Addressing Effect of Climate Change On Agriculture, Through Conservation, Revival & Promotion Of Indigenous Crop Genetic Resources.

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Abhishek Prabhakar. Mentor: Mr. Sanjay Patil (BAIF-MITTRA)

Contents
Background ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Location .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Brief Account Of BAIFs Intervention........................................................................................................ 3 Objective ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Outcomes ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Background: Seed is the soul of agriculture. It has taken hundreds of years of

dedicated efforts of farmers to develop and conserve crop races suitable for local agro-climatic conditions. However, after the Green Revolution of 1960s, agriculture is being practiced in high external input mode due to many factors such as: demandsupply mismatch, etc. Arbitrary use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and insecticides has caused reduction in soil fertility and thereby led to decline in productivity. All these factors have resulted in steep escalation in input cost, environmental degradation, reduction in biodiversity and rise in mono-cropping. Development of dwarf varieties for higher grain production has resulted in shortage of fodder for livestock which are an integral part of the farming system. In addition, problems associated with climate change which include rising temperature and unpredictable rainfall pattern among other ill effects have gripped the entire world. The agricultural systems all over the world are thus required to find suitable solutions for increasing the production of food crops to feed the teeming millions in the backdrop of the above challenges. Fortunately, there are a number of landraces of food crops that are resistant to pests, can grow on poor soils and can withstand the changed climatic conditions with
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comparable levels of productivity and high nutritional value. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to conserve these landraces, in-order to provide a sustainable way of Agriculture. Location: Thane is one of the northern districts of the Konkan region in the state of Maharashtra. It includes part of the Western Ghats region, which is considered to be a biodiversity hot spot. The area is host to an amazing diversity of rice and other food plants. Agriculture is largely rain-fed, and the district has a large tribal population. The tribal people in the area have traditionally cultivated many diverse rice and Millet varieties according to their needs and the geographical & climatic adaptability. The program is being implemented at Jawhar Taluka, which is at the heart of this tribal belt and has more than 90% tribal population. The average rainfall in the area exceeds 2700 mm. The entire region is situated in the Sahyadri ranges and thus the land is hilly, with steep slopes in many areas. The soil in the region is red soil, with poor water holding capacity, thus though there is high rainfall in monsoon season, lack of perennial water availability is a major hurdle to development of the region. The per capita land holding is meager in the area. Due to rainfed agriculture and poverty, people migrate to nearby regions during the January to May period every year. The major crops in the area are Paddy, and Millets. Paddy is the staple food of the region. The Project is formally & directly implemented in the 11 villages of Jawhar Taluka, while the informal and undocumented reach of the program has covered many more villages. Formally the program is implemented in the following villages: 1) Chowk 2) Wanganpada 3) Valvanda 4) Jangalpada 5) Sutarpada 6) Dengachimate 7) Kalamveera 8) Garadwadi 9) Kamadipada 10) Hade 11) Siroshi

Brief Account of BAIFs Intervention BAIF started its work on indigenous rice varieties in the tribal parts of Thane district on a pilot scale. It initiated a survey under the CBM-South Asia, India programme from January 2009 to September 2009. The scope of its work was to understand occurrence of indigenous rice genetic resources, characterize them on the basis of
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food security, yield, fragrance, pest and disease resistance and try to understand peoples' perceptions about the continued cultivation of such varieties. Efforts were also made to know the traditional cultivation practices associated with such varieties. For the past few years, an attempt has been made by Mr. Sanjay Patil of BAIF to collect, document and conserve this agro- biodiversity in the Thane District. Over two hundred rice , and more than 50 Millet varieties have been collected from farmers, along with documentation of the cultivation parameters, maturity period, disease resistance and special properties reported by them; then cross-checked and confirmed by other farmers, especially the village elders. Since 2009, in-situ conservation of the rice varieties and establishment of seed-bank has been started; the superiority of these indigenous varieties is demonstrated to the community by cultivating these rices in pots, small plots and farmers fields, community field visits are conducted to involve them in the selection of best suited varieties according to their requirements. Objectives: 1) To understand characterization and evaluation of paddy and Millet landraces. 2) To study community participation in crop germplasm conservation programme and to motivate them to adopt it. 3) To study community level seed production of promising identified varieties of indigenous paddy and Millets. 4) To strengthen community level seed banks and seed exchange mechanism. 5) To explore the possibility for value addition and marketing of promising varieties of Paddy and Millets.

Methodology: 1) Identification and selection of best suited varieties of paddy and millets, based on feedback from farmers and scientific principles from last years field data. 2) Selection of farmers and land for seed production. 3) Distribution of seeds of selected varieties to different farmers, according to various conditions. 4) Promotion of organic cultivation and innovative techniques of cultivation (SRI, etc.) of paddy landraces. 5) Organizing field visits for the farmers to the trial plots and large scale fields of indigenous varieties, to let them interact and see the actual performance by themselves 6) Organizing of exhibitions and workshops to create greater awareness about the issue amongst the community.
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7) Documentation of all the findings during the course of the project. 8) Exploring the opportunity for value addition and marketing of paddy and millets. 9) Empowering the Community seed banks and encouraging them to actively manage the seed exchange program on a self sustainable basis

Outcomes: 1) Field Performance data of selected 48 paddy landraces with reference to various parameters is collected and documented, the preliminary results are found to be encouraging. 2) Field Performance data of selected 38 Millet landraces with reference to various parameters is collected and documented 3) Community perceptions survey about its continued cultivation and selfsustainability is going to be conducted. 4) Economical impact analysis of the germplasm conservation programme on participants initiated. 5) Establishment of 1 new community seed bank at village Kalamveera this year. 6) Empowerment of Community seed banks at village level, to make them the focal point for driving self-sustainable seed exchange program. 7) Self sufficiency of seeds for targeted crops and varieties for large scale multiplication for the year 2012-13 (24 rice varieties and 6 Millet varieties) 8) Knowledge sharing and capacity building, through seed exchange and active involvement of various stake holders. 9) Restoration of soil fertility, bio- mass regeneration, in sustainable and eco-friendly manner. 10) Marketing and value addition of 9 promising indigenous varieties of Rice, through exhibitions at Mumbai and Pune, and word of mouth advertising and promotion

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MGNREGA Assessment and Implementation

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Achal Bajpai

Mentor: Mr Shailendra Tiwari, NRD Incharge, Seva Mandir, Udaipur.

Abstract:
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a subject of debate ever since its inception. More often than not the scheme has been analyzed with preconceived notions, putting the scheme into either of the two extremist positions of good or evil. A comprehensive analysis on factual basis considering actual ground situations has been generally missing and often, more emphasis has been given to general perceptions, case studies, website data and peoples remarks (interpreted in ones own suitable ways). The project aims to provide a comprehensive review of the impact of MGNREG Scheme based on concrete analysis of ground situation, through the study of social dynamics between various stakeholders of the scheme, project selection process and assets created in the past. The conceptual grasp of social dynamics was attained through interactions with villagers, village committees, NGO staff, mate, and government authorities like Sarpanch, NREGA Sachiv, Engineers, BDO and by attending Gram Sabhas and focused group discussions at worksites. The later part of the project encompasses the actual implementation and management of MGNREGA works in nine worksites to understand the intricate issues in depth and to evolve an effective system to resolve issues prevalent in the scheme.

Rationale for selection of project:

The geological and climatic conditions of Udaipur district, situated in the southern part of Rajasthan, on the foothills of the Aravalli ranges are extremely harsh. The area is characterized by rocky and hilly terrain, low rainfall and extreme temperature variations (4-48 deg C). The rural population consists primarily of tribal (68%) and other disadvantaged communities which continue to remain dependent on the natural resource base for a large part of its livelihood needs. Their resources are severely limited; and the forested and common lands, which constitute 72% of the total land area, are excessively degraded. Only 13% of the land under cultivation has some form of irrigation. With little or insufficient monsoon and water supply round the year, people are forced to migrate for employment for long periods at a time under unfair and high-risk conditions, thus their own development process has been severely affected. 5|Pa ge

With the arrival of MGNREGA scheme with the dual objective of providing 100 days of guaranteed employment to all rural households and sustainable asset creation in rural areas, a unique opportunity is being provided to people of this area for development, conservation and management of their resources. MGNREGA, not being a relief measure but an act of parliament, is a great opportunity to change the economy and social conditions of the people. Thus, it becomes important to utilize it in the best possible way for hastening the pace of inclusive growth of the region.

The project is located in Jhadol Block of Udaipur district, around 50 kms, South-west of the district headquarters. The project aims at sustaining the activities even after the completion of the project. The project will be operative under the overall guidance of representatives from Seva Mandir, District/Block administration and village panchayats. Objective:

The project incorporates the following objectives:

a) To evaluate the effect of MGNREGA on socio-economic life of the village people including migration, wage rates, livelihood conditions, etc. b) To evaluate past assets created under MGNREGA on qualitative and sustainability aspects and to provide recommendations with actual creation of good quality assets during the implementation phase. c) To understand and evolve recommendations for MGNREGA work selection process for maximizing its benefits which can result into long-term asset generation and socio-economic development of the region. d) To understand the reasons for payment of low wage rates and implementation/ management of work for maximizing wage rates.

Approach/ Methodology:
Initial Project Approach: A detailed soil map of Jhadol block prepared by Department of Agriculture Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture has been studied in detail and ten panchayats from across geographical locations within Jhadol block with different soil conditions have been chosen to cover assessment of all types of areas.

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Then, the village-wise list of works undertaken under MGNREGA, in different years from 2006-07 within these selected panchayats were studied. Around three to four villages in each panchayat with two projects per village were chosen for assessment in such a way that nearly all types of NREGA works are covered in each of the panchayats. Further, to study the sustainability aspects of works done under MGNREGA, one old project preferably from 06-07/ 07-08 and one recent project were selected in each village. Thus, we have overall around eighty different projects based on technogeographical variations. The assessment of each project will be based on a set of carefully designed socio-economic and technical factors (detailed format of assessment sheet is present in Appendix).

Based on findings of the assessment, a set of recommendations to address the issues of project selection strategy, wage rate enhancement, completion of 100 days of work by rural households and creation of sustainable assets will be proposed for improving overall effectiveness of these works. Also, it is planned to carry out an actual project with adoption of the following recommendations to critically assess the recommendations and its feasibility.

Refined Project Approach (30/July/2011 onwards): Based on the on-field experiences and discussion with my mentor, the project approach has been slightly refined to cover in-depth analysis of the MGNREGA works assessment.

Through social surveys in households and work sites (earlier approach), we are only able to understand the problems faced by villagers but not the reasons or initiating causes of the problems. In addition, only the viewpoint of villagers/labors has been covered through this. Therefore, to include all stakeholders of the MGNREG scheme under the assessment, I have planned to follow below mentioned approach for MGNREGA assessment:-

1) Social aspects through Focused Group Discussion at worksite and through household surveys 2) Technical aspects by visiting worksite old, new, and speaking to engineers and MGNREGA Sachivs. 3) Discussion with govt. authorities to understand problems of govt officials and verify villagers viewpoints on problems associated with labor like low wages, delay in payment, etc. 4) Overall data analysis for Jhadol Block.

Moreover, rather than doing social and technical surveys in different panchayats of Jhadol block, the assessment will be carried out initially in a single village and then based on the findings, the project approach may be further improved. Only then, other panchayats of Jhadol block (five panchayats tentatively) will be covered in the next stage.

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Results and Discussions:

(I) Project Selection Strategy:

(a) No comprehensive plan is made based on geological and scientific considerations since proper technical guidance (Engineer) is not available to villagers during planning. The local geographical features and livelihood priority of the people are grossly ignored while doing the planning exercise. (b) No backstage preparation: None of the ward meetings, except one, have been conducted before Gram Sabha for inclusive planning of NREGA works in the coming year.

(c) Non Inclusion of general public (esp. poor) in planning: Gram Sabha by no means can be considered as a measure of true representation of people. The attendance is extremely thin and the quorum for Gram Sabha is generally filled by requesting people to come and just sign on the quorum register. Often works are being selected on a random basis (selected by few influential people) rather than a comprehensive project based approach.

(II) Technical Assessment :

(a) Roads: a. Technically, none of the gravel roads are in good condition due to absence of gravel but people are generally satisfied with their functionality (usefulness) as the area has a rocky terrain where extra stones (gravel) are not required. b. An interesting observation - Whenever deep-water channels/ditches are built on the sides of the roads, the condition and washing away of roads is minimized. In one case (Fig 1), when the ditch was not built until the end, it resulted in the washing away of roads of that section. c. In one of the villages Talai, the roads are not connected till the end to the main roads, thus limiting their usefulness.

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Fig 1(Bad)

Fig 2(Rough Patch)

Fig 3(OK Road)

(b) Anicuts : a. Condition of display boards near anicuts is not good either they are missing or the information has been washed away because of high humidity near the water reservoir. b. One interesting observation is that wherever check dams were built on the upstream side at regular intervals, very little silt was deposited in these anicuts which are working fine even after four years. c. Most people feel that height of anicuts should be increased.

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(c) Individual Land Leveling and well digging: Individual Works for BPL families are very well maintained and are considered as most beneficial work under NREGA by nearly all the villagers. Also, villagers maintain these works nicely.

(III) Socio-economic impact and implementation aspects of MGNREGS:

(a) Job card related: a. Most of them have obtained Job cards in 2005-06 itself while few of the job cards have been made after that. In a few cases, authorities have refused to make new job cards citing reasons like (i) the application filing is not done now and it will be made only in the next year, (ii) name of the person is not present in the BPL Survey list 2002. b. More than 90% of the job cards inspected, is not updated for works done.

(b) Application for Work: a. People denied receiving formal receipts for application but said that the work is always allotted in the coming fortnight (pakhwara), if application is given three days before. b. However, concept of right to people to apply for job at their will is an absolute rarity. In some cases, when somebody had tried to seek a job when work is unavailable (esp. monsoon season), authorities had denied the same and tried to restrain them from applying then with assurances about allotment of work in other seasons.

(c) Delay in Payment: Delays in payments up to three months is observed in a number of cases. Although recently salaries of Govt officials have been cut, still no compensation has been paid to laborers despite mention of such compensation in NREGA act.

(d) Migration: a. Although migration is still prevalent in large numbers in almost every village but still most of them have accepted that migration levels esp. distress migration has come down. b. Migration of female members has come down significantly, but male members still prefer to migrate for work to Udaipur and Gujarat. Only female workers working for NREGA is also affecting the quality of work. c. Low wage rates are the most important reason for migration phenomenon to occur.

(e) Current wage rate:

a. Wage rates have been varying in a wide range from being as low as below 50 to above 100, but generally varying from 60 to 80. 10 | P a g e

b. Recent order of the government regarding group-wise work and payment has still not been implemented despite various mate trainings organized by the govt. c. Mates consider it difficult to provide differential wage rates in the existing social setup. However, villagers are appreciative of the new government initiative. d. Works done by Line Agencies like Irrigation and PWD depts. are generally of good quality and provides better wage rates mainly because of better supervision and absence of fraud attendance.

(IV) Implementation of work for maximizing wage rates:

(a) Wage Rate: As already mentioned, average wage rate in the block is only around Rs. 60 to 80. The average wage rates for works undertaken by the NGO Seva Mandir under my supervision and management is around Rs. 110, with full wage rate of Rs. 119 achieved nine times in the first two months. This is being achieved through intensive mate trainings, group-wise allotment and measurement of work, regular site inspections/supervision, and planned/systematic implementation of works by our block NRD and zonal team under my supervision.

There are few instances when actual work done was greater than the scheduled work, but the government authorities (engineers) have applied a sort of upper cap on the wage rate and provided them the scheduled minimum wage rate of Rs. 119 only. The so called minimum wage rate has ultimately become a maximum wage rate. On talking to government authorities about the same, they remarked that people are supposed to be doing only scheduled works and not greater than that. In a way by stopping people from doing more work, government discourages people from realizing the actual potential of MGNREGA.

(b) Asset Quality: The projects undertaken by Seva Mandir are Pasture land development including works like boundary wall, check dams, plantation, etc. Based on our assessment, the initial works of constructing boundary wall are of good quality in worksites managed by us, while the quality of similar works observed during assessment of past MGNREGA works is generally of average or poor quality only. There is no quality parameter or check on acceptance of substandard works in NREGA scheme too.

(c) Recommendations: Based on assessment of various aspects of the scheme and management of worksites, a set of recommendations and technical guidance file has been prepared covering broad aspects discussed above.

(d) References

1. www.nrega.nic.in 11 | P a g e

2. Technical Guide, MGNREGS Rajasthan 2010 3. NREGA Guidelines, Govt of India

Other Projects and responsibilities: Projects done

1. Creation and implementation of eMuster roll for NRD Unit of Seva Mandir for avoiding delays in payments, calculation errors and difficulty in maintenance of records. 2. Look after miscellaneous works of Natural Resource Development unit with focus on improving effectiveness and efficiency of the processes. 3. Other miscellaneous works of Jhadol block office other than NRD unit

Remarks
1) Prepared computerized e-Muster Roll system for Seva Mandir, the participatory NGO for carrying out their regular Natural Resource Unit work. 2) Value-stream mapping of current Muster Roll related processes and recommended implementation in two phases. Taken lot of measures to create systems and standard processes for various activities of the NRD Unit and online record practices initiated.

