Badin district predominately has non-perennial irruption system i.e., water is available in canals for only 4 months a year. Due to water shortage many canals, branch canals, minor canals and watercourses at tail ends of them have no water available, except in the beginning or at end of season, when others in the head and middle reaches of canal do not need water. The tail enders on all main canals Phuleli and Pinyari and their branch canals, minor canals and distributors in Badin district do not get water except 2-4 times out of at least 17 weekly irrigation applications, planned during 120 days of canal flows. The tail enders on the Lined Channel and Gaja branch, the two perennial canals in Kotri Barrage on left bank, meet same fate of shortage of water.

The farmers on these tail ends of canals do not cultivate their lands regularly and wait for their luck and when water becomes available, they raise some fodder crops and in lucky years, short season millets. This has caused utmost poverty in the area, unemployment and in male dominated society women are the most sufferers.

The responsibility for rural poverty and low status of women lies on improper and injudicious distribution of water and also uncontrollable water theft on the upstream site. The government has been trying to control water theft by upstream side users, since the past 150 years in Sindh, but since water allocation is less than crop water requirement and land is not precisely levelled majority of farmers steal water and commit this crime. However the customary law allows them this latitude and theft and few are punished. The tail enders therefore keep suffering. Due to shortage of water, salinity in their land had increased and cultivation has become difficult.

The solution to the problem is to introduce crops, which can stand small amount of salinity, require less water and thrive under arid conditions and soils with small amount of salinity.
Such crops have been identified by NGO, M.H. Panhwar Trust and have already been successfully raised for the first time in Pakistan on M.H. Panhwar Farm since 1980s. These are:
n Jojoba.
Needs two irrigation in addition to normal rainfall of about 10? in Southern Badin district.
n Jatropha.
Needs rainfall plus one or two irrigation.
n Buffalo gourd.
Needs total one irrigation dose + annual rain.

Besides this there are a number of economic tree and fruit crops which can grow in arid condition and slightly saline soils of area with 1-2 or more doses of irrigation. The crops are:
n 160 Zizyphus species of which NGO, M.H. Panhwar Trust has successfully raised Z. jujuba, Z. mauritiana, Z. nummularia and, Z. rotundifolia and number of varieties of each.
n Salvadora persica and Salvadora oleoides. These produce edible fruit. Their seeds contain oil suitable for soaps. These are common tress of South and provide fodder and wood for fuel.
n Prosopis species: These can easily establish on one or two annual irrigation plus rain water and can be used for fruit, fuel, fodder and timber. They show little or no constraints for soil and water and could be established mainly as forest trees with density of about 150 trees per acre. They will compete with many forest trees, due to superior timber and also supplementary fruit and oil from their seeds. Local variety is P. cineraria. It can be supplemented by other varieties of this species.
n Tamarind.
It can grow on saline soils and even saline water and is also drought tolerant.
n Pomegranate.
It can stand both saline soil and water.
- - Some trees like acacia mauritana (Babul), Neem and Jammon can
- stand limited salts and limited drought. They also can stand saline water upto 5,000 ppm. (parts per million). These be tried atleast as wind breaks.
- A nursery of these crops too shall be established.

There are a number of field corps, but if aim is to reduce poverty in water deficit areas and also create employment for women. Tree crops will be the answer as they return more money per acre and can be established within a year and handed over to owners.

It is planned to plant these crops on atleast 20 acres of some 20 growers. They will act as demonstration farms for other farmers of the area and also for other districts.

- Small demonstration plots too will be established in public places like: District Assembly area, DCO office compound, Islamic College Badin, Police Lines, Circuit house, Civil Hospital etc. Lot of people visit these areas, daily and success at these sites will make people interested in this project and then make start on their own.

1. PROFILE OF IMPLEMENTING ORGANISATION
n The implementing organisation shall be an NGO (M.H. Panhwar Trust) address 157-C, Unit 2, Latifabad, Hyderabad (Sindh), Pakistan.
n Previous relevant experience NGO is 25 years experiments and commercial execution of plants on M.H. Panhwar farm now owned by Trust. The farm, has been working on introduction of new fruits, nuts and industrial crops since 1980 and among the crops introduced are; Jojoba, buffalo gourd, jatropha, zizyphus species, tamarind and many other tree crops as wind breaks or for reclamation of inferior lands. Under this plan it is proposed to introduce not only these crops, which require very little water to establish and sustain flowers and fruits but other crops too which have low water requirement and on which we have the relevant experience.
n The track record of NGO is that since year 2000 it has been helping community all over Sindh in introducing new crops specially new varieties of fruits and also has produced and given training programmes on mango, date, guava, cotton, sugarcane, lychee, longan, and Jojoba, coastal area, climatic changes in past 20,000 years, development of ground water and mechanisation of cotton, sugarcane and vegetables.

