbs for local farmers ? ¬On the basis of progress under the GEF project, support was garnered for the ?Arogya? initiative for revitalization of indigenous health traditions

Notable Community Participation

Community based institutions are planned as the basic agency for implementing all project activities, thus making for a high degree of participation. Moreover, the project envisages that in Year 5, Samrakshan will implement an exit strategy and hand over all activities and initiatives undertaken during the project period to these institutions.

Gender Focus

Community-based institutions of women and men are envisaged as the agency for implementing this livelihood strategy.

Replication of project activities

If implemented successfully, it will be possible to use the synergies created by the project to kickstart community-based sustainable land management processes in other villages in the Vijaypur tehsil, as well as in the entire district. The strategy and implementation methodology of the project has built-in drivers for linking the community vertically with other stakeholders like local banks and line departments, and horizontally with other community-based organizations. Thus, the project enjoys a high degree of replicabilty.

Policy Impact

Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP) has sought Samrakshan's help in its NRM implemented through NREGA. By virtue of an MoU signed with MPRLP for a period of four years, Samrakshan will provide all sorts of technical and logistical support to MPRLP in implementing NREGA in Palpur cluster. This collaboration can be looked at as a long term association with the government.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The project is designed to generate additional income from farm and off-farm activities by the end of the project period. SHG members will be facilitated to set up the necessary paraphernalia to start the Income Generation Activities (IGA). Members will be helped to access the requisite financial assistance, monitoring the IGAs, developing linkages between SHGs and local banks, inviting banks representatives to attend SHG meetings and other activities, getting the banks to evaluate and grade the SHGs, developing linkages between the SHGs and the line departments and inviting government officials to SHG meetings and other activities. SHG members will be helped to access government schemes.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The project will be implemented with participation of the members of sahayri tribes.

Capacity - Building Component

The strong emphasis placed on training and capacity-building at all stages of the project would also help to ensure that activities initiated during the project duration are taken forward even after the project ends. Training of animators will be done in book writing, conducting SHG meetings, SHG mobilization, and initial meetings with women in the target villages. Capacity of women SHG members will be built through opening bank accounts, literacy campaign, holding literacy classes, organizing literacy tests, exposure visit of 2 members from each group to mature and successful SHGs, institutional training, monitoring and evaluation, maintenance of meeting records and maintenance of half yearly evaluation formats. Income generation will be done for the SHGs vermin-composting, poultry rearing, bee keeping, vegetable cultivation, manufacturing and packaging simple household products.

Project sustainability

Year 5 of the project will focus especially on putting in place an exit strategy, with strong emphasis on building capacity of the community based institutions to take forward the initiatives taken during the project period. Community based institutions are planned as the basic agency for implementing all project activities, thus making for a high degree of participation. Moreover, the project envisages that in Year 5, Samrakshan will implement an exit strategy and hand over all activities and initiatives undertaken during the project period to these institutions.

Project Results

Following are the output of the project over 5 years:
Component I: Sustainable Land Management in the Patar watershed Protection of Jakhoda's crop- A consensus with the villagers over the issues of dimensions and cost of the kotra will be evolved so that it is sufficient to safeguard the agriculture fields of jakhoda A team of volunteers capable of monitoring progress of watershed and treatment methods in the project will start working in the villages. Soil and water conservation will be achieved by land treatment. Community contribution with the SHGs will be retained due to disbursement of wages. Institutional arrangements to monitor progress and financial disbursal will be in place.
Component II: Community mobilization and non-farm livelihood in Patar and Palpur Watersheds- A team of 6 animators trained in running SHGs will be at work.,who will train the animators in (1) writing minutes, (2) writing accounts, and (3) facilitating SHG meetings. SHGs in the six villages viz Palpur, Paira, Jakhoda, Agraa, and Meghpura will be mobilized. Each SHG will be operating a bank account by its members SHG members will be able to read and write in Hindi SHG members will be aware of the attributes and functioning of successful SHGs and trained in concepts and best practices for running a successful SHG Regular and semiannual monitoring of progress of the SHGs will be done. Income (earning capacity) of the members will be enhanced through sale of vermin-composting, poultry products, honey/ bee wax, vegetables, soaps and spices. The income level of the SHG members will be raised. Monitoring of the progress of the IGAs and guidance to the members in case of problems will be done regularly. SHGs will be able to explore opportunities with the help of adequate and timely financial from the banks SHG members will be able to access government schemes and other assistances.

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Indicators

Empowerment

Number of CBOs / NGOs participated / involved in SGP project 40

Empowerment

Number of women participated / involved in SGP project 500

Empowerment

Number of indigenous people participated/involved in SGP project 650

Biophysical

Hectares of degraded land rest 576

Livehood

Increase in household income by increased income or reduced costs due to SGP project 23

Livehood

Number of households who have benefited* from SGP project 650

Livehood

Number of individuals (gender diaggregated) who have benefited* from SGP project 650

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