Facilitated various activities of the block including works like impact assessment in minimum time, Village Cohesive Index, report writing, computer training etc.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme(MGNREGA): An assessment report. Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Ms Adithi N Rao, , Kotra, Seva Mandir, Udaipur. Mentor: Mr Shailendra Tiwari, NRD Incharge, Seva Mandir, Udaipur. Introduction The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was notified on 7th September, 2005.The objective of the act is to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. NREGA was renamed as The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on 2 October, 2009. MGNREGA is a rights based legislation where people are the main stakeholders and play the most important role. The secondary objective is to create assets that are useful in the long run. The act also mentions provision of facilities like first aid, drinking water, shade and crche facilities to children of workers at the work site. It is one of the most ambitious schemes started by the Indian government. A ratio of wage labour to material under the Act is 60:40. The other provision under the Act is provision of the job card within 15 days and providing a job within 15 days of submission of application by the worker. The demand for work should always come from the worker in the form of submission of the application and a receipt has to be provided 12 | P a g e

by the authority in acknowledgement. If the State fails to provide the employment to the applicant within 15 days of submission of the application, unemployment allowance has to be provided. The main works undertaken are construction of water harvesting structures works like anicuts, channel line works, farm ponds, and plantations. Also, land development works like construction of roads and bridges. Project location

Project Location:
The project is located in Kotra block of Udaipur district about 125km south-west of district headquarter. Brief description is as follows: Population: 183,504 (per 2001 census) 36 Panchayats comprising of 302 villages spread over an area of 1211 sq km. Main populace includes Garasia, Meena and Bhil tribes with a number of sub caste along with Muslims and some other caste. Primarily spoken language is a variant of Wangdi, which is a native language of nearby Kherwara region. The area is defined by extreme hilly terrain most of which comes under sanctuary area and is controlled by Forest Department. The typical village consists of 150 families comprising of many hamlets and spread across an average of 3-4 km radius. Agriculture serves as the primary source of income, although just a small section of the total land is devoted to it, due to low soil moisture from the recurring drought and limited irrigation capacities. And like already mention, majority of land is under forest area. Majority of the produce is self-consumed or sold in the local market in small amount as the need arises. At 24.52%, Kotra blocks literacy rate is the lowest of any of the blocks, with the female literacy rate at only 11.5% and male at 37.55%. ( source: Seva Mandirs website)

Objectives 1. To study the process of MGNREGA-How participatory and inclusive is the approach? 2. To study the socio-economic implications of the programme on migration and wages. 3. To evaluate the basis of selection of works. Are projects selected based on peoples need or randomly selected by the authorities? 4. To see the sustainability and quality of the assets created and their usefulness to the livelihood of the local population.

The selection of projects is based on the priority or need of the community. The projects are selected based on the need of the community and then people are consulted. Meetings and discussions take place after which construction of the structure is undertaken. But the selection in 13 | P a g e

reality does not happen in this manner. The people who are primary stakeholders play a very important role when it comes to selection and submission of a proposal. Water harvesting structures like anicuts and channel lines have improved irrigation facilities and thus have helped the community to some extent. People are not happy with the quality of construction and sustainability of these structures which is poor. There is a need to create awareness among the community about the importance and usefulness of assets. Mostly, water harvesting structures are undertaken when compared to other works like pasture lands and Joint forest management (JFM). Methodology The project in brief, studies and evaluates the socio economic implications of NREGA -like realization of wages, migration and usefulness of the assets created. It also aims to study the process of MGNREGA at the field level. Primary data was collected in field by personal interviews with the beneficiaries of MGNREGA, elected representatives like sarpanch of various Gram Panchayats, government officials and NGO workers. Meetings and focussed group discussions were also organised. The study was conducted in Tadla, Umripadhar, Kanapadhar, Sada, Medi and Lambahaldu. A list was obtained from the officials of the Gram Panchayats and the structures were looked at based on quality and sustainability.

Observations from the field Low awareness levels It was observed that, in general, workers were unaware of various entitlements like unemployment allowance, wages, and provision of various facilities onsite. The Panchayat should also take responsibility to create awareness about the programme. People working at the site are unaware of the minimum wages that one should receive per day. Delay in payment of wages This is a common problem faced in all the states. The delay can be from 21 days to 2 months. After delay in payments, at times the officials at the post office also further delay making of the payments that are due. Therefore, payments are never made on time. The workers are unable to oppose things like these in such a situation. Since people are unaware of unemployment allowance, they are unable to avail of this allowance even when they do not get a job within 15 days of application. In most of the cases the authorities do not put a date on the receipt of the application and people cannot therefore claim the unemployment benefit even if they wanted to do so.

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Migration Migration has not stopped in spite of NREGA. People feel that they get better wages when they migrate to places like Gujarat. The men migrate and work there as daily wage labourers. The women continue working under NREGA. Again during the monsoons, the work comes to a complete halt. People prefer to migrate to the intensive agricultural areas in Gujarat rather than work under MGNREGA. Creation of useful assets Under NREGA mostly works like water harvesting structures, repair and restoration of old structures and building of roads have been undertaken. Work remains abandoned and incomplete even after two years of its commencement. The quality of construction is very poor. The structures get washed away which prove to be of no use. MGNREGA should not be assessed based on employment. There should also be some sense of ownership of the asset by the community. Irregularities in the system Sometimes due to the irregularities in the system, the muster rolls do not reach the concerned officials (in this case the sarpanch) after which it has to go to the panchayat samiti, due to which there are delays in payments. When the muster roll reaches from the mate to the sarpanch, if there is delay at this stage, it causes further delay in payments. Participation of people in meetings People did not get notices on time to attend ward sabha meetings that were conducted. This was a major complaint of the people. Even if the meetings were postponed, they were never intimated though they had wanted to participate. Also, the meetings are conducted without much ground preparation. The office bearers and functionaries prepare a list of works in advance which is endorsed in the gram sabha without much debate. As the agenda of the ordinary villagers remain unfulfilled, they lose interest in the gram sabhas. Usefulness and sustainability of the assets A number of assets like roads, anicuts, farm pond and channel line works were seen. The anicuts and farm ponds were in bad shape. There were reports of leakage of these structures. No desilting has been done in channel line works. Roads were damaged or washed away in many places, even after the first rains. Facilities on site Though the act mentions providing facilities like drinking water, shade, first aid kit and crche facilities to workers, very rarely have these facilities been provided. Though drinking water facilities have been provided in almost all the sites, other facilities are not being provided. People are not aware that all these facilities should be provided to them on site. The objective of 100 days of employment has not been achieved. MGNREGA is an ambitious programme. Lot of money is being pumped into it to provide employment to people living in rural areas. But it has a long way to go before it reaches the peak of success. 15 | P a g e

Small Ruminant Value Chain Improvement

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Akshay Kapur. Mentor: Dr. Nikhilesh Modi

IM GOATS PROJECT Introduction

The project work was based on the conception that the process of progress is more efficient and participatory if done by strengthening or improving existing systems. These systems are usually anthropologically mature as they have evolved over considerable periods of time based on various existent natural, social and economical conditions. Such interventions are also expected to be more harmonious and smoother in social transitions. The aim is to supplement and support indigenous economic activities that are feasible, to make them more competitive and allow sustainable and laissez faire growth. In this regard the IM goats project offered an excellent opportunity to work closely with people to solve critical problems at the ground level. Goats and their value chain were chosen as the intervention point due to the ubiquitous presence of these small ruminants in most dry land areas among even the most marginalized sections. Consequently, they hold high social and economic importance among these sections and also harbor high potential for commercial scale up and profit improvement. Under the IM goats project, work is being carried out by BAIF Development Research Foundation to help improve small ruminant i.e. goat value chain in rural parts of Udaipur district in Rajasthan. The attempt is to understand and improve the rural goat production and trading mechanism for the benefit of vulnerable and marginalized sections of society, especially women. (Women were observed to be involved majorly in traditional goat keeping activities)

Objective
The prime objective of small ruminant value chain improvement is to alleviate poverty and improve food security in dry land areas in a sustainable manner. The project proposes to transform goat production and marketing from the current ad hoc, risky, informal activity to a sound and profitable enterprise and model that taps into a growing market, largely controlled by and benefiting women and other disadvantaged and vulnerable groups; while preserving the natural resource base. Specifically:

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1. To pilot sustainable organizational and technical models for strengthening goat value chain particularly aiming to increase incomes, reduce vulnerability and enhance welfare amongst marginalized groups, including women. 2. To document, communicate and promote appropriate evidence based model(s) for sustainable, pro-poor goat value chains.

Location
The Jhadol block is situated on the Aravalli Mountain range of Rajasthan. The soil is sandy loam and there are often steep slopes. Combined with the rocky nature of the soil, and sparse covering of trees, inadequate water catchment and runoff contribute to water scarcity in the area, despite an average rainfall of 680 mm. Average temperatures through the year range from a minimum of 5C to a maximum of 47C. The block is 1440 sq kms in size, of which 53% is forested, 3.9% is irrigated farmland and 12% is un-irrigated farmland. At both the Block and Cluster levels, 19% of the land is cultivated. Jungle/forested areas within the cluster are used for grazing of cows and goats. The average land holding in Jhadol Block is 1.7Ha. Major crops are maize, wheat, paddy, black gram, pigeon pea, mustard, chilly, ginger, turmeric, pulses and garlic. Economic sources of income include small-scale agriculture, migration for labour, local labour and small-scale animal-husbandry. Goats are a commonly owned ruminant among majority of families and goat rearing is an important livelihood activity. Sale of goat bucks provides economic support, while milk is mostly used for household consumption.

Methodology
Under the IM goats project following model framework has been implemented. The purpose of the framework is to enable timely and useful interventions for development of the traditional goat keeping industry on a commercial scale. 1. Selection of villages 2. Base line survey 3. Selection of Goat buck keepers 4. Training 5. Formation of Groups 6. Vaccination and de-worming camps 7. Purchase and distribution of breeding bucks 8. Castration 9. Marketing 10. Formation of hub and Innovation Platform 11. Documentation 12. Promotion and Incentivisation
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SELECTION

OF

VILLAGES:

Under the project, a total of 45 villages have been selected in Sarada and Jhadol blocks covering 23 gram panchayats. Total beneficiaries include 2595 families and the goat population covered is 16,020. The villages were selected based on the following criteria: 1. Approachable road and within 12-15 km radius from cluster office. 2. High in population of SC/ST, deprived or marginalized sections and high goat population. BASE
LINE SURVEY

A baseline survey was conducted in 12 randomly selected villages, among 209 families, covering information of feeding, breeding, housing, marketing, social and economic status. The base line survey information was used to create project frame work and identify suitable interventions and entry points. S ELEC TION OF GOAT KEEPERS AND FORMATION OF GROUPS: Interested individuals having between 3-6 adult female goats were selected from the member villages to be part of the program. 10-12 members living in close vicinity in each area formed a goat rearer group. Each group contained at least 40 adult female goats and a total of 235 groups were formed. TRAINING: The member goat keepers were trained in animal health care, housing, castration, breed improvement, weighing and record keeping through regular meetings and training sessions. The members were also encouraged to participate in group level activities and made more aware of the market conditions and prices to ensure fair trading of animals. SELECTION OF BUCK KEEPERS: Interested members from each group were selected to keep improved breed bucks; this was based on nomination by group members. The buck keepers (1 per group) are preferably individuals capable of record keeping and responsibility sharing. A total of 177 improved breed bucks (Sirohi) have been distributed under the project till now. VACCINATION
AND

DE-WORMING

CAMPS

Regular vaccination and de-worming camps are carried out in member villages to ensure health of the animals. De-worming is done once in each quarter and vaccination is provided for diseases like PPR, Enterotoxaemia, etc at requisite intervals to prevent seasonal outbreak of diseases.

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CASTRATION: Castration of male bucks is carried out in member villages. This helps in two ways, first it prevents furthering of nondescript breeds and allows selective breeding i.e. isolation and promotion of animals with desired characteristics for breed improvement; Second, it helps improve weight and quality of males that are castrated, thus bringing immediate economic benefit to the producers. M ARKETING: Aim of marketing efforts is to create efficient and fair market linkages between the producers and end buyers to ensure regular demand, high quality animals and increased profits. The marketing efforts include regular interactions with existing traders to improve processes and ongoing endeavors for creating linkages with large scale traders and buyers across different states. HUB AND INNOVATION PLATFORM: The project is following innovation systems approach with in a value chain frame work. Innovation platforms are open spaces for the value chain actors to interact, communicate and act to improve performance of value chain. It takes form through a monthly meeting involving all the value chain actors like producers, traders and, support providers. Support providers include feed-sellers, veterinary service providers, insurance providers, etc. The resulting benefits to the actors are improved communication and support that stimulates joint action for removal of bottle necks and testing of feasible technical, organizational and institutional interventions. These interventions aim to improve productivity, marketing and associated delivery mechanisms.

Findings / Learning
The base line survey and innovation platform interactions resulted in outlining of a number of issues and bottlenecks in the path of commercial progress. As an ongoing process, the discovered issues and any new ones that crop up are consistently addressed through various pilot plans and interventions under the project. Till now the following weaknesses have been identified and are being addressed: FOR THE PRODUCERS: 1. Unavailability of good breeding bucks 2. Prevalence of diseases like goat pox, contagious ecthyma and other ecto-parasites among animals 3. Fodder and pasture land scarcity

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4. Marketing: Goats sold prematurely due to financial compulsions resulting in very low profits, lower profits due to inaccurate weighing methods by traders (guesstimates), Unorganized nature of goat marketing FOR TH ETR AD ERS: 1. Lack of healthy animals 2. Inadequate supply of animals 3. Unorganized and scattered nature of producer locations and lack of coordination among producers resulting in higher collection effort and logistical costs

FOR THESUPPORT PROVIDERS: 1. Goat keepers are unaware of available veterinary support and do not avail it 2. Department does not get timely information about epidemic outbreaks 3. Over dosage, untrained use of medication by goat rearers

The discovered issues and problems are being addressed through a variety of initiatives. Bakri Mittras or field guides act as a bridge between the producers and service providers providing vital information to each stake holder. Innovation platform serves as a common ground for all stake holders to come together and coordinate efforts for symbiotic benefits. Other than providing interventions like breed improvement, animal health care, housing etc at the producers level, BAIF is also coordinating efforts to create linkages with traders ensuring fair trading through a uniform rate by weight basis.

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Farmers and Fisher folk - IVRS Helpline Using Cloud Telephony Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Ankit Walia Mentor Shri S. Senthilkumaran , Director (ICT) MSSRF

Abstract People in villages of rural Tamil Nadu and villages all over India are dependent mostly on natural resources for their livelihood. For their information needs, the farmers and the fisher folk are mostly dependent on the community or the physical presence of experts to answer their questions as most of them do not have access to Computers or Internet. However, most of the experts are far away from such places, where and when they are needed the most. The rapid growth of electronics and telecommunication technology makes it easier for the villagers to access the mobile phone and its networks. By means of the proposed process, I saw an opportunity to develop an Interactive Voice Response System for Rural Communities (IVRS). This IVRS can also be used as a helpline containing voice information in local language. It can help farmers and the fisher-folk community to get the latest pre-recorded, voice information around the clock. In case a farmer or fisher folk has any query, he/she can choose the option to dial an expert at the resource center located in a sub-urban area who is very well informed about the village and problems of the region. This paper presents an inexpensive way to develop an IVRS system using cloud telephony and some of its applications. A person does not need to be an expert in telecommunication or electronics to use it. It uses basics of cloud computing, web-scripting languages and Internet. The Cloud telephony IVRS system can be used not only for purposes of Agriculture, Fisheries or Livestock, it can also be used for Health, Employment, Government Schemes, Education, SHGs or any other social issue by NGOs or for commercial use. This paper also highlights the needs of farmers and fisher-folk on a daily basis. Our design is accessible, available, extensible, portable and scalable. It is the result of cross-disciplinary collaboration of Agriculture experts, Fisheries experts, Veterinary experts and NGO workers who serve the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. My ground work includes understanding the ongoing and already working projects in ICT for Development, stakeholders interviews, learning technology behind telephony system and meetings with farmers and fisher-folk in three districts of Tamil Nadu Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Rameshwaram. My contribution to rural communities with the help of MSSRF and as a SBI Youth for India fellow has been to come up with a tool to bridge the information gap in rural areas. It is to make use of IVRS technology and Cloud telephony to guide a simple and inexpensive way that can be used by rural communities. The farmers helpline using IVRS of Thanjavur District has already been deployed in October 2011. The fisher-folk helpline using IVRS for all coastal regions of Tamil Nadu is to be deployed in February 2012. The livestock helpline using IVRS for all over Tamil nadu is prototyped and has been submitted to Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS).

Index terms - Interactive Voice Response System, Farmers Helpline, Fishermen Helpline, ICT for Development, Cloud Telephony, Ethno Veterinary Medicine, Information need for Farmers and Fishermen.

I. A.

BACKGROUND

Agriculture in Tamil Nadu and ICT

In India, nearly 64 % of the population is dependent on agriculture and it covers around 43 % of the total geographic area, though its share of GDP has been continuously declining over the last 50 years. The sector-wise composition of workers of rural Tamil Nadu reveals that about 70% of the worker population in such areas is engaged in the agricultural

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sector [2]. In Tamil Nadu, 37.47% of full-time workers and 71.64% of marginal workers are in the agricultural sector a majority of them are small cultivators or seasonal laborers [3]. The Indian farmer is continuously under pressure because of low farm productivity and no farm automation along with the ill-effects of climate change (Fig. 1).