Organisation. History, governance, funding etc. of NGO.
The organisation was established by M.H. Panhwar in 2000, with plans to transfer his whole property of 103 acre orchard, two fully furnished houses and library of 60,000 books to the Trust. There was difficulty that under the Pakistan Law, the property is inherited by children and to over come this difficulty court had to be moved and decision was to be obtained and all legal heirs had to give consent to transfer properly to the M.H. Panhwar Trust. After unanimous agreement at the court, four sons of M.H. Panhwar residing in USA, his wife and himself presented the registration of Trust to the Embassy of Pakistan Washington DC in May 2003 as 4 sons could not come to Pakistan simultaneously and after official verification, became legal document. However the Trust in present form is active since year 2000. The trust is governed by 10 persons, M.H. Panhwar his wife and four sons and in addition 4 members, who are subject specialists.

Funding of Trust
Trust is funded by income from M.H. Panhwar farm and also contributions from his sons.

No. of staff
The Trust has about 50 permanent employees and 30 causal staff. Ten women are permanently employed on mulching operation on the farm being supervised by women. For community development other than Mrs. Farzana Panhwar only men are used. The staff is well trained in all aspects of agriculture and horticulture. For example M.H. Panhwar is qualified mechanical, electrical and agricultural engineer and Mrs. Panhwar is a biochemist specialising in bio-technologies and genetics Both have written 45 manuals on fruit crops and post-harvest technology of horticultural crops. M.H. Panhwar has published more than 100 papers on agriculture and Mrs. Farzana Panhwar more than 200 papers. All articles are on Internet. The other members are engineers, doctors, agriculturists, and specialists on Sindh. The other employs who manage affairs are graduates and post-graduates. Total budget is about Rs.2.5 millions annually and organisation works on no profit, no less basis.

2. JUSTIFICATION FOR SUPPORT-LINKAGES WITH GEF
THEMES AND OPERATIONAL PROGRAMMES
n Principle reasons for project activity is to make use of costly land, abandoned due to shortages and uncertainty of supply of water and thereby employ men and women in economic activity and financial returns.
n Problems have been defined in the Project Proposal and methods to solve these elaborated.
n The proposed activity is part of Global Environment Facility that it will changes environments on 20 different farms, which also will be kind of demonstration farms. The Small Grants Programme will lay model to be copied by all other farmers nearby or from other districts of Sindh.
n Global and local significance of the project is use of abandoned, slightly saline lands, with very small quality of water available for limited period of time and making it productive.
n The funds of SGP will be utilised to achieve above objectives for raising corps on abandoned lands.

3. CONTEXT BASE LINE
n Map of district to Badin is attached.
n The problem is known locally by surveys of various NGOs, which have reflected extra poverty in the area, but we verified this by our own surveys of ground water its occurrence and quality while advising Nazim of district for provision of fresh drinking water in the area in 2006.
n The existing conditions of area are poverty, unemployment abandonment of land and its surface accumulating salts moral decay, lack of education of health facilities.

4. PROJECT OBJECTIVES PROPOSED ACTIVITY
n The nature of Project is to introduce crops and the nature of the proposed activity is make use of abandoned land in irrigation deficit area and slightly saline land, which can be reclaimable by use of crops that can stand slightly salinity in the land and drought. It will be supported by only 1-2 irrigation in addition to rainfall which is nearly about 250 millimetres in the area.
n Immediate objective will be the utilisation of land, raising selected but highly economic crops, which can withstand above environments and give economic returns.
n The expected project delivery will be to reduce poverty by creating employment of men and women. The former will under take heavy work and the later light work of weeding and mulching or harvest etc.
n The proposed activity would be planting of salt and drought resistant crops, which will be categorise as oil, fodder, fuel, fruit and timber crops. The activity would be seed bed preparation, levelling of land, where necessary, making ridges and furrows, applying irrigation water when available, maintenance of drainage channels. Planting of crop, first irrigation is available or when first shower has occurred, manual removal of weeds and undesirable plants, thinning of plants if need be, fertilising, disease control, and taking care, of plantation so that after the expire of one year, no further need of NGOs presence is felt. The owners then take care of it according to instruction in local language and as well as in English for other users, Nazim and his staff. Some crops may fruit during the 1st year especially buffalo gourd, which may be dried, seed taken-out and pulp and skin used as a mulch, and seed taken to nearest village oil-mil to extract edible oil and cake use as mulch. The cake may also be steam heated for 30 minutes and could form very suitable material as high protein cattle feed competing with soybean, and other rich protein oil cakes. Women?s task in this case would be mulching and men will do other jobs.
n Target beneficiary in terms of socio-economic, geography and gender shall primarily be women as there is continuous work of mulching and weed control. Weeds are harvested and fed to cattle, which bring additional income to the women. The angle of thigh bone with the hip in women is such that they can squat in the ground keep moving without getting tired whereas men get tired out within 30 minutes. Women will have plenty work in these areas and the will perform causal jobs. Women can also free them from applying irrigation water, once or twice a year as once irrigation ditches are ready.
n Indicators to assess project progress will be the rate of growth, which can be verified quarterly. the achievement will also be measured by the growth of the plants.