Fig.1. Rural farmers of Keenalpunalvasal Village, Thanjavur District

There are mainly three reasons for low productivity first is unavailability of the required physical infrastructure (warehouse, market), secondly, unavailability of necessary inputs/products for farming and services when it is required, and thirdly, lack of information about agricultural techniques and inputs. Due to the lack of physical infrastructure in India, various food items to the tune of 65 million tons, worth Rs. 760 billions, are lost annually during the post-harvest phase [5]. The third reason is the information gap - Farmers need information as the crop process moves through various stages, such as crop planning, buying seeds, planting, growing, harvesting, packing & storing and finally selling [4]. A push towards higher agricultural productivity will require an information based decision making system for agriculture. The mode of information flow has also changed from the initial face to face interaction where information was shared among friends, relatives, progressive farmers, extension workers and input dealers. Then, there came traditional ICT sources such as Television, Radio and Newspaper. In 1998, initial modern ICT tools were started like Internet based Village Resource Centers, ITC e-choupals in 1999 and Kisan Call centers started by Government of India in 2004. New Modern ICT was started from 2007 when Voice based services was started in collaboration of IFFCO-IKSL and Airtel as Green Sim card, SMS based services by Reuters Market Live, Video based Digital Green (2009), Nokia Lifetool (2010) and MSSRF-NABARD (2010). Voice and text messages services were sending important information to the farmers all over India [4]. New evolving technologies such as Spoken Web by IBM (2010) and Tamil Market (2005) have also been tried out in India. Increasing penetration of mobile networks and subscribers present an opportunity to deliver useful information widely, on time and to targeted groups. It complements the existing extension services and information source technologies (e.g. radio, television, newspapers etc.). However, due to the huge population and area, there is a need to set up local centers like Gyan Chaupals, at least in one village in every block in collaboration with the CSC programme of DIT, digital gateway for content development for the Gyan Chaupals. Also, there is a need to build capacity of the local people to run the centers without the help of external agencies [7]. There is also a need to bring about synergy between technology and public policy; recommend measures to enhance income and employment potential in rural areas through diversification, application of appropriate technology including IT for information on market, weather, credit facilities and e-commerce, as also training and market reforms [6].

B. Fisheries in Tamil Nadu and ICT

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Tamil Nadu has a coastal length of 1076 KM., which constitutes about 15% of Indias coastal line. There are 591 fishing villages in 13 coastal districts in Tamil Nadu starting from Tiruvallur to Kanyakumari District. Around 348 thousand fishermen and 331 thousand fisherwomen totaling 679 thousand, live in these coastal fishing villages. The literacy rate is 66%; about 270 thousand marine fishermen are actively engaged in fishing. The above marine fishermen are eking out their livelihood by fishing in the continental shelf of 41,412 Sq.kms. using 8500 mechanized fishing crafts and 41,000 traditional crafts. About 370 thousand M.T. of fish are caught in the Coramandal coast, Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar coast annually. The State earned Rs 20.15 millions as foreign exchange by exporting marine products of 55,160 M.T. during the year 2001 [2]. The inland fisheries sector comprises reservoirs, major irrigation and long seasonal tanks, short seasonal tanks, ponds etc., which are amenable for both capture and culture fisheries. The sector has a potential production of 450 thousand tons which is the target to be achieved during Indias 12th Five year plan period (2012-17). The total brackish water area available for aquaculture production is 56,000 hectares and shrimp culture is being undertaken in 7,100 hectares producing 14,200 tons of shrimps valued at Rs.4.26 billion annually. Five brackish water Fish Farmers Development Agencies are functioning in the State covering all the coastal districts other than Chennai district. It is one of the important food production sectors in India, contributing to the livelihood as well as food security of a large section of the economically under - privileged population [8]. However, the fishermen of Tamil Nadu are not only facing natures fury but are also victims of conflicts between Indian and Sri-Lankan governments [9]. Whenever, fishermen go out to sea, they are vulnerable as they go out without knowing the locale specific ocean state and weather forecast which tends to change often. Also, its been a big effort for non-mechanized boat owners to know where there is more probability of fish being available. Mechanized boat owners also burn a lot of fuel for this purpose over time. In addition, if they know the emergency alert for Cyclone, Tsunami, High Wave Alert etc, it may save the lives of many people. As MSSRF Fishermen Helpline is not using IVRS technology, MSSRF staff has to be on-call support 24*7. IVRS can help staff to pre-record voice messages and put it up on the server so that the fishermen can access it around the clock, in case they need some more information, they can then choose the option to dial an expert.

Fig 2. Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) Source: MSSRF FFMA Project

Tata telecommunication in collaboration with M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been sending information on their Fisher Friendly Mobile Application (Fig. 2.) supported by Qualcomm. MSSRF also started 24*7 helpline, to send voice messages and weather text messages to fisher-folks in collaboration with National Agriculture Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) and MARG Infrastructure Company. Fishermen have also been given GPS devices for tracking of potential fishing zones and their location. Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service (INCOIS) has installed electronic display boards to high sensitive villages of Tamil Nadu coastal regions. Tamil Nadu coastal regions (Fig 3) are categorized into multiple areas and sub areas for Fishermen IVRS after the discussion with the MSSRF Marine and VRC staff. It has been divided into five areas and nineteen subareas. The

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categorization was done on the basis of major landing centers, the similarity and non-similarity of the information and focused groups of callers.

Fig. 3 Tamil Nadu Coastal Region from Chennai on east to Kanyakumari on west, Source FFMA Project

C.

MSSRF Village Resource Centers(VRCs) and Village Knowledge Centers(VKCs) M S Swaminathan Research Foundation was founded by World Food Prize winner Dr. M S Swaminathan as a nonprofit research organization in 1988. It has all along been developing and following pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women and pro-sustainable on-farm and non-farm livelihoods through appropriate eco-technology and knowledge empowerment. The idea of VRCs and VKCs began in 1992. A VRC is typically located at the block level, the commune level or the mandal level or at the centre of a cluster of villages. VKCs are normally located among the cluster of villages or at the Panchayat (local self-governments at the village or small town level in India) level. Space and Electricity of the VKCs tend to be provided by a variety of partners (e.g., elected village administration, traditional village administration, farmers and fishermen association, milk societies, youth clubs, NGOs, region based institutions such as temples and churches, village development council, etc). A lot of my understanding of VRCs and VKCs network has been through the Thanjavur VRC located at Thiruvaiyaru block and its eight VKCs (Fig.4). Each VKC gathers most of the information and support from VRC and also for its requirement of computers, its peripherals and WLL phones. Each VRC is providing local information to the Chennai HQ for publishing a bi-weekly community newspaper Namma Ooru Sethi to be distributed among all the VRCs. So, any success story or case study from one VRC can be shared with the other VRCs through out Tamil Nadu.

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Fig. 4. Thiruvaiyaru VRC and its eight VKCs

The services provided by VRC are Computer Courses, conducting training sessions, audio conferences, Phone-in Programs, Soil and Water Testing and Awareness, Alternate cropping, Dry land Agri. & Horticulture, Adoption of HYVs of Agri & Horti. Crops, Organic farming, Integrated Pest management, Integrated Nutrient management, women empowerment, Scientific feed & disease management of Dairy animals, Farm Mechanization, Information Dissemination(Govt. Schemes, Employment, Weather etc), Micro-Enterprise training, Health Awareness Camps, Career Awareness, Print out, Exam Results, Internet facility etc. A number of ICT tools have been used by the VRC such as Community Newspaper, Phone In program, Text Messages & Voice Messages, Video & Audio Conference, Notice Board & PA, Reliance WLL Phone, Broadband, Computer and other Peripherals, MS Softwares. Intel Training Program, Azim Premji foundation Softwares and some freely available softwares. MSSRF-NABARD project was sending 2 voice messages to 150 farmers of Thanjavur and 150 farmers of Pondicherry daily. However, it has one limitation that if the voice message is not picked up immediately then there is no way to get the messages. To enable each and every farmer to have access to these voice messages the farmers IVRS was developed.

D.

Why ICT for Development in India According to the Telecom Regulatory authority of India, the graph provided in Fig 5 has shown the growth of mobile phones, internet users and fixed phone for the duration of 7 years from March 2004 to March 2011. While the growth of fixed phone is constant, on the contrary, the growth of Internet users has increased dramatically. The growth of mobile phones has also been growing fast but not as fast as internet.

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Fig 5. Modern ICT Indicators in India, Source: TRAI

Another set of interesting data was provided by TRAI for Tele-density in Rural India for the last 15 years (Fig 6). One can see that from March 1996 to March 2006, there was very small growth in the reach of Telecommunication.

Fig 6. Tele-density in India, Source: TRAI

In October 2006, the Indian Telegraph Act has been amended to provide support for all telegraph services including mobile and broadband to bridge the digital divide [10]. The blue line shows rural and the green line the Total Tele-density. When ICT4D was focused on personal computers and telecentres, Iqbal Quadir, an investment banker in New York, returned to his home country in the mid-1990s with an idea, viz. connectivity is productivity, and its corollary, telephone is a production tool. He sold the idea to the Grameen folks. Thus began the mobile phone revolution in Bangladesh. A study by Leonard Waverman of the London Business School found that adding ten extra mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country boosts growth in GDP per person by 0.6 percentage points. A recent macroeconomic study, carried out by Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang (an economist at World Bank) found that an increase of ten percentage points in mobilephone adoption in a developing country increased growth in GDP per person by 0.8 percentage points. According to Ms Zhen-Wei Qiang, mobile phones were more effective at promoting growth than fixed-line phones, but less effective than internet access or broadband. Since mobile phones have the greatest penetration, the aggregate impact is highest for mobile. She also found that all telecom technologies promoted growth more effectively in developing countries than in developed ones. This is because telecom services help make markets more efficient, reduce transaction costs and increase productivityall areas in which developing countries have more distance to cover than developed ones. Grameen Banks Mr Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel peace prize, came to the conclusion that When you get a mobile phone it is almost like having a card to get out of poverty in a couple of years. Jeffrey Sachs agrees: "Mobile phone is the single most transformative tool for development. Fortunately, in the mobile for development era there have been excellent examples

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- such as Robert Jensen's data-driven study of the impact of the mobile phone on the fishing communities and their trade in the Kerala coast and Jenny Aker's study of the grain markets in Niger - of gathering solid data from the field, using the data to verify the validity of competing hypotheses and then speculating on the likely explanations [12].

E. Ethno Veterinary medicine (EVM) using IVRS EVM considers traditional practices of veterinary medicine- the holistic, interdisciplinary study of local knowledge and its associated skills, practices, beliefs, practitioners, and social structures pertaining to the healthcare and welfare of income-producing animals, always with an eye to development of practical applications within livestock production and livelihood systems, with the ultimate goal of increasing human well-being via increased benefits from stock-raising [11]. Tamil Nadu veterinary and animal science university has done a lot of research on EVM and come out with scientific research for most common diseases of domesticated animals such as Cows, Goats, Poultry and Calves.

F. Information need of Farmers and Fishermen of India. Before designing our IVRS, we needed to understand the current system and information needs of the farmers and fishermen. Farmers need information about changes to be made based on the seasons. It starts with crop planning where based on the weather forecast; a farmer can use a particular seed so that he can optimize the yield. For example, if the rainfall is forecasted as normal, the farmers can use a variety with normal water requirement. If the rainfall is forecasted as low, then he can choose seeds which need less water. Generally farmers used to seek such information from the local Agriculture offices or through traditional communication tools such as the newspaper and radio or by word of mouth.

Fig 7. Farmers need information based on the season [4]

IVRS can provide this information to the famers first based on the season and second their need. MSSRF-NABARD conducts need assessment meetings (Fig 8) once in 3 months. In addition to this, each month, there are farmers meetings conducted at each VKC village. MSSRF also conducts Project Monitoring Review Committee meetings with all the experts and stakeholders once in 3 months.

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Fig.8. Farmer explaining needs after a brainstorming session with his group. Similarly, for fishermen also, the need assessment meetings and feedback meetings are conducted at different VRCs and VKCs in the coastal regions (Fig. 9). Fishermens need for information is about the ocean state, that is - wave height, wind velocity, potential fishing zone, weather, government schemes and high alert information. MSSRF collects all the information from its partners - Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service, Indian Coast Guard, State Fisheries departments, Local Governments, Fishing community and Local news sources. MSSRF converts the technical information into understandable format (Fig.10) for the fishermen community. This conversion is manually done and it can be taken up as a project, but right now, my IVRS will use the same process of manual conversion and upload the information on to the IVRS.

Fig.9 Fishermen Interaction meeting at Rameshwaram District of Tamil nadu.

Every day the VRC staff collects the information from different sources and converts them into text or voice for different coastal areas and subareas. Though MSSRF is running the helpline 24*7; there are very many calls for the same information. This information can therefore be pre-recorded and fed into the IVRS, so that the staff needs to take up only more complex calls which are open ended questions.

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Fig 10 - Conversion of information from image to text (manually), Source: FFMA Project

II.

IVRS for Farmers and Fishermen

A. What is Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) Interactive Voice Response system is not something new in the lives of people living in urban areas. This simple technology increases the efficiency of the system by removing the need to provide the same information to multiple people at different or same point of time. By definition, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs. Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) is used for telecommunication signaling over analog telephone lines in the voice-frequency band between telephone handsets and other communications devices and the Telephone Exchange [11]. The information can be recorded (Fig. 11) and consumed (Fig. 12) by choosing the options of the IVRS. The recording option is only available for VRC staff. For each IVRS application, the Tamil voice prompts were recorded and linked with the application. These voice prompts were recorded with the help of MSSRF VRC staff using microphone and computer and were edited using free software wave-pad editor. These voice prompts must be in a particular format which is compatible with kookoo system. The file format should be in wav with attributes as PCM Signed 16 bit Mono and rate as 8000 Hz.

Fig 11. Information Recording

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Fig 12 - Information Consumption B. What is Cloud Telephony for IVRS The Cloud Telephony is a concept devised from cloud computing. It provides an interface between your web application and the caller. It takes phone commands from you and executes them on your behalf to the caller. The best way to think of Cloud Telephony is as just another web page in your application. Only difference is, that the web page is accessible from the phone rather than the browser. KooKoo is the company which has provided this platform. It provides simple APIs to perform telephony function just five tags for telephony functions, just make a HTTP request to place outbound calls, no need to learn telephony jargon, no hardware to worry about. KooKoo has pricing plans for all your needs. Just pay for what you use and scale up when necessary. [13]. It works as below (Fig. 13): 1. Caller calls the KooKoo number. 2. KooKoo informs your application. 3. By using your application you can tell KooKoo what to do (Play some text, collect input, send sms, record etc). 4. KooKoo performs the action on your behalf. 5. KooKoo sends you the result of the action to your application.

Fig 13. How kookoo system works. Source: Kookoo.in C. KooKoo IVRS Pricing Plan KooKoo system has given different plans as shown in Table 1. They have listed some scenarios on their website as below: If your application is a mission critical application and needs all phone lines available at all times and you are expecting massive call volumes (more than 1 lakh calls per month), then go for the Golden egg plan. This will ensure that you will always have access to all your phone lines and no extra charges will be levied to you for more calls [13].

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Normal Monthly Rent Incoming call Outgoing call Dedicated Port Shared Ports Professional Text to Speech Service Phone Support 500 50 p/min Re 1/min 1 4 No

Silver 2500 Free Re 1/min 1 4 Yes

Golden 2000 Free Re 1/min 1 0 Yes

No

No

Yes

Table 1: KooKoo Pricing Plans, Source: kookoo.in If your application is not mission critical and you can afford to have some of your callers get the engaged tone (very rarely) and you are expecting medium call volumes (above 10,000 calls per month) then go for the Silver egg plan. This will ensure that you do not get charged extra for more calls [13]. If you are just trying out your application and you are not sure of the call volumes, then go with the Normal egg plan. With this, your risk is minimal at just Rs.100 per port (less than the rental charge for a phone number), and you pay extra only when your customers call your application [13]. D. Our Process flow for Farmers Helpline using IVRS Initially, farmers helpline using IVRS (Fig. 14) was designed to supplement the ongoing project of MSSRF-NABARD at Thanjavur and Pondicherry VRCs to support a call-back facility for the farmers who are receiving Voice messages and to others who are not. Now, the helpline is working with the support of MSSRF VRC sustainability fund. The IVRS is having three options to choose from first is general information, second is weather and third is to call the VRC and register farmers query. The general information covers all the information needs for a rural family with focus on farming. Each days message is based on one theme relevant to Agriculture such as Farming Practices, Pest and Disease Management, Organic Farming, Crop Advisories and Livestock, Health, Education, Employment, Government Schemes, Market etc. The information can e consumed by a caller as a caller calls the IVRS number; he presses one option out of three options available. The IVRS based on the option chosen will either play the message or dial the VRC. The information can be recorded by VRC staff by directly calling the number and recording their message for General and Weather messages.

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Fig 14 - Process flow for farmers IVRS E. Our Process flow for Fishermen Helpline using IVRS MSSRF helpline is a 24 * 7 manual helpline and does not use IVRS as explained earlier also in Section 1.B. This IVRS is developed to support the helpline so that the basic information for each area and subarea can be provided to the caller. The whole coastal region of Tamil Nadu is divided into 5 Areas and 19 Subareas. These areas and subareas are logically categorized based on the major landing centers, similarity of information and focused fishermen community (Table 2). Please refer to Fig 3 for Tamil Nadu map.

Area Thiruvallur Chennai Kanchipuram

Subarea Thiruvallur Chennai Kanchipuram

Pondicherry Cuddalore Chidambaram

Pondicherry Cuddalore Chidambaram

Pazhaiyar Poomphar Nagapattinam Chinnagudi Tharanambadi

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Karaikal

Karaikal Nagore Nagapattinam

Nagapattinam

Velankani Vedaranyam Kodiyakkarai Kallivayalthottam

Thanjavur Coastal Villages

Mallippattinam Sethubavachathram

Pudukottai

Pudukottai Mandapam N Rameshwaram Olaikuda Dhanushkodi

Ramnathapuram Pamban Mandapam S Keelakarai Yerwadi

Tutikorin Tirunelveli

Tutikorin Tirunelveli Kanyakumari Chinnagudi

Nagarcoil Kodaichal Kadiyapattinam Table 2 Tamil nadu coastal region categorization The fishermen IVRS (Fig 15) works as when the caller calls for the first time, he has to select one of the areas and subareas, corresponding to his location. The IVRS saves his contact number, area and subarea into the database automatically. The database is our own maintained database. You need to connect your application code with your database. Reader should not think that this database is provided by KooKoo system. IVRS will take the user to the Main

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Menu to select the information he is seeking. The next time the same caller calls, the system will identify his subarea from the database. Here, he has the option to choose another subarea or to continue with the same. If he chooses to change the location, he has to select the area and subarea again, otherwise, if he chooses to continue with the same location, he will have to select the option for information. He also has the option to dial the helpline if he has some query.

Fig 15- Process flow for Fishermen IVRS For VRC staff, there is one more option to record the voice message by calling the IVRS number directly. IVRS will ask them what message to record and for which location. F. Our Process flow for Livestock(EVM) Helpline using IVRS Tamil nadu Veterinary and Animal Science University (TANUVAS) at Thanjavur had done research on Ethno Veterinary Medicine. Dr. N. Punniyamoorthy is leading that research. The medicine has been found effective by many rural people and the necessary raw material is also easily accessible for them [14]. He receives a number of queries everyday and he has to repeat the same recipe to a number of rural people. Though TANUVAS has published one booklet but the illiterate people cannot read it. He wanted an IVRS solution (Fig 16) so that he could record the recipe and the farmers could then listen by just calling a number and they could also re-listen to it. The prototype of the system is ready, which basically just provides the information without any database and no facility to talk to the expert.

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Fig 15 Process flow for Livestock Ethno Veterinary Medicine

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

III. User Experience

A. MSSRF Recording Staff The voice content has to be recorded by the VRC staff by calling the IVRS number directly. They had also been provided with the alternate option to upload the voice message, the audio file directly on to the server. For farmers IVRS, the alternate option was easier for the user because they were already recording voice message using wave-pad editor for earlier project of sending voice messages. In the initial days, they used to forget to upload the file but gradually, they got into the habit of doing this. It used to take 5-10 minutes to upload audio file to the server. Sometimes, when internet connection was not available, the staff recorded the voice content by directly calling through the IVRS number. All three users of Thiruvaiyaru VRC learnt the steps quite easily. They began doing this with ease. For fishermen IVRS, we still have to start uploading the voice content.

B. Farmers Experience of using IVRS With six farmers, the farmers IVRS system has been tested to ascertain how much easier it is for them to use the system. They have been given a 1-2 minutes briefing about what is a Farmers helpline and how they can use it. 3 out of the 6 farmers were using IVRS for the first time. The result of ease of use is mentioned in Table 3. First 4 farmers are from Keenalpunalvasal village and other two farmers are from Illapkorai village of Thiruvaiyaru block in Thanjavur District (Only 6 were photographed - Fig 16). All the seven farmers were able to use the system on their own the second time. We also found that the Dial to the VRC number (BSNL landline) was echoing so it was difficult to talk with the VRC staff. When we changed the VRC number to the VRC Reliance landline number, it was not echoing. Two famers took the number and saved it in their mobile phone. Farmers feedback was to have it toll free. While doing the test, we used one low end mobile phone and one smart phone with speaker phone on.

Fig 16 Farmers using the Farmers Helpline using IVRS

Table 3 Results of first time use by farmers of farmers Helpline using IVRS. *First time use of IVRS Ist Time S.no Farmers Name Use without help No No Yes Yes Help provided 2 time
nd

1* 2* 3 4

Maniam Karunanidhi Pandayan Karthikeyan

Yes Yes NA NA

Yes Yes Yes Yes

Project Synopsis

Page 36

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

5 6* Kumar Duriraj No No Yes Yes Yes Yes

IV. Future Scope and Challenges

A. Future Addition to Farmers IVRS This can be scalable to each and every district and block providing block and district level advisories. Farmers queries can be recorded in non-working hours. Toll Free Number could be introduced but will increase the cost. Preference based advisory for crops. Crop category-wise information can be provided along with information about the Market. Voice Recognition can be added. Automation of voice based information by breaking message script using some patterns of voice messages similar to how Railway announcement works.

B. Future Addition to Fishermen IVRS Voice Recognition can be added. Automation of Voice based information by breaking message script using some patterns of voice messages similar to how Railway announcement works. Information about Market and Fish Handling Practices can be added. The current way to collect information can be automated using Digital Image Processing.

C. Challenges The content is one of the most important ingredients in the IVRS. From selection of the content to the recording of the content, it requires domain knowledge to understand the need of the hour and the community. Developing the right content is one of the key challenges for any information and knowledge based system. Secondly, with the content development part, it is necessary to build trust with the local community and make them partners in the system. They can be a source of information many times. Some of the progressive farmers can understand the local geography very well and their inputs could help other farmers. Availability of mobile phones and knowledge of the local language is a challenge to scale up the system. The other challenge is to answer the callers query in a timely manner, if the receiver does not know the answer and appropriateness of the answer at the first instance. Since this is a pull based system, for any emergency services, this system has to be supplemented with a push based system for example Voice SMS, Public Address Systems etc.

D. Key Learning Technology-enabled development initiative must be people-centric and not driven by technology. It must have people participation and be supported by appropriate socio-economic policies. The results would be effective if decisions are taken after careful data-driven and evidence-based analysis. Mobile phones are more effective than fixed lines but less effective than internet. It has promoted growth more effectively in developing countries. Partnership is the key for the content. Content should be from authentic sources and location specific.

V. Social Impact on Community

A. Social Impact on Rural Community The most important benefit for the rural community from this helpline using IVRS would be immediate access to the information. In case they need further information, they can always choose the option to dial the VRC. For farmers helpline, the impact is their enhanced knowledge in crop planning by providing real time advisory. Location specific Pest and Disease management information and season specific information also helps to enhance their knowledge. Repeated use of best practices enhances the quality of life of the rural communities by increasing their yield productivity, thereby increasing their livelihood. Health and education related information as well as information about government schemes also has an impact on the quality of life. This enhanced quality of life may not be measurable in a few months but it will have a big impact in the long run.

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The Fishermens helpline makes the fishermen less vulnerable, as they have locale specific sea state and weather forecast for every 12 hours for the next four days. This enables them to avoid rough seas and dangerous conditions. By accessing the PFZ section the fisher folk have access to latest information as to potential catchment areas where the probability of catching fish is very high. The application provides fishermen with data such as direction, bearing angle, whereby the fishermen can identify the areas where there is maximum probability of having a fish catch. Along with the aforementioned data the potential fishing zone is also provided in terms of Latitude and Longitude coordinates so that fishermen having GPS can identify the potential fishing zone. Apart from increasing the probability of fish catch for the fishermen the PFZ advisory also benefits the fisher folk in terms of reducing the search time and thereby conserving diesel consumption. By encouraging fishermen to fish in PFZ areas we are encouraging them to fish near EEZ zones which are untapped, thereby reducing over fishing near coastal areas [15].

B. Future research need answers[16] 1. Do the farmers find the information useful and usable? 2. How are farmers using this information? If not, Why? 3. What's the magnitude of change/ impact in cost, income, yield etc? 4. How does it vary across land size, states, type of mobile services, age, education level, gender etc? 5. How do other information sources complement the IVRS? 6. How does the information affect decision making process, adoption of inputs and technology? 7. What are the benefits of this information in terms of increased production and cost savings over the course of the growing season?

Acknowledgment The author thanks all the MSSRF Staff, SBI Youth for India, volunteers and all fellow-mates who have contributed and supported the development of my work.

References

[1] Initial National Communication to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) by Government of India, 2004, Executive Summary, 2 p. [2] State of Environment Report of Tamil Nadu, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India [3] Madelaine Plauch and Madhu Prabaker, 2005, Tamil market: a spoken dialog system for rural India. [4] Mittal S, Gandhi S, Tripathi G (2010); Prelim observations from Mittal (2011) survey; Saravanan (2007, 2011) [5] Ali Nawab, 2001, Post-Harvest Technology for Employment Generation in Rural Sector of India. [6] Serving farmers and saving farming, Fifth and Final Report, 4 October 2006, National commission on farmers, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India [7] M.S. Swaminathan, Secretariat-Crisis in the Indian Agriculture, Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training, Indian Lok Sabha. [8] Fisheries department policy note 20112012, Tamil Nadu Governments Budget, India [9] N Manoharan, 2008 ,Fishing in troubled waters: Tamil nadu fishermen and India-Sri Lanka relations, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies [10] Telecom Industry in India, June 2011,Policy and Initiative 2.1, Survey and Reports, Corporate Catalyst India [11] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivr, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dtmf [12] Mobile marvels, September 2009, A special report on telecom in emerging markets, The Economist.

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[13] Kookoo.in [14] Workshop on Ethno Veterinary Medicine, July 21, 2006, The Hindu, Thanjavur [15] Fishery Advisory through Mobiles, March 2011, One World Foundation India [16] Mittal S, 2011, The Role of Mobile Phones in Agriculture Growth, Presented at Mobile plus conference 17th September 2011 at Chennai, India

Issues involved in Implementation of Learning Modules

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Ms Anu Jacob, Mentor: Mrs Girija Chandragiri, Senior Scientist, VRC Puducherry, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation.

Contents 1. M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai1 2. Objective...1 3. Methodology.1 A.Phase I...1 Understanding the Village Structure..1 The Community.2 B. Phase II..3 Needs of the community3 C. Phase III.3 Field testing.3 Project A.3 Project B.3

4. Learnings...4
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A. B. C. D.

The basics of Learning4 The issues in Implementation at grassroot level...4 The Nuances of creation of an e-learning module4 Ensuring the sustainability of Projects..4

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), a non-profit research organization has been addressing the issues related to sustainable development in rural areas through different Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools over a decade. MSSRF, established in 1988, has been adopting pro-nature, pro- poor, pro-women and pro- sustainable livelihood models of development using appropriate rural technology and information dissemination models. M S Swaminathan Research Foundation is doing research in six major thematic areas such as Coastal Systems Research, Biotechnology, Biodiversity, Ecotechnology and Information, Education and Communication (addressing the issues related to sustainable development using different information communication technology tools) for knowledge empowerment of the resource-poor, largely illiterate and unskilled rural women and men. MSSRF believes that Information and Communication technologies could play a major role in environmentally sustainable rural development, not only in taking knowledge to the poor, but also helping them to achieve food security and social justice. Objective: Through the findings of the Need Assessment, the following two tasks were taken up: Understanding the educational needs of the school children and providing necessary support. Focusing on Knowledge Workers and assisting them in increasing their earning capacity.

Methodology: Phase 1: Understanding the Structure: It was essential at first to comprehend the existing projects of MSSRF, in order to get a clear picture of both the penetration and the possible resources that could be utilised. Thus, in the initial part of my project work I was exposed to the Village Knowledge Centre Programme, The Knowledge Workers, the Community Newspaper, the audio and video advisories, and
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the various programmes to increase computer literacy (Microsoft Unlimited Potential Programme and Intel Learn Programme). The Village Knowledge Centre Programme was started in January 1998, in the Union Territory of Pondicherry, with generous support from IDRC and CIDA. Currently the Puducherry VRC has 9 VKCs namely, Embalam Sandaipudukuppam Kunichampet Kizhur Thirukachipet Pannithittu Veerampattinam Kuruvinattam Kalithirthalkuppam

These VKCs work in a Hub and Spoke Model; it enables two way communications amongst the village and the VRC located at Pilliayarkuppam. Every month, Knowledge Worker meetings are held at the VRC, wherein they submit the details of the user register and also discuss the various projects held within the purview of the VKC. These meeting serve multiple purposes, they enable us to understand the needs of the community, they give us an opportunity for capacity building and they also enable cross learning amongst the knowledge workers. The Community: The major occupation of the people is agriculture or fishing; many people grow vegetables, sugarcane and rice, now many of the youth are opting out of the traditional employment opportunities and going for jobs in the cities. In spite of this, there are quite a number of unemployed youth. The views of the community is ascertained and communicated by the Knowledge Workers. There are frequent meetings with the Village Management Committee, which involve the boundary partners, strategic partners and other village heads. Need Assessment meetings are also held to directly come in contact with the members of the community. Phase 2: Needs of the community: The needs of the community are gauged over a period of time; the two recurring needs that came up are to provide quality education to school children and to assist in increasing the
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earning capacity of the Knowledge Workers. Thus the VKCs for interventions were selected and the process outline was prepared accordingly. Phase 3: Field testing: Project A: A select group of children from the schools near and around Pilliayarkuppam were brought to the VRC in order to form the test group. Classes were conducted on a daily basis for a month. The classes started out as a spoken English Class, the children were then unable to understand English and were also quite diffident to clear their doubts, and through trial and error I realised that English cannot be taught in a stand alone manner and needs to be clubbed with other subjects. Average Class Strength: 15 Students Age Group: 11- 16 years

From experimentation with the test group a comprehensive curriculum was designed for children from the age group of 11 16, to learn through visual aids, topics that complement their scholastic syllabus. The learning from this test group was the basic material for the formulation of a Self Learning module, Make Easy, an asynchronous e-learning module. The ME Modules aim to inculcate a scientific temper, induce the reading habit and in the process help in the learning of English. It is currently being field tested in the Government Middle School, Thirukanchipet with class strength of 27 students from 6th to 8th standard. This Module on implementation aims to reach hundreds of children all over the country and can as well be used to supplement the education in schools. Project B: In order to increase the earning capacity of the Knowledge Workers, a mobile Tailoring Training Unit was introduced at the Sandaipudukuppam VKC. It is a 3 month course which was field tested with the first batch. The tailoring training unit started with a donation of 3 sewing machines and the first 3 months course instructor fees, by Mr Seenivasan, HOD of the Engineering College. Currently, it is running successfully at the third village with 5 sewing machines. Unlike many other ventures this is not a free service. The participant has to pay a fee of Rs 500 to undergo the training. The expenses and the purchase of new sewing machines are entirely out of the fees collected from the participants. The successful implementation has resulted in the demand for the unit to move among VKC and impart training to the housewives of that particular Village. The objective behind this training unit apart from imparting training is also to build the confidence level of the participants and to create potential entrepreneurs. Futuristically we are planning to buy a few more sewing machines and split the Unit so as to run two parallel units which would enable us to reach more people. As of now, 40 women from Sandaipudukuppam and Pannithittu have already been trained and 25 members from Kalithirthalkuppam are undergoing training. The Knowledge Workers according to their request were also provided with training in Photoshop; however transfer of training has not been successful. Learnings: The basics of Learning:
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The fundamentals required for creating a training module, after taking into consideration the particular requirements of the target group. Understanding how the learning process takes place. Representation of data, justification of its use and effectiveness in communicating the required information after taking into consideration the budget and ensuring economic use of resources. Sustaining the interest of the participants and ensuring active participation. The issues in implementation at the grass root level The uncertainties faced at the grass root level for implementation, in terms of social mobilization, prioritizing and accordingly addressing the needs of the community, dealing with indifference from certain segments of the community. The nuances in the creation of an e-learning module. The representation of information, issues of navigation and establishing linkages between data, the incremental learning process, introduction of supplementary data in order to encourage practice and revision. Ensuring the sustainability of projects Sustainability of a project is a critical issue. It is essential as there is a lot of effort and resource involved in the project. Though there is no sure shot formula for the same but certain interventions can greatly increase the sustainability of a project, such as timely interventions, personal attention, proper vision, being prepared for contingencies.

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Climate Change Awareness and Perception of Wayanad Agrarian Community

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Arun P

Mentor: Shri Girijan Gopi and Dr.Rateesh Narayan. Senior Scientists, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Community AgroBiodiversity Centre, Wayanad.