Project strategy
n Institutional mapping/identification in this case shall - be the District Nazim who shall be consulted. The District Agriculture Officer and other officers of related departments will also be informed of the work executed, Selection of about 20 acres of land will be done by social mobilisers but district Nazim and his assistants will also be consulted and informed of selection which would primarily be on basis of soil and water tests for selection of suitable crops.
n Key stake holders shall be owners of the land their families based on soil and water results. District Nazims and related department officers will be kept informed.
n Role of recipient (owners of land) organisations shall be to provide land and family, labour especially women. The owners will carryout all the operations during the year, and the instruction left in writing for continuing the work.
n There will be no partner organisation in this case as NGO (M.H. Panhwar Trust) will provide all the input during the year that is land levelling, seed bed preparation, making of ridges and furrows, planing, fertilising, disease control and guide the owners of land in weed control, mulching and disease control methods.
n Dialogue and networking with NGO and with community groups shall be inviting large number of local farmers and explain to them the working and the working and the results. The NGOs working in the area may also be contacted to see the work for themselves operations.
n Relationship will be establish between GEF-SGP, LIFE, PRE, UNDP, development project will be maintained by periodic contacts. Relationship with other NGOs, or private sector people will be maintrained by periodic meetings. Gender involvement would be for various operations. Mulch is magic and the groups of farmers will be taken to M.H. Panhwar Trust Farm to show them mulching operation and their role in enhancing the yield. These operations shall be explained by audio-visual methods developed by M.H. Panhwar Trust.
n The project shall be sustained, after year easily because the crop introduced are all perennial, needing no new planting and needing only one or two irrigation doses when ever water is available. Even on existing rainfall the crop will survive. Some will have reduced yield but a method of supplying adequate water from the rain by providing water basin around each plant and diverting remaining surplus rain water to the basin to provide require quality of water. Any surplus water beyond plant needs will be drained out. It is possible that there may be a year of drought, but these plants can withstand a year of drought without producing any yield, unless atleast two doses of irrigation water are applied.

5. TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY
n The technical aspect of the project is the introducing new crops, like Jojoba, jatropha, buffalo gourd, zizyphus species, Salvadora persica, Salvodora oleoides, Prosopis species, tamarind, pomegranate and others which can stand slightly saline soils as well as drought surviving on existing rainfall of 250 mm and 1-2 doses of irrigation. All these crops were introduced at M.H. Panhwar Trust Farm and from there were propagated elsewhere in Pakistan including Punjab and PARC Farm at Malir Karachi.
n Experience of other projects in Cholistan and Karachi and whole country shows good results.
n Technical expertise of M.H. Panhwar Trust is introducing of 25 new fruits, nuts and industrial crops as per list is enclosed Annexture IV. The Trust has also produced manuals on growing zizyphus sp., Jojoba, and buffalo gourd.
n Technical assistance require from LIFE/GEF will be nil.
n Identification of local expertise. There is no expertise available locally except on zizyphsu Sp. in Pakistan. Some Prospis species grow in various area of Sindh. There is a Punjab government Farm of Jojoba in Cholistan and also at PARC Farm in Karachi, but as M.H. Panhwar introduced Jojoba first in Pakistan, the Punjab government asked for assistance from him and he provide them know how and the seed. Some zizyphus varieties are gown by Director Agriculture Research at Tandojam, but zizyphus Maurtiania grows in Sindh and Punjab on a large scale and also zizyphus Rootundifolia grows in Sindh. zizhphus Nummularia is a wild plant in Sindh. Z. Mauritiania has a large number of sub species and the best one will ber selected for this purpose. Z. jujuba is grown only by M.H. Panhwar and no where else in Pakistan.
n No assistance will be reuqire from LIFE/GEF.
n Local expertise is already discussed above and in general M.H. Panhwar Trust have maximum and more detailed know how, than any other agency.

6. ANTICIPATED RESULTS
n The impact on participant/beneficiaries will be economic in terms of employment and yield of the crop which are all commercial in one or other way and fetch good market prices. Jojoba will produce first crop in year 3, jatropha in 2 and buffalow gourd in the very first year of planting Zizyphus in year 2 , Prosopis in 4, tamarind also in 4 and Salvadora in year 2. The last is also a forage tree should not be grazed in first 3 years. All crops mature in year 6 or 7 will fetch returns more than any grain crop grown in Badin Distinct. Buffalo gourd produces 1320 kgs of oil/year/acre and also 4 tons of starch every 3 years.
n The participant/beneficiaries will make all this profit.
n These corps have demonstration value. the land will be taken from beneficiaries, on the condition that the farm will be open for visit and inspection by any visitor for first 5 years. It is certain that neighbours will copy.
n Potential risk is destruction of crop by grazing animals and owners of land have to ensure that grazing is not allowed for first 3 years. Badin area can have rainfall of 750mm inches once or twice every 10th year. The land has to be drained immediately, for which drain has to be maintained up to minor drain and drain of the government. Field drains are already there only 100-200 metres from each and every farm and owners have to keep this drain cleaned in their own need.