Abstract
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(Globalization and climate change are seen in the international arena as the two major factors, which have resulted in drastic changes in agricultural systems and practices around the world. Developmental initiatives of governments and globalization are speeding up the race for common people to reach the global open market. This open market has created a breed of new farmers and agriculturists who seek to tap the potential profit from a global economy by switching from traditional farming to cash crops. The resulting change to intensive agricultural practices from low input, less intensive traditional farming practices has made the traditional farmers to increase the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers and led to increased use of non-renewable energy. The onset of economic and financial fluctuations has made this modern agriculture farming a costly process. The traditional farmers depend on traditional knowledge to predict weather and other climatic conditions required to plan their yearly cultivation. This dependence on traditional knowledge for the practice of cultivation changed a few years back, the reason being - what one can broadly call climate change. The present climatic conditions, erratic rainfall and the year by year change in other natural environment parameters has forced traditional farmers to opt for high energy and capital requiring coping mechanisms. . The global aspects of climate change are still being debated, resulting in two different schools of thoughts, one that accepts climate change as a global phenomenon and another which is against the concept of climate change. While the debate runs among the scientific community, the importance of this project is that it looks into the beliefs and perceptions of the farming strata of the society, with regard to change in climate and the agricultural practice in Wayanad district of Kerala. The objective of this project is to focus on farmers understanding of the change in their energy requirements for agricultural practice during the past 30 years up to the present day scenario. To understand the mechanisms adopted by the local communities to meet their energy requirements and subsequently, this study will focus on bringing People Biodiversity Register as a tool to link changing agricultural scenarios and climate change. The stakeholders will be farmers with small and marginal land holdings in the Wayanad district of Kerala. The project being agriculture farming centric, it will deal with educating farmers on different aspects of climate change, directly and indirectly related to agriculture scenario. This project also focuses on understanding the concept of climate change from a farmers perspective, which will generate themes and examples around which the representation of climate change can be built into preparing the People Biodiversity Register. Introduction
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The issue of climate change and its effect on agriculture and livelihood studies have not been taken up in Wayanad, even though Wayanad was in the national media spotlight for being the district with the highest number of reported farmer suicides. In the present political scenario, the only intervention that is being made is to work on new schemes and financial packages to help the affected and non affected farmers, which in itself is a short term relief, and ignores the larger issues which affect the farming community in Wayanad, without studying the real scenario and ground reality? The ground realities in Wayanad suggest a different picture, that there are changes in the climatic conditions in Wayanad. While scientifically they are not able to prove it, yet they are getting affected by the change in climate variables, which is affecting the general population as well as the farming community. It is up to the government to look into the scientific aspect to ascertain if there is a real climate change happening in Wayanad. What sort of awareness needs to be given, so that the farmers can adapt to and take steps to mitigate the effects of climatic change that is going to affect them in future? However, climate change awareness shouldnt be restricted to just farmers, it has be extended to the student community and the general public, and with this project I am trying to create one such awareness model for the student and farming community. The issue of climate change is discussed and talked about in national and international arena. Lot of buzz is generated in the media and scientific community about Climate change and its effects on agriculture and livelihoods, as also when representatives of nations of the world get together to discuss and negotiate the future of the earth, in different cities of the world in the name of United Nations Climate Change Conference. What the national and state Govt is forgetting is that the people who are most affected are never taken into account; these communities are ignorant of why they are not able to predict their climatic conditions like their ancestors for the past decade. Wayanad being a Biodiversity hotspot area and a failing agrarian state, the issue of climate change has not been taken up by the state government, Agriculture and Forest departments or through any govt policy to help different communities to understand the scenario of climate change. The focus of my project was to integrate the climate change awareness on three different groups of Wayanad Dist, 1)the farming community, 2)the general population and 3) the students community of Wayanad. Integrating multi-faceted attributes of climate change concept among the above-mentioned group was a difficult task. Addressing the issue of climate change to one section of the public would be like doing only a half baked job, so the focus was to divide climate change awareness among the 3 different groups and to address the issue of climate change with a different approach as required by each of these different groups so that this awareness could later help them in identifying adaptation and mitigation practices for the future.
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Project location Wayanad, one of the loveliest hill stations of Kerala with 25 Panchayats and 1 Municipality is nestled amidst the blue green misty mountains of the Western Ghats. This green paradise, lies at a height of 700-2100 m. above sea level, on the north-eastern part of the State. The total geographical area is 2,131 sq. km and the population of Wayanad is 7, 80,619. The male and female population is 3, 91,273 and 3, 89,346 respectively. The female-male sex ratio is 995 women per 1000 males. The density of population was 260 per sq km in 1981, 315 per sq.km in 1991 census with an increase of 21 per cent and according to 2001 census the density of population reached 369 per sq. km. Strictly Speaking, there is no urban population in Wayanad. However, life in Sulthan Bathery Mananthavady and Kalpetta is in the process of gaining urban status. Wayanad is agrarian, with plantation economy playing a major role. Out of a total of 2131 Sq. kms of land, 78787 hec. comprises of forests, viz 37% of the total area, while1142 Sq. km of the total area is used for agriculture, which forms 54% of the total land area of the district. Census of India 2001 reveals that 47.3 % of the total work force of the district is involved in agriculture while the figure for the state of Kerala as a whole is 22.8%. 30.5% of the total labour force of the district comprises of agricultural labourers while the figure for Kerala as a whole is 15.8%. The district is characterized by perennial plantation crops and spices with coffee forming the main agriculture crop. Coffee is cultivated in 66973 hectares. Coffee cultivation covers 33.65% of the total cropped area in the district and it comprises of 80% of the total coffee plantations in the state of Kerala. Other major crops are Pepper (40839 ha), Coconut (10947 ha), Rubber (6451 ha), Areca nut (7201 ha), Cardamom (4107 ha), and Ginger (3450 ha). Pepper is grown along with coffee in the north-eastern parts of the district, especially in Pulpally and Mullankolly. Page I 3 Until not very long ago, Wayanad had plenty of water. Nevertheless, today the entire region is facing drought due to unchecked deforestation and large-scale conversion of paddy fields into plantations. In 1982, there were 30,000 hectares of paddy fields in Wayanad. It has shrunk by more than 76 per cent to 7,000 hectares in 1999. Paddy, once the major crop of the district, is now cultivated in 12988 ha only and that too for a single harvest. Much of the paddy fields of the district are being converted for banana cultivation. Ginger cultivation in Wayanad has also substantially increased in recent years and paddy fields are increasingly being converted for ginger/vegetable cultivation. Many traditional rice varieties have also disappeared. According to 2001 census in Wayanad 47.3% of its working population is involved in agriculture or related activities. The average size of land holding is 0.68 ha. A variety of crops including annuals and perennials are grown in these smallholdings. The Crops include
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coconut, betel nut, pepper, vegetables, tuber crops, drumstick, papaya, etc. and fruit trees like mango and jackfruit. The agriculture data relating to the district reveals that, per hectare credit to agriculture is very high for the district with Rs. 4311 while it is only Rs.2794 for Kerala and 1046 for India. Per capita bank credit for agriculture is Rs. 933/-, which is almost four times higher than in the state of Kerala and five times higher than that in India. The district has two climatic zones, the dry zone lying on the east and the wet zone lying on the western parts of the district. Introduction of new crops on a massive scale has significantly reduced the ground water level and certain parts of the district faces drought. Human as well as natural stress is reflected everywhere. Forest degradation and aggressive cropping pattern has put pressure on the ecosystem. Wayanad is one of the few districts in the country endowed with adequate natural vegetation. About 55% of the land is used for cultivation, the forest occupies 37%, and the rest is used for other purposes. Since the last decade, the local economy is suffering from severe distress and the people in this district face various problems. The total destruction of the agriculture sector has crushed the financial security of almost all families. The difficulties in meeting ones own daily needs as well as that of the dependents has became an enormous challenge for the Head of the family as they now have the burden of huge financial debts. The major set backs suffered by the farmers include: declining prices of agricultural produce, increased use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, ineffective market intervention by the Government, shift from food crops to cash crops, successive crop failures, unscientific agricultural practices, high production cost, low income and lack of proper irrigation facilities. Approach / Methods To understand the concept of present day farming scenario, from the perspective of local farming communities, by interviewing them. In the initial phase there was a questionnaire but later it was through random interaction. To understand the changes in energy input consumption and assess the link between farm productivity and input energy efficiency, during the past 30 years. The interaction revealed that many of them have left agriculture as their means of livelihood and have opted for other jobs near towns. It was only farmers with large farm holdings who have continued with agriculture. In terms of coping mechanism adopted by local communities to overcome climate change vulnerabilities, not much has been undertaken; or its just the traditional knowledge that they adopt and this kind of mechanisms have not been documented anywhere.
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The idea was to start by collecting past 30 years weather data from weather stations in Wayanad but this process became very costly and much of the data was not reliable and as a result this became just a statistical study and my project was not about it. In terms of identifying different communities as study groups according to their land holdings and geographical distribution, it was found that land distribution patterns have changed and the influx of settlers has changed the demographics and pattern of land holdings which in turn has changed the farming pattern. A large scale study is needed to justify my statements as I do not have any record of that.
Interacting and creating awareness among the study group about the significance of this project was a really difficult problem. Making them understand the issue of climate change took more time than I had imagined, as relating the elements and different concepts of climate change to meet local understanding took its own time. Trying to find a module with which I could relate the climate change to agriculture brought me to Peoples Biodiversity register.

Page I 4 Expected Result of the Project PBR Peoples Biodiversity Register Discussions and interaction with the farming community clearly shows that there is a lack of understanding of the concept of climate change, in terms of the international scenario. As farmers with their own traditional wisdom, they are able to deduce the change in climate and the fact that this is consequently affecting their farming practice. Due to this change which is affecting the cycle of the traditional farming calendar, they are not able to decide the right time to plant the seeds or other agriculture related process for cultivation. In addition, the present agriculture scenario shows that the farmers have moved from their traditional organic farming to high input farming where there is high usage of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The shift from traditional paddy cultivation to cash crops has made farming more energy intensive. The impact of the change that they talked about could be shown more vividly to the people by means of the Peoples Biodiversity Register, I therefore approached the panchayat to have a look at these registers and found that the panchayat did not have even one and many of the people in the panchayat did
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not even know what it was. MSSRF initiated the first PBR (Peoples biodiversity register) in Wayanad dist in four panchayats. In addition, after they did the four PBRs, this task was undertaken by the National Biodiversity Board and the State Biodiversity board has been assigned the duty for making the PBRs. However, for a lot of reasons they have not done so. After finding this out, I talked with one of the mentors about the problem. He suggested that we look into PBR with a new approach in which the factor affecting climate change could be included specifically so that people could see the change in their panchayat after looking into this register. We are now making a new format to add on to the already existing PBR format, and to select a panchayat to start the work. This is a fresh and new approach so we are not able to predict how successful our model will be, but once its done we will be able to assess the impact of the study we have done.

Carbon Foot Print Awareness Campaign While working on climate change issues with MSSRF, a number of schools have approached me to take classes and interact with the student community about the impact of climate change on Wayanad and the livelihood. Taking classes for students was easier because they are already aware of or have read about the concept of climate change. Through out these interactions I was able to understand that students understand the concept but could not see how big the problem is or its implications could be. To address this issue I conceptualized an awareness campaign, whereby I chose one of the things that they regularly use in the school which is small and they have never bothered about how they dispose it after its use is over. The object that was chosen was a pen; now with this campaign, I coordinated with a few other agencies to include nearly 250 schools in Wayanad dist. The purpose of this campaign is to collect the pens that they have used in a PEN BIN like a dustbin. We collect all the used pens that the students have used for a month from the schools that participate in this campaign. We are planning to build a sculpture out of these used pens. This structure will be a monument by the student community of Wayanad to display to fellows students in India and aboard, the parent community and the administration of the amount of waste that is being generated and the lack of any solution we have in disposing of this waste. We have kicked off this campaign and we will get to see the result in the form of the finished sculpture by the middle of February.
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STUDY OF FOREST DEPENDENCY AND ECONOMICAL VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF TAMARIND

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow K. Bala Krishna Reddy Mentor: Shri Saujanendra Swain, Senior Scientist, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation

Abstract: The project aims at studying the socio-economic diversity and dependence of the Dhuruva tribe on Forests for their income, daily needs, socio economic sustainability, food security and analysis of the value chain for Non-Timber forest products collected from the forest with a focus on the Tamarind Value chain; identifying the constraints being faced and strategies being implemented to create better collection & storage practices and collective marketing in Paknaguda village.

Village Setting: Paknaguda is located at the foot hold of Kitti forest (local name) which is a mixed dry deciduous forest that extends till Chattisgarh. It has three major residing communities Dhuruva, Harizan and Kumar. The foot areas and surroundings of the forest are used for agricultural crop production and meet the needs of Paddy and Ragi for the residing village households. Subsistence farming is followed which is dependant on man cattle forest relationship. Food habits include the staple food of Rice and Ragi; forest dependent collection for food includes wild mushrooms, Tubers and edible Bamboo. The favorite drink is Salap Ras (Juice collected from the Salap tree) and the drink is made from mahuua flowers. The people are very fond of chicken, duck and goat. Households in this village have access to various NTFP products having high commercial significance and value.

Data collection Approach / Methods: Data for the study came from the tribal village of Paknaguda which is located 40 kms from Jeypore town which is in Koraput district of Odisha. The nearest block office which is in Kundra is located 20 kms away. The project village is intentionally selected because of the geographical advantage due to the dry mixed deciduous forest for the community. The survey covered 56 % of the house holds in the village of Paknaguda from July 2011 to December 2011. Data was collected from Tribals, Traders, Processors and Wholesalers by interviewing them on a wide range of topics including those of socioeconomic significance comprising mainly of the utilization of forest resources, pricing, product movement and current trends. The focus of the survey was to value the contribution of forest

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 products to the households economy and collection quantities of various NTFP products and value chain analysis.

Forest based Livelihood: Total population of the village is 244 which are socially diversified into three communities composing of Dhuruva 77%, Harizan 10% and Kumar 13%. Due to rain-fed agricultural practices farming is limited to only one season and for the rest of the year the villagers depend on forest collections like firewood for cooking, wild Mushroom, edible bamboo, Sweet potato, Amla, Tamarind, Mango, Mahua seeds, Mahua flower, Sal seeds and Siali leaf for livelihood and food security. Forest collections are labour intensive in general but in Paknaguda both males and females participate in charcoal collection. Males are involved in collecting fire wood and cutting wood. Females and children are involved in the collection of minor forest products like wild tubers, edible Bamboo and sweet potato etc. But income is evidently high in a family with high male population. Forests and grazing lands are essential to this system because they provide tree and grass fodder for livestock feed as well as leaf litter for composting which is used for agriculture.

NTFP Collection & Utilisation: Non-timber forest products (NTFP) popularly include goods of biological origin as well as services which are derived from forestland and exclude wood in all forms. Major NTFP collected by the community includes Mahua flowers, Mahua seeds, tamarind, Siali leaf and Sal leaf. There is a sparse incidence of collection of Sal and Siali leaves. It is understood that Collective Marketing strategy can be successfully introduced for all the potential produce viz. Mahua Flower, Tamarind, Mahua seeds and Siali leaf. About 96 per cent of the sampled households reported frequent collection of forest products which includes fire wood for cooking purposes, edible Bamboo, Tubers, Fruits, Mushroom, Mahua and Siali leaf for food purposes and wild grasses like channa and khajuri for housing construction. The data obtained from particulars of household population included number of hours spent in cooking per day (available monthly), and the dominant cooking fuel used. Assumptions (based on field observations) were made about the number of months firewood was used and was required for households which revealed that harvest residues or purchased wood were the dominant fuel sources. Estimated firewood quantities were valued at Rs. 10 per kilogram, which was the average price for firewood at Kundra market. Skilled activities like Bamboo weaving and Leaf plate making are the major income sources for 70% of the households and they bring raw material for these products from the forest. Most of the NTFP and derived products are sold in the three local markets available which are the Kundra market located at a distance of 20 kms , Thursday market Udulaguda located at 7kms and Saturday market Baligav located at 10 kms.

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Economical Dependency:

For finding out Forest Dependency I have taken the over-all income analysis done by considering four major income sources available in the village, comprising of Farm, Forest collection, Livestock, Plantation & Tree and calculated the contribution of forest based income to net income of households. Calculation of net income derived from forest extraction, harvested forest products measured in kilograms were multiplied by the local market price of the products less input costs such as transportation charge, cost of man hours employed etc.

Total Income Mean(1) 22420.33 Std. Dev. 16733.6 Difference (1- 0) 11606.66

Without Forest Income Mean(0) 10813.67 Std. Dev. 8054.9

Results and Conclusions:

From the study it is evident that forest dependency has a vital role in income and livelihood in Paknaguda. Data collected from this village shows the high level of dependency on the forest. Calculation of all income sources like agriculture, tree dependent and livestock suggest that forest contributes about 48 % of their total income. By comparative analysis of income from different activities in the two villages that depended on the forest it suggests that the forest supports the communities with various high return forest products which help in gaining a sustainable income, supplements their daily needs and plays a significant role in the eradication of tribal poverty due to its contribution as a source of employment generation and the support it provides to agriculture, plantation, skill based activities like Bamboo weaving, leaf plate making and Livestock Management.

Tamarind: Orissa is a major producer of tamarind, most of which is traded through routes namely Andhra Pradesh (Vizianagaram, Vishakapatnam), Tamilnadu and other South Indian states. However, almost all the produce from the state is transported to other states especially South India without any value addition which naturally fetches less remuneration to the producers than they could have otherwise got through value addition.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Seasonal collection analysis:-

Name NTFP

of Jan

Feb C PT
PT:

Mar C PT

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug Sep

Oct

Nov Dec

Tamarind
C: Collection Season

T
Peak Trading Season T: Trading Season

Key Findings: 1. Tamarind is a secondary source of economy for the tribal people of Paknaguda 3. Tamarind, being perishable and seasonal in nature, the tribals face difficulty in storing, preserving and ultimately are forced to sell out the produce at a lower price. 4. Distress sale often takes place due to lack of market information. 5. The product has multiple usages, so there is a huge industrial demand also.

Stage wise Existing Practices and Constraints:

Pre Collection:13. Checking ripening stage of tamarind fruit during fall. 14. Waiting for the ripening of tamarind and its natural fall from the tree. 15. Climbing on the tree and shaking the branches by hand & long stick to allow fall of tamarind from tree. 16. Leasing of tamarind tree @ 400 /- to 500/- per tree having 1.5 to 2 Quintals of fruit.

Constraints:3. Tamarind trees get leased for immediate cash just before the collection by the tree owner due to cash requirements and lack of information regarding market price. 4. Lack of motivation in the villagers to sell tamarind in a collective manner in order to get a better price.

Collection:5. Men are involved in climbing the trees and to allow the fall of tamarind from the tree, where 1 person is engaged for a small tree and 2 for big trees. 6. Women are involved in collection of fallen tamarind and removal of leaves and branches. 7. If the tamarind fruits are dried on the tree, de-shelling (removal of shell from pulp) is done immediately on the ground by beating it with a small stick.

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Constraints:4. Tamarind collected from the ground allows direct de-coating of the outermost layer and leads to the deterioration of the flower. Better practices are not followed by the collectors at the time of collection when the fruit is in good condition.

Post Collection:4. After collection, tamarind is stored in Baskets which contain maximum impurities. 5. If the tamarind is not yet dry, then it is sun dried for one day and then de-shelling is done.

Constraints:1. Poor storage arrangements. 2. Open storage on muddy ground for a number of days which allows for insect attack, resulting in bad quality of the tamarind, which in turn leads to decrease in price realization.

Village level processing:1. Outer most layers are removed by beating the fruit with bamboo sticks and small stones. 2. Production of de-coated tamarind.

Constraints:1. 2. 3. 4. De-coating, followed by de-fibering & de-seeding and obtaining flower of tamarind. No grading of good and bad quality. Usually processed tamarind is not stored in a clean place. De-seeding practiced is not followed during selling time.

Marketing:1. Travel by foot to weekly market for selling and sometimes distress selling to road side petty traders @ of Rs 1-3 per Kg. 2. Because of transportation & connectivity problems they are not able to even reach Jeypore market.

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Results and conclusions:

Value chain analysis clearly indicates that there is an immense gap between the price of the end product to the initial price at the time of harvest and the major causes for this price behavior is due to the tendency to lease out the trees for such a low price in order to get 1) quick money that is paid as advance, 2) wage income for collection and 3) not following good collection and storage practices to improve price returns on sale. I had initiated and conducted sensitization meets to focus on various issues like providing knowledge on market dynamics and benefits of not leasing of trees and collective selling. As collection is about to start, orientation program is to be initiated to familiarise them with the best practices according to market requirements, the need to store the fruit in clean Project Synopsis Page 55

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 locations and to have village level processing activities like drying, sorting and proper de-shelling. It is observed that at the time of selling, no proper weighing practices are followed, so it is proposed to prepare a plan to introduce a weighing system in the village and promote collectivism in harvesting and marketing.

References:

1. Analysis of economical characteristics of value chains of three underutilized fruits of India, Joshua N. Daniel and prashant A. Dudhade. 2. Gender, Flexibility and Global Value chains, Stephanie Barrientos. 3. The Distributional Impacts of Forest Income on Household Welfare in Rural Nigeria William M. Fonta. 4. Household characteristics and dependency on community forests in Terai of Nepal, Indra Prasad Sapkota. 5. Forest dependence and participation in CPR management: Empirical evidence from forest co-management in Malawi, Charles B.L. Jumbe.

Project Synopsis
Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow P.V. Bharath Vineeth Mentor: Mr Tusar Nayak, Senior Scientist, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation,

Jeypore

OBJECTIVE To provide an alternative livelihood for bamboo weavers and women in the villages by creating a market around the Hay Box. ABSTRACT
Hay box which is marketed as easy cooker is a rice cooker made up of hay, bamboo

and jute bag. This model of hay box is developed by a NGO called AID India (with whom I was previously involved) in Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Hay box comes in two sizes standard and large. The procedure to cook rice is as follows: For a glass of rice, add two glasses of water and cook the rice on a gas stove or firewood for 10 to 15 min until the first boil. Then transfer the vessel with the lid into the hay box and leave the hay box aside for at-least 30 minutes. After 30 minutes open the hay box for fully cooked rice.

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The uses of hay box are: cost effective, saves firewood/fuel, rice remains hot for 6 hours, saves cooking time, rice cooked is tastier and healthier (as it retains the starch), and it is one of the products that can be made in the villages and sold in rural and urban markets. LOCATION This project is carried out by me in association with MSSRF, Jeypore. It is being carried out across 4 villages in Kundra block. Kundra block is situated in Koraput district in the state of Orissa. The villages have predominantly ST population. The villages where the project is being carried out are Paknaguda, Guntaguda, Nuaguda and Pantripani. Most of the tribals in the villages are small land holding farmers with average land holding of 1.5 acres. It is predominantly a rain fed agriculture system and they have a single crop season in which they grow paddy. They also work as day labourers during nonagricultural season. People who have land also grow groundnut, cashew and maize. Some communities like the Dhuruva tribe in Paknaguda work extensively on bamboo crafts. Tribes living near the forest also depend on non-timber forest products like mahua, bamboo, tamarind, etc. Most of the heavy rainfall runs off, leading to situations of water scarcity during certain months of the year. Small land holdings and lack of livelihood opportunities as well as low productivity levels are among the main causes for the rampant poverty. The villagers face job and food insecurity for 3 months of the year.

METHODOLOGY Demos Initially four hay boxes were brought from Srikakulam to Jeypore for demo purposes. 4 villages were shortlisted where demo of the hay box was performed. The villages were Guntaguda, Nuaguda, Paknaguda and Boliguda. The demos were conducted between August 29th and September 13th. The boxes were left in the village for the community to test the product in their homes and to provide feedback on the product.

Village meetings and project working model A week after the demos, village meetings were conducted in each village to note down the feedback. Overall there was positive feedback on the product and the meeting was also used to explain the potential of the product as a livelihood activity. The working model of the project is as below:

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There are 3 important players in this project - MSSRF, women SHGs and Bamboo Weavers. Initially, at least until we build strong marketing potential in the tribals, MSSRF will provide the labour charges to the tribals to manufacture this product. MSSRF will then sell this product to get back the money that was put in. B.W = Bamboo weavers

Cost of production Standard Size Large Size Item Cost(Rs) Item Cost(Rs) B.W. 40 B.W. 60 SHG 30 SHG 40 Jute bag 15 Jute bag 20 Others 35 Others 40 Total 120 Total 160

TrainingOn Oct 24th, 14 bamboo weavers from 5 villages were given training on bamboo basket making and on Oct 25th, 15 women from 4 villages were given training on hay padding and stitching. 4 Trainers from Srikakulam were invited for training purpose. One trainer is from the bamboo weaving community who came to train the tribals in bamboo basket making specific to the hay box. The other 3 trained the women SHG members in hay padding and stitching process. The trainers along with the trainees completed 6 hay boxes in two days which were then distributed to the villagers at the end of the training.

Marketing Marketing activities started first from the office of MSSRF, Jeypore itself. Demos were conducted to demonstrate the working of the product and close to 25 orders were bagged from the office staff. Another marketing activity taken up was at the PARAB festival. PARAB is a district sponsored tribal art fare held in November every year. The main fair was held for three days from Nov 16th to Nov 18th. The response at the festival was excellent and
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we had close to 10 orders from the PARAB fair. We did not want to market the product a lot as we did not have a big enough workforce to manufacture the product in large numbers. As of Jan 1st, 2012, we have close to 40 orders.

ProductionThe MSSRF field workers and staff go to the village and place the orders with the bamboo weavers. The field workers go to the village once a week to monitor the manufacturing process and check the quality of the product being produced. The hay boxes which are to be delivered to MSSRF, Jeypore campus are transported in a minivan. The transport costs are absorbed into the final price of the product. The product is priced in such a way that MSSRF get backs the administrative costs thus making it a self-sustainable project.

CONCLUSION / FINDINGS
We so far have 40 orders on hand, placed by the customers. This hay box production activity is an alternate source of livelihood and is not a primary income activity. So we cannot expect them to make the hay boxes as soon as we give them an order. We have to find the right kind of person on whom we can depend on when it comes to production. Out of 14 bamboo weavers that we have trained, 6 are working on the production activities. The other 8 are either too busy or not interested in making the product. At the same time, around 6 women are working on the stitching and padding activities. But this attrition was expected and we should concentrate on people who are making the hay boxes. One needs to be patient and work closely and nurture the existing labour force. As of now, around 5 hay boxes can be manufactured per week. The speed at which they produce the hay box has to increase if we are planning to market the product on a bigger scale. Out of the 4 villages (Paknaguda, Guntaguda, Nuaguda and Pantripani), Paknaguda and Nuaguda have turned out to be major production centres. Paknaguda is a reliable centre when it comes to bamboo basket making and Nuaguda is a reliable centre when it comes to hay padding and stitching. Ground level Marketing team It is very important to keep in mind that MSSRF should identify youth in the village who will help in marketing activities. We have identified two youth in the village of Nuaguda who are interested in the marketing activities. We are thinking of a model where they will receive a small commission for each product sold. Their responsibilities will include giving demos and taking orders.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Village acceptance of the product Most of the orders that we have got till now are from cities or towns but according to me this product is most useful to people in the villages. So selling this product to the people in the tribal villages will be a challenging job. So far, around 8 households have been using this product in their homes daily but its important that a good proportion of the households in the villages use this product for its apparent benefits. So marketing this product to the tribal people is something that should be worked upon in the future. The scope of this project is huge. This project can be expanded to villages where there is a bamboo weaving community. Two such villages like Siraguda and Kusumguda are located in the Asna panchayat of the Kundra block. By bringing in more people into the workforce there will be scope for more marketing activities thereby scope to scale up this project. Another thing that can be done, as and when a reliable workforce is built up, is to bring other bamboo products into the portfolio and create a much larger variety of options for the customers.

Integrated Market Development Approach for Tree based Farming System Particularly for Mango and Sapota Trees

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Chetan Gautham Mentor: Shri G. A. Patil, Additional Chief Program coordinator, BAIF Institute of Rural Development- Karnataka,

BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

Maharashtra, India

Introduction Project I - My study aims to identify the functional linkages of Mango and Sapota growers with different systems involved in the cultivation of Mangoes and Sapotas. Analyze the present information about backward and forward linkages of production and marketing adopted by mango and sapota growers and check if any interventions are needed in the linkages so that the production output can be maximized during pre-harvest and loss of produce can be minimized during stage of post-harvest, particularly during processing. Analyze Price Trend and Marketing Practices and disseminate the information to farmers so that they can choose a workable option, from a variety of options available to market their produce.

Scope and Objectives

Market Focus and Adoption of new methods with a strong co-ordinate extension support.

Summon up a range of information gathering tools for tree based farming system, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each tool.

Demonstrate familiarity with the "farming system" and its various subsystems List the key parameters in developing farming system. Discuss the role of major factors of agro forestry based farming system by farmers, namely: land and tree systems, labor requirements, management complexity, differential social prospects, and overall profitability.

Small farming system, showing relationships between the household, production systems and external factors.

Provide assistance in gaining access to local markets to small producers of fruits in remote rural.

Create partnerships among members of the fruit supply chains from farmers to small retailers and consumers

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Description of the Project Area:

Dharwad district falls in the northern part of Karnataka state. It is situated in the interior of the Deccan peninsula and lies between the Northern latitudes of 1515 and 1535 and East longitudes of 75 and 7520. It is bound on the North by Belgaum district, on the South by Haveri district, on the East by Gadag district and on the West by Uttar Kannada district. The district has three distinct agro climatic belts namely Malnad, Transition and Dry tracts. The average annual rainfall of the district is around 670 mm with a bimodal distribution. Kalghatgi Taluka is in the part of malnad region and the demographics of the Taluka as of 2001 India census is as follows: Kalghatgi had a population of 1, 36,978 predominantly consists of 89% rural population and average rainfall is 950 mm. Literacy rate is 58.29 % and sex ratio is 936 females per 1000 males. Sex ratio in the child population of 0 to 6 years is 921.

Community and Culture In north Karnataka, Kannada dialect is the main language of communication and the people are generally vegetarians due to the religious influence of Lingayatism. Peoples surnames are often based on vegetables, food items, dresses, types of houses etc. Hindustani music is popular in this region and traditional wrestling is a popular sport. There are very few SC and ST communities in the region. This is because , king Basavanna who unified the people into one religion of lingayatism some hundreds of years ago wished to create a society where equality prevails. Almost all the people chew areca nut (betel nut) irrespective of sex and age and due to this, most of the people lose their teeth by the age of 40-50.

Approach to the project work Studying and disseminating information on Cost-Benefit Analysis which includes the following.

What are the resource requirements for all operations? What is the magnitude of real benefits in relation to the farmer's objectives? What are the net returns per unit of land, labor, and/or cash inputs, in the short-term and long-term?

To what extent can the agro forestry benefits be predicted under favorable and unfavorable conditions?

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What is the anticipated time schedule for successful establishment of proposed changes and realization of benefit streams?

Evaluating backward linkages like Farming Activities, Information of land, Irrigation management, Nutrient management, Plant protection, Organic fertilizers, Nutrients, Plant protection chemicals, Growth hormones and Labor payment.

Evaluating forward linkages like Harvesting and Processing (Maturity for harvesting, time, method and duration of harvesting and processing) and Marketing (Place and time of marketing, price, kinds of marketing and grading)

Methodology applied for the project: Selected five villages in the Kalghatgi Taluka for the survey according to the year of plantation of the mango and sapota trees. In each village, eight farmers are selected for the informal survey and the survey is conducted on individual farm land of each farmer to get the real time data. In each of the five villages farmers meeting is conducted to gather collective information on the issues they face in growing mango and sapota. Later, both the individual farmers informal survey data and the data obtained from the collective gatherings are analyzed to check the pattern of issues they face. According to the findings, after analysis, the required interventions which are needed are sorted out. In the final stage, information dissemination on the interventions needed is carried out with the farmers. Project findings My project findings are largely applicable to those areas where similar conditions prevail. The findings of the study indicate that of the overall average total cost of maintenance, approximately 60 % goes to labour. Demonstrations need to be conducted to educate the farmers to adopt recommended application of FYM, fertilizers, plant protection chemicals, since they are being under used.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Non-availability of scientific storage facility was one of the major factors contributing to lower returns from sapota. The share of sapota growers in the consumer rupee was very low as was evident from the study due to the irregularities in marketing. Lack of forward and backward linkage between growers/suppliers and buyers/exporters, has affected the mangos market potential Personal learning The people in rural areas have considerable ability to identify with another's distress and their empathy towards others is commendable. The feeling of scarcity in basic amenities is the driving force for the bonding in the relations in rural areas. The confidence in women to move forward by empowering themselves through the formation of self-help groups is something phenomenal. One important observation was that though medical facilities in India are going hi-tech and its professionals global, Rural India seems to be languishing. There is a need of to build health care services by getting suitably qualified and appropriately motivated medical personnel into rural areas. References:

RAMACHANDRA V. A., Production and marketing of sapota in northern Karnataka an economics analysis-Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Dharwad University of Agricultural Sciences.

ANNONIMOUS, 2003, Horticultural crop statistics of Karnataka at a Glance, Dierctorate of Horticulture, Lalbagh, Bangalore, pp 1-45.

GOVINDAREDDY, D.M., SRINIVAS GOWDA, M.V., SRINIVAS REDDY, M.V. AND PRASANNKUMAR, G.T., 1997, Constraints in production and marketing of mangoes; A case study in Srinivasapur region. The Bihar Journal of Agricultural Marketing, 5 (2): 234-237. Project Synopsis Page 64

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GUMMAGOLMATH, K.C., 1995, Economics of production and marketing of mango in Dharwad district, Karnataka. M.Sc. (Agri.) Thesis, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.

SUBRAMANYAM, K.V., 1987, Economics of investment in mango cultivation in Karnataka. The Mysore Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 211: 96-200.

Improving Vegetable Farmers Income Level through Farmers Organization. Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Haresh Bhere Mentor: Mr. Sudhir Wagale BAIF-MITTRA, Assistant Chief Program Coordinator

Abstract:
The price realization, in the hand of a vegetable farmer, is 30% of what the end consumer pays for the item. This single line tells the whole story of the problems associated with vegetable farming and the critical need for a solution. The differentiating factor between the problems of normal farmers and the vegetable farmer is the nature of the produce- its perishable in the case of the vegetable farmer. After working at a grass root level and understanding the problem, it was understood that the solution to this problem lies with one fundamental factor; that is the SCALE of the business and hence the need for farmers to get organized; hence the concept of a Producer Company. The other major outcome of the work is the understanding of the potential of the local consumer and hence the need for more efficient local retail marketing and its possible effect on income generation.

Introduction:
Project location: The work has been done in the Vikramgad block of Thane district, in Maharashtra. This area is a tribal belt and 90% of the population is tribal. 85-90% of the population depends on agricultural activities for their livelihood. The major crop is paddy and Ragi. After the intervention from BAIF, farmers have found floriculture and vegetable cultivation as profitable activities, apart from paddy and Ragi cultivation. In case of floriculture, the farmers have learnt the art of cultivating as well as the art of selling through a cooperative. On the other hand, in the case of vegetables they are at the initial stage of learning the art of selling. Project work:

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 As mentioned earlier, 85-90% of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. After BAIFs intervention, they (Farmers) have found vegetable cultivation to be an important activity for their income generation. Now the farmers are very well skilled/informed about the art of vegetable cultivation but when the time comes to get their efforts rewarded in terms of income generation, the result is very demotivating. They do not get the right/appropriate price for their produce. The price realization in the hands of the farmer is around 30% of what the end consumer pays and this happens because of the long chain of middlemen involved in the whole process. The adjoining Fig.1 explains this. So the projects objective is to improve the income level of the vegetable farmer by working on forward linkages.

Approach and Methodology:

As the problem statement defines the problem, we had to work with the vegetable farmers. Though, from the initial understanding, the problem at a surface level was known; yet it needed substantial back-up data to support it. The approach was:

Situation analysis: This was done by conducting a marketing survey, working alongside with the
farmer in the market. With this the actual working of the vegetable market was understood. The data of price realization in the hands of the farmer as a share of what the customer pays for, was collected. This actually showed the huge opportunity window or the potential in retail marketing. At the same time, understanding the market was done from the retailers point of view and the problems associated with the retail business. This is where the two important/practical aspects of retailer not dealing with the (Fig.1) farmer directly, were understood. The problems faced by a retailer while dealing directly with farmers, are: 1. Retailer needs year round supply of vegetables, while farmers can provide it for 6-8 months only. 2. Retailer needs variety in the basket, while due to geographical constraints farmers can grow few varieties only, not all.

Rapport building and making people own the idea: This was done by conducting a Mini-PRA in
the villages. Through these sessions general information about them, their village, and their day to day life and most importantly about their agricultural activities was collected. In the same session, their observations and problem analysis with regard to vegetable farming and marketing was discussed. This is where the need for them to get organized was proposed by the farmers themselves. They knew all the advantages associated with it, their only question was who will do it Project Synopsis Page 66

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 and how will it be done. So these were the meetings where the initial data was collected but importantly, the initial idea of getting organized and forming such a group was discussed.

Business plan analysis with food consumption survey: As found out from the situational
analysis, other than wholesale marketing there was a huge potential for retail marketing at the local level.

Calculations are done considering 25% goes as wastage in retail business.

Fig.2 Retail Business potential To evaluate the potential and to support it with necessary data, we conducted a food consumption survey. In this survey, a notebook was given to 20 individuals to fill in the data of the vegetables purchased by them from the market for a period of 2 weeks. The results were quite encouraging, the average vegetable consumption, for a family of 4, was 430 gm per day. Fig.2 shows the typical potential available in the retail marketing.

Producer Company background work: Once the problem was analysed and the need was
identified, with the business plan analysis, the next logical step was to work on the required structure. As the most important conclusion was to get the farmers organized, the next step was to decide the type of structurethat was required. After a thorough study and comparison between different structures, it was decided that the Producer Company (PC) is a better option. So we worked on the steps involved in registration and formation of PC, in terms of the MoA and AoA of PC, the operational structural requirements of PC, Information sharing sessions with farmers about PC, etc. Also,the retail business mechanism as proposed with the PC, is shown in Fig.3.

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Fig.3 Retail Business with Producer Company

Project Outcome:
1. 2. 3. 4. The need assessment and the problem understanding with respect to vegetable business. Basic information collection with the Mini-PRA. Worked out the Retail Marketing Business plan. Farmers awareness about the advantages of working in an organized way and the concept of Producer Company. 5. Formulating a Producer Company structure layout and the working rules and regulations thereof.

Learning:
Operational: 1. The first lesson that was learnt is about farming and agriculture and the difficulties associated with it. 2. Learnt more about the tribal people, their culture and their problems. 3. Functioning of different government offices associated with these activities. 4. Practical knowledge about the farmers. Personal: 1. The community level learning is multifold. I could learn and practice the skills required for team building, project execution, practical and innovative solution generation, etc. but the most important outcome is ground level understanding about people, community, and their problems. 2. Here I learnt the meaning of the word Persistence and Patience, whether it is with the villagers I am working with, the government officers I need to deal with or the NGO staff.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 3. On the project execution side, the importance of having a plan B was learnt the hard way. Irrespective of how many times you have read this in management books, that before even chalking down plan A one should be ready with plan B; you wont learn (at least I did not learn!) it till you experience it; more specifically, when there are many uncontrollable parameters in your project- in this case its agriculture. (This also teaches one how challenging it is for the farmer and how hard it is to work in the agriculture sector.) The most important learning is, Villagers do not want us to do everything for them, they just need a small contribution from our side, for the rest, they can take it forward. Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Vedaranyam Coastal Region

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow M C Karthikeyan Iyer

Mentor: Dr V Selvam

1. Preamble

Climate Change is a buzz word today, drawing so much attention from the policy makers, scientists, media and at last, common man. Climate change, with its long term impact on the increase in temperature, is affecting humankind and in particular, affecting the vulnerable coastal communities adversely. Vedaranyam region on the east coast of India is a coastal area with biodiversity such as salt swamps, estuaries, canals, wildlife and bird sanctuaries. This region is equally vulnerable to the impact of climate change on livelihood and sustainability. This study as a part of SBI Youth For India Fellowship Program is to understand the local climate change issues, covering climate trend analysis, adaptation and mitigation opportunities and to implement small interventions in a couple of project villages of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF).

2. Project Location

Vedaranyam is a small town in Nagappatinam District, on the east coast of Tamilnadu. It is a place of historical importance where Salt Satyagraha was carried out at Agashtyampalli in Vedaranyam at the same time when Gandhiji held the Dandi March in Gujarat. Besides the famous Vedaranyeshwara Temple, this region has Point Calimer, the last point on the east coast, surrounded by wildlife and a bird sanctuary, largest salt swamps and salt pan lands. This region is known for its natural beauty, biodiversity as well as marine ecology. Project Synopsis Page 69

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The major economic activities of Vedarnayam region are salt production, agriculture, fishing and trading. The money flow in the region is reasonably high due to migration of local population outside India.

Being at the base of the Cauvery delta, this region is predominately rain fed, supported with local water irrigation resources. Water pollution and salt water intrusion are the biggest problems in this region on account of salt production and aquaculture. This region is highly prone to extreme weather conditions with one side covered by rough sea and the other side by shallow sea and climate change. There are also adverse impacts on livelihood options agriculture and fishing after the Tsunami. Tourism potential of this region has not yet been exploited due to awareness issues and infrastructure problems.

MSSRF is implementing the project on Conservation and Development of Vedaranyam Coastal Zone project based on Gandhian Principles supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and World Bank so as to restore and conserve the coastal resources and the promotion of community based coastal zone management programs.

This study covers the entire region. However, the project villages of MSSRF were dealt with in detail and for the purpose of the intervention proposed, two villages- Siruthalaikadu and Poovanthoppu are considered, which are fishing and salt workers hamlets respectively.

3. Study Objectives

The objectives of this study are: To understand the local issues affecting the communities in general and also pinpoint the critical issues at the village and regional level To analyse the climate data over 30-50 years of this region so as to see whether there is an increase in temperature and there is a change in the level of rainfall To understand the climate change adaptation techniques as understood by the communities and the climate change mitigation technologies as being used by the communities To carry out the intervention in climate change mitigation through awareness creation with the possibility of reducing carbon emission in the communities in a small way.

4. Methodology:

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 The tools/techniques used are: Formal and informal discussions with the communities, individually and through group discussions to unravel the local issues at the family level and the village level Intuitive survey with the communities to understand the practices of climate change adaptation and mitigation Long term climate change trend analysis including the variability and anomaly of key weather parameters- temperature, rainfall etc

5. Observations and Findings

Vedaranyam regions issues are more or less similar and related in two counts- livelihood and basic amenities.

Livelihood: With limited livelihood options, there are issues with regard to decrease in fish stock due to improper usage of nets and post Tsunami effects as experienced by the local community. Dependency of agriculture on rains and Cauvery irrigation channels is also impacting agriculture and allied activities. Salt water intrusion is affecting farming and cultivation due to salt production and aquaculture in fertile lands.

Amenities: Though water sources are available in ponds, lakes, wells, etc, potable water is still an issue. Water pollution and contamination due to prawn aquaculture affects ground water level adversely, which is evident in this region. Infrastructural issues such as abandoned meter gauge railway line and the delay in broad gauge conversion for better connectivity are also impeding the development of this region.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 5.1 Climate Change trend analysis

Based on the climate change trend analysis over 30-50 years of this part of coastal region, it has been observed that mean temperature anomaly is slightly upwards resulting in marginal increase in overall temperature.

The interesting element of this trend analysis is that not in all the months, is there an increase in temperature. During the summer months the temperature seems to be the same without any positive or negative anomaly, while during the other months there is a tendency to experience increase in temperature over the period of time.

With regard to rainfall, there is no drastic change in the overall rainfall pattern. At the same time, there is a small degree of decrease in south west monsoon while the north east monsoon level appears to be the same. However, the rain intensity in a particular month of north east monsoon has been increasing over the period of time. This shows clearly that there is, indeed, a climate change impact on the weather patterns over the long period time, which can certainly cause adversity in agriculture and fishing related livelihoods.

5.2 Climate Change adaptation

While people at the policy level or in urban cities talk about climate change in terms of its causes such as green house gas emissions, carbon credits, carbon abatement, adaptation and mitigation strategies etc at a macro level, it has been quite revealing to understand how grass root level communities in coastal regions understand about climate change in their own way.

Overall, coastal communities in Vedaranyam believe that there is a change in average temperature and the temperature rise is being felt during summer. Excess rainfall or low rainfall and erratic rainfall appear to be common. The key regional climate change impact is on reduction in income for livelihood, lower output in agriculture, water scarcity and the key climate change issues affecting the villages are water problems, pollution and alternative income sources.

Although it is not surprising that the communities in this region are not aware about the causes of climate change and have no clue about carbon emissions, they really understand climate change in their own terms and relate the same to their livelihood, which is more important and inspiring.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Some of the adaptation measures generally followed here may not be sophisticated and are very simple and effective as under: Moving out of a place for work or a job in case of adverse local conditions- Eg: Fishing in river/canal in case of fishing restriction in sea or disintermediation in trading, flexibility in jobs prospects depending upon climate change (monsoon delay or heavy wind)etc Utilisatation of past savings during monsoon season especially in the case of salt workers In-house bund formation for storing rain water that can be used for agriculture, gardening and farming and use of agri waste for heating requirements.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 5.3 Climate Change mitigation

It would be too much to expect that the coastal communities in this region should think of climate change mitigation as a way of life as there is a lack of awareness about the basics of mitigation and also maintenance costs associated with it. For instance, post tsunami, many coastal communities in this region were freely distributed with solar lanterns, water purification plants etc. These have not been effective due to service and maintenance issues. Clearly, people here do not know the positive impact of reducing carbon emissions by using gas based stove or CFL lamps, but they do use this stuff on account of convenience and comfort.

Given the situation on the ground, a small level intervention replacing the energy consuming incandescent lamps with energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) that can mitigate emissions to the least extent possible and have an economic impact on the communities has been explored for implementation in the project villages.

6. Intervention:

For any fruitful intervention in climate change to be really effective and easily implementable, the size of such interventions does not matter much. In this case, village level energy efficiency schemereplacement of incandescent bulbs with CFL lamps in two project villages has been initiated. As energy inefficient incandescent bulbs are still being used in Vedaranyam region, in particular, in project villages- Siruthalaikadu and Poovanthoppu, there is a scope for facilitating the change/replacement of these bulbs with energy efficient Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) in about 365 households by which energy saving can be achieved by the households so as to mitigate carbon emission in a small yet possible way.

6.1 Jilebi (CFL) in project villages

One villager during interactions called it Jilebi to differentiate and understand CFL Lamps!!

The objective of this intervention is to Understand the household lighting needs of the community with reference to awareness, issues/concerns, etc Create awareness about use of energy saving CFLs Facilitate the villagers/households to replace their existing incandescent bulbs by offering CFL lamps at an affordable price through bulk purchase directly from the original CFL manufacturers Page 74

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Collect the incandescent bulbs from the community for disposal

6.2 Overview of Project Villages

Siruthalaikadu: Fishing village with 260 households with a population of 1000 Fishing is the primary activity Besides tube lights, still incandescent bulbs are being used in most of the households. In some houses, CFL lamps are being used in small quantities (one or two). Villagers in general, are not aware about the usage and energy saving potential of CFLs The primary reason for not using CFL lamps is high cost compared to normal lamps

Poovanthoppu: Salt workers village with 105 households with a population of 430 Adult population is predominately into salt pan labour work Besides tube lights, incandescent bulbs are still being used in most of the households Villagers in general, are not aware about the usage and energy saving potential of CFLs The primary reason for not using CFL lamps is high cost compared to normal lamps

6.3 Carbon emission reduction

As these villages have high energy consuming incandescent lamps of 40W and 60W, these can be replaced with CFL lamps of 15W and 20W. With the energy saving of minimum 32 W per lamp, the average lighting hours 3. 5 hours per day and the emission reduction factor at 0.856 (tCO2/MWh) (as per Clean Development Mechanisms Program of Activities- CFL lighting scheme Bachat Lamp Yojana), the carbon emission reduction can be 0.0350 tCo2e per annum.

With 2 CFL lamps per household for 365 household of Siruthalaikadu and Poovanthoppu, the emission reductions can be 25.55 tCo2e. Therefore, with the replacement of normal incandescent bulbs with CFL lamps, Project villages Siruthalaikadu and Poovanthoppu can reduce the minimum carbon emission by 25 tonnes in a year. This may be a little impact, but a worthy invaluable impact at the village level.

6.4 Energy saving

Assuming the average energy cost per household is about Rs. 75 per month and energy saving of 30% using CFL lamps, the energy saving per household can be as low as Rs. 270 per annum. For all Project Synopsis Page 75

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 the households of 365, the annual energy saving in monetary terms can be 98,550 per annum. This may be a minimum remarkable energy saving opportunity for the project villages.

6.5 Benefits to Villages

The key element of this initiative is to persuade the village households to buy CFL lamps at subsidized rates so that they see the real value of energy saving and the use of CFL lamps. The collections from the households on account of sale of CFL at the subsidized rates can be donated and ploughed back to the respective villages through contributions to the village development fund so that the money collected from the community can be utilised for the community as a whole.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 7. Final word

As a part of MOEF & World Bank project, this CFL intervention is currently under execution wherein about 1000 CFL lamps are to replace normal incandescent bulbs in the villages of Siruthaliakadu and Poovanthoppu.

In a complex world facing climate change, carbon emission reduction of 25 tonnes per annum and energy saving of about Rs. 98,000 by the project villages can be a tiny contribution to combat climate change impact in a small yet possible way.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Manish Dwivedi:. Mentor: Mr. Ronak Shah, Development Professional, Seva Mandir, Udaipur

Background: The recognition and acceptance of growing evidence that human activities are contributing to global warming was the ice-breaker at the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in the early 90s. It was agreed that collaborative efforts are needed to be put in place to reduce green house gases. However, it was not till 1997, that a protocol including binding commitments was proposed. At the 1997 Kyoto (Japan) meeting, Parties agreed on a Protocol that set targets for reduced emission of Green House Gases for industrialised and developed countries. To help reduce the cost of meeting these reduction commitments, three market-based flexible mechanisms were designed. They are: International Emissions Trading (ET), Joint Implementation (JI), and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In essence, they all say that a developed country having to meet emission targets can purchase UN-accredited carbon credits from other developing countries without emission targets. Such projects can earn saleable, certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. To be registered under the CDM, a project has to be additional which means it has to be a new project that would not have happened otherwise and it must contribute to sustainable development in the host nation (where the project is carried out). CDM has now become more than a billion dollar market. The first CDM project was registered on 18 November 2004. On 6 January 2010, the 2000th project was registered. So far, all registered projects have generated more than 365 million Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), with another 2,500 projects at the validation stage, the mechanism is expected to generate more than 2.9 billion CERs.

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The CDMs two main goals are to make it cheaper for developed countries to achieve their Kyoto reduction targets and to encourage sustainable development in developing nations. While the large number of projects have mobilised large amounts of private finance, however CDM has not lived up to its objectives. The majority of CDM credits come from: Projects that were happening in any case or that artificially inflate their emission reduction: Credits from these projects do not represent real emission reduction. Yet, they can be used by industrialised countries to meet their emission reduction targets. This undermines the already weak emission targets of rich nations and increases global greenhouse gas emissions. Projects with zero positive or even negative environmental and social impacts: The CDM requires projects to have a stakeholder consultation process. However, engagement with civil society is minimal and the rules do not allow for meaningful participation of affected communities. In some cases, this has led to the registration of projects that have seriously harmed local people and their environment. : A Potential win-win CDM project: (Environment Protection and Poverty Alleviation) Small-scale rural projects appear to offer the best prospect for poverty alleviation in CDM. According to a recent DFID research study, poverty benefits will be the highest where rural households are connected with new energy sources, for example, via grid-connected biomass electricity production, improved wood stoves, micro-hydro power generation and other renewable energy options with high poverty alleviation benefits. But the study observes the need for dedicated implementing agencies and a robust monitoring plan to ensure that such benefits are actually derived. Sustainable development in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A pro-poor project initiative: CDM projects potentially have sustainable direct benefits in reduction of poverty. Although sustainable development is very superficially treated in UNFCCC principles, yet it is an explicit objective of CDM. The difficulty in implementing a pro-poor CDM activity is the initial higher input and transaction costs. Since the scale of a sustainable pro-poor CDM activity has to be small, the price of carbon could prove to be too low to achieve the desired objectives. The competition for scarce CDM funds means that there is an obvious temptation to trade-off Sustainable Development objectives. Pro-poor CDM Project activity by Seva Mandir: Improved Woodstoves in Udaipur - Helping Women and the Environment This project has been initiated by Seva Mandir, an NGO working for the development of rural and tribal population in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts of Southern Rajasthan. Through this project, Seva Mandir intends to disseminate Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) to
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19,500 families in Kherwara and Rishabhdev Tehsils of Udaipur District, Rajasthan State. The purpose of the project activity is to decrease fuel wood consumption by replacing inefficient, traditional wood cooking stoves in 19,500 households with more fuel efficient, single pan, wood cooking stoves, in a drought prone, biomass deficient region of India. Contribution of the project activity to sustainable development The project has social, environmental, economic and technological benefits which in turn contribute to the sustainable development of the local region and the country as follows: Social benefits: Reduces drudgery for women (due to reduced fuel wood use) who would otherwise need to spend long hours and travel long distances to collect fuel wood. Improves overall health of the women and children by reducing smoke in the kitchen, thus reducing health hazards from indoor air pollution. Reduces cooking time the materials used in making the stoves transmit the heat more efficiently thereby cooking the food faster. Better cooking environment due to less smoke and carbon residue in the kitchen. Better quality of life the rural communities get more family time as the whole family can sit and eat together. Environmental benefits: Improves the local environment, by reducing the rate of degradation of forests and deforestation in the project area. Reduces indoor pollution the stove emits less smoke and reduces morbidity from respiratory diseases and other health hazards, as well as the medical expenditure involved. A resource-poor household would thereby need to spend limited available finances on medicines, further exacerbated by loss of wages from both - not being able to work and having to look after the ill person. Reduces global and local environmental pollution and environmental degradation by reduction in the use of non-renewable biomass, thus leading to reduction in GHG emissions. Less water and effort is needed for cleaning vessels as the cooking process is relatively smoke free. Economic benefits: Increased employment opportunities for local communities through the CDM activity.

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Reduces amount of fuel wood purchased and/or wage equivalent from reduced firewood collection time. To meet the stipulated objectives and to maintain the genuine contribution to sustainable development, the project activity needs a robust monitoring plan. This will ensure the project activities remain efficient throughout the project life cycle. Project objective as a SBI YFI Fellow at Seva Mandir: To create awareness about the project at the grass-root level. To co-ordinate in implementing a pilot and structure the monitoring plan based on actual findings.

Project Location: The CDM project is to be implemented in 120 villages of Kherwara and Rishabhdev tehsils of Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Both the tehsils are located in the southwest of Udaipur and is predominantly ST populated. The region is a semi arid zone surrounded by the Aravalli hill ranges from north to south. The topography of the area is represented by medium to high rocky hills. The region is very drought-prone, experiencing drought every three to four years. Land use patterns have shown a sharp decrease in forest land cover and increase in desert land. With very little farm land holdings (mainly hilly) the indiscriminate and illegal exploitation of forest resource is a regular practice. The region is also infested with various social problems, and literacy rate is less than 30% amongst women. Methodology: Village level meetings: The meetings, including demos of stoves were convened across all the villages. The project became part of every meeting agenda- regular SHGs meetings, village institution meetings or other awareness camps related to education, health, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. Data restructuring: The correction of household data with regard to the village names, hamlet names to quantify the required number of house-holds. Stove Usage rotation: to make the majority of the house-holds familiar with its usage, the stoves needed to be rotated among the different house-holds. Unique identity of stoves and house-hold: The pilot has been started with 106 house-holds. Every household has been given two stoves. A unique ID has been assigned to each household and to each stove. The usage of the stove is to be traced based on these unique Ids. Monitoring methodology and brief description of the monitoring plan: The monitoring strategy is focused on the two main monitoring requirements: tracking usage of improved Cook Stove, and tracking the slippage to old traditional mud/brick cook stoves. In addition, Monitoring shall also consist of checking of all appliances or a representative
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sample thereof, to determine if they are still operating or are replaced by an equivalent service appliance. This will be co-ordinated by a project team and data will be recorded at individual house-hold level. Conclusion: While CDM does provide a funding source for potential pro-poor projects, it is clear that strong prudent support of a development agency is necessary to secure sustainable benefits. The contradictions between a market-based instrument (with the objective of providing credits on the global carbon trade market), and the development of small-scale local solutions and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods which form the core of poverty reduction, could prove to be too great, or at the least substantially reduce the poverty benefits because of the expenditure involved in its implementation. At the heart of the project are the stakeholders (women /men) who will be using the ICS. Adaptability to a new technology and slight modification of cooking behavioural aspect is definitely an ice that needs to be broken. With the dedicated efforts that Seva Mandir is putting into it, the project should be able to achieve its remarkable objectives.
References: www.cdm-watch.org www.unfccc.int www.fairclimate.com Seva Mandir PDD

Development model for forest dwelling tribes in Wayanad

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Midhun Rajagopal Mentor: Mr V.V. Sivan, Senior Scientist,M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Wayanad

Abstract

This project was undertaken to study and address the issues faced by the forest dwelling tribes in Wayanad district, Kerala. The project studies the
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present socio-economic scenario of tribal population that depends on NonTimber Forest Products (NTFPs) for livelihood and brings out recommendations for their development, taking into consideration social, economic and ecological factors.

Introduction

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are products other than timber that are extracted or collected from forests for commercial or consumption purposes. These may include food, fodder, medicinal plants, fuel wood, oils, resins etc.

In India, the right to collect NTFPs is exclusively reserved for the traditional forest dwelling communities as enforced by the Forest Rights Act. The traditional forest dwelling communities consist mainly of tribals who have been residing in forest lands for years. Marketing of these NTFPs is done mainly by state run agencies that acquire the products through co-operatives of NTFP gatherers in return for fixed collection charges.

The collection charges the gatherers are paid often forms only a fraction of the price these NTFPs fetch in the final market, since value addition takes place only in the latter stages of the supply chain. In recent years, there has been a notable decline in the availability of NTFPs due to factors like climate change, deforestation, destructive collection practices and the regulations imposed due to forest conservation and wildlife protection. Minimal returns from the efforts put in and lack of availability of enough resources have resulted in both social and economic backwardness of these communities, which needs immediate attention and action.

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Location

Wayanad district is located in the north-east of Kerala, and forms part of the Western Ghats. It is chiefly an agrarian economy with very low level of industrialization. Wayanad is the least populous district in Kerala, but houses the largest percentage of tribal population in the state. The dominant tribal communities in Wayanad include Paniya, Adiya, Kurichia, Kuruma, Kattunaicka and Uralikuruma. They account for more than 17% of the total population in the district. Tribals can be classified as agricultural laborers, marginal farmers or forest dependents, based on their economic activity.

Among all the tribes, Kattunaickas are the most dependent on NTFPs for their livelihood. They are hunters and gatherers by tradition and are identified as a Primitive Tribal Group by the Government of India. They are nature worshippers and communicate among themselves in their traditional language which is a mixture of all Dravidian languages. Kattunaicka settlements are usually found in the interior and periphery of forests. They collect items like honey, beeswax, lichens, medicinal plants and fuel wood from the forests.

The marketing of NTFPs in Kerala is undertaken by the Kerala State Federation of SC/ST Development Co-operatives Limited with its head office in Thiruvananthapuram. The Federation acquires NTFPs collected by the tribals through their co-operatives and sells them through tendercum auction method. There are five S.T. Service Co-operative Societies in Wayanad - at Sulthan Bathery, Meppadi, Pulpally, Thirunelli and Thavinjal, with the gatherers as members. The returns from sales of NTFPs are divided such that 80% goes to the gatherers as collection charge, 15% to the societies and 5% to the Federation.

Methodology

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A baseline survey of tribal households dependent on NTFPs was conducted in order to gather details required for the project. Data was gathered by means of a socio-economic questionnaire that covered a wide range of aspects such as:

Family and educational details Livelihood Means of collection, administration, processing and marketing of NTFPs Family income Standard of living Earning, spending and saving habits Awareness about rights Gender dimension in various activities

A total of 40 households from 18 hamlets, spread across all three blocks in Wayanad viz. Sulthan Bathery, Mananthavady and Vythiri were interviewed in order to ensure uniform representation of the district.

Value chain analysis of the present system of NTFP marketing in Wayanad was done with help of data available from the Kerala State SC/ST Development Federation. Details about the NTFPs collected from all co-operatives for the previous ten years were collected. Qualitative information was gathered in consultation with experts, government officials, social workers etc.

Findings

Observations from the project reveal many economic, social and ecology related issues faced by the community, some of which are listed below.

Economic:
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It was found that the concept of value addition of NTFPs was almost absent among the gatherers. The general practice involves handing over the NTFPs in the raw form as it is collected to the co-operatives. Processing and value addition of NTFPs are carried out only after they are sold by the federation and procured by third parties. There is a huge difference in the price fetched by value added NTFPs and NTFPs in the raw form, showing the high potential for performing value addition of NTFPs by gatherers, that will help enhance their income. Majority in the community were found not to have savings or any other form of accounts in banks or other financial institutions. General banking still remains unfamiliar to the community and they are often found to be in distress when in need of money due to unforeseen circumstances or emergencies. Social:

Awareness about Forest Rights Act was found to be minimal among the community. People are ignorant about the recognition and legal rights that traditional forest dwellers are entitled to through the act. Addiction to alcohol and tobacco is prevalent in the community, causing various social and health related problems among them. Significant share of the income is spent on alcohol and tobacco products, which affects the financial situation of families. Ecological:

The availability of NTFPs is found to be decreasing year after year which may be associated to various factors such as climate change, erratic rainfall, deforestation, etc.

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Due to dwindling forest resources and increasing financial pressure, people often follow destructive and unsustainable practices for collecting NTFPs that affect the forest ecosystem and biodiversity adversely. Such practices will also result in decline of forest resource availability in subsequent years. Based on the findings, areas of intervention identified for the project are:

Setting up of a NTFP processing unit in one taluka in Wayanad and providing training for the community on processing, value addition and marketing with adequate technical support.

Conducting capacity building and awareness sessions for groups on topics like Forest Rights Act, sustainable NTFP collection practices, money management, alcoholism and other issues concerning their development.

Synopsis -I Creating Awareness amongst Tribal Women of Dangs about Malnutrition & Legal Rights
Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Shaik Parveen Chesthi Mentor: Mr. V.C. Badave

1. Location: 1.1. Backdrop The Dangs is one of the most beautiful districts of Gujarat, which starts from the rugged mountain chains of the Sahyadri range of Western Ghats in the southwest and descends on the western side into undulating tract; it is the original home of the 'adivasis', the tribal population of Gujarat. In ancient Indian Scriptures Dang is known as Dand Aranyaka,
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meaning Bamboo Forest. The Dangs is a tribal district, with Bhil, Konkana (Kunvi), Varli, Kotwalia, Kathodi and Gamit being the major tribal groups. The Bhils have historically been residing in the Dangs whereas the other tribes came to the Dangs in search of a livelihood. The Konkanas and the Varlis have migrated to this area from a coastal region in the southwest, the Konkan. They speak a mixture of Khandeshi, Bhili and Marathi. The Kotwalias are known to have always been landless and some of the Kotwalias have no experience with cultivation. They are entirely dependent on their occupation of collecting and processing bamboo, for example, basket making. The Kathodi tribe in Gujarat survived once upon a time by the collection of katha from khair (Acacia catechu) trees, a non timber forest produce that is used for medicinal purposes. The Kathodi have the lowest socio-economic position in the Dangs. Forest is the primary source of livelihood of Dangs: hunting, gathering and the trade in timber. Thereafter they started cultivating, mostly practicing slash and burn techniques. During the rest of the year they depend very much on other sources of subsistence i.e. forest fruits, mahua (Madhuca indica) flowers, grains from wild grasses and roots. Dangi is a mix of Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi languages. There are two reasons for the large Marathi influence. Firstly, the region borders Maharashtra so there is a lot of contact with Marathi speaking people and secondly, the area was under the jurisdiction of Maharashtra before the formation of the separate state of Gujarat. Not only the language, but also the culture and the dressing pattern have Marathi influence. The festivals in Dangs is Diwali, Holi, Thyra Pooja, Mavali Pooja, Gavraya Pooja, and the Fish festival before the rainy reason 1.2. Details of Demography Dang district is one of the 26 districts of Gujarat state. The district headquarters is located at Ahwa. The district occupies an area of 1764 km and has a population of 186,729. The district comprises of 311 villages, 70 Panchayats and one taluka. It is the most backward district in Gujarat. It is 100% rural. Table 1: Demography detail of dang district 1 Total Population 2 Males 3 Females 186,729 (36,498 households) 94356 93264

4 Sex Ratio (Number of females per 1000 987 males) 5 BPL Population 6 Tribal population
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(%) 74.003 (%) 98

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1.3. Status and role of women Women play an important role in the agriculture-cum-forest-based economy, hence among tribal population; womens work is regarded as crucial for the survival of tribal families in terms of provisioning for food, income earning and management of financial resources. Women are the major wage earners of this area, especially in forest dependent livelihood systems. They take on the primary responsibility for household provisioning, as well as of the agricultural work. Among most of the settled tribes in the program area, women do not have inheritance rights to land. Further, they are unaware of their legal rights with regard to property, separation/divorce. They usually approach the Panchayat system for settling issues with limited success in terms of alimony settlement.

2. Objective The objectives of the SBI Youth for India fellows project are as follows: To understand the status of tribal women in Dang and their health problems. Prevention of anemia among young rural women and adolescent girls in Dangs through developing a Community based Approach. Work towards betterment of their livelihood through awareness generation regarding womens legal rights. To generate awareness about the new policies and schemes of Gujarat Government.

3. Methodology
3.1. Background I am working with SHG women, Aganwadi helpers by conducting training programmes on nutritional values and general health and hygiene and to create awareness amongst them about various government schemes for the benefit of women. e.g. widow pension, old age pension, legal rights. A survey* was conducted to understand the current situation of women in the project location. Subsequent to the survey, a pamphlet** listing the legal rights of women was compiled in Gujarathi and distributed to the SHGs and Anganwadi helpers. 3.2. Survey sampling and findings
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Malnutrition related information with regard to two villages of Sakarpatal and Bhadrapada is detailed below. S. No 1. 2. 1. 2. 3. Particulars District Area Selection of clusters Population Total Families No No No. Unit Information The Dangs Villages of Sakarpatal PHC 02 2051 372 Remarks

18 kms from Vaghai Bhadarpada Sakarpatal Bpada : 964 Spatal: 1087 approx

3.3. Brief summary of work undertaken

i. ii.
iii. iv.

Survey work Medical camps for adolescent girls, pregnant ladies and children in the age group -0 to 6 years. Health checkup by checking weight, height, blood samples Distribution of medicine, health products for malnourished children and de-worming tablets

v. vi. vii. viii.

Demonstration of preparation of Nagali powder a nutritious locally available millet based preparation Meeting with SHG groups Participation in Mamtta Divas Health education awareness with the help of Aganwadi helpers
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ix.

Distribution of books related to environment, health and a pamphlet detailing legal rights,

x.

Working with a Nahari SHG group of 20 women, demo/training: for Nahari group.

4. Survey Results
The findings of the survey are that 0 % of the women in Dang are aware of womens legal rights; educated women are also unaware of the same. Most of the villages are affected by infrastructural problems like bad road, no transport service, no hospital facility, unemployment and water problem in the months of April and May. Old age problems children are separated from parents after their marriage. So an old person having to toil doing agricultural work without the help of their children or with contract labour is common. The children after separation migrate from the village in search of better wages or ensure that the landholding is separated and then work on their own land. The responsibility of taking care of the elders is of little or no value in their perspective. I found that there are no old age pension and no widow pension schemes run by the Govt. of Gujarat. Divorce based on approval from Panchayat exists but monthly alimony is not provided to the women. Property and inheritance rights are cornered by males. Hospitals are far from the village. SHG groups are not working as per the proper procedure due to ignorance, as a result of which, many have them have closed down. A major problem afflicting the villages is Alcoholism. On the positive side of things, the tribal community in the villages accord importance to girls education and most of the women are educated, they are aware of family planning practices and women play an equal and important role in decision making regarding any family matter.

5. Project activities undertaken

Results of medical camps for Nutrition status estimation: HB, Ht, Wt, BMI etc Total collection of samples: 08 Sample sent to CRS for HB estimation: 08 Total Children 0-6 years: 257. Weighed children: 229. Normal Children: 100 : 43.0 % Grade I- Children: 92 : 40.0 %

Children In grade III : 37 : 17.0 %

Kitchen gardens have been initiated with Carrot, Coriander, Spinach and Methi. Distribution of Papaya plants in villages and schools has been completed. Focused group discussions have

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been held with pregnant women and Dais (midwives), SHG women, Aganwadi Helpers and elderly women. Presently working on Guidance to the widows in the villages for collection of the documents required for widow pension and old age pension. Initiation for infrastructure development like application to the District Collector of Dangs district for establishment of a small permanent dispensary for village people (Dagadapada) Application to the Sarpanch for repairing bad roads in the village Screening of movie Bol Basanto on womens legal rights Introduced Ragi powder as a health drink for malnutrition Distribution of plants & seeds for kitchen garden Medical camps in Ashrams and schools Mamtadevas demonstration of different kinds of protein containing recipes with products which are easily available in the village Jamalpada Nahari: in Dang District Nahari is a traditional food restaurant wholly owned and operated by women SHGs for their income generation activity in the tribal areas of Dangs district. This Nahari was started in 2007 by BAIF with two SHGs; the first year saw good business for the unit, with the premises being maintained in good condition. However, certain disputes of a personal nature with a neighboring cashew cooperative unit contributed to problems creeping in and ultimately resulted in the closure of the Nahari. I am working with two women SHGs to restart the Nahari again, this is being achieved by conducting regular meetings in order to revive the SHGs by motivating the SHG members to start work on the Nahari by creating greater awareness amongst the SHGs (for instance- Compilation and distribution of pamphlet about government schemes and provisions for women and SHGs in the area of tourism in south Gujarat. Training regarding accounting practices, maintenance of premises, etc).

My second project was on Tribal Development Fund in south Gujarat

Assignment Guides were Mr. V.C. Badave & Mr.J. R. Mori

1) Location:
Kandha village of Vansda block of Navsari district Gujarat 2) Objective:
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In Gujarat Wadi means an orchard of fruits and vegetables. BAIF conceived the model of wadi to provide livelihood to the tribal families from South Gujarat. This is an evolving model subject to improvement depending on the situation. In this model on one acre of poor degraded land, plantation of 20 mangoes and 40 cashews is done with 300-400 forestry species along the border. The concept was an improvement from the usual slash-and-burn type of crops being used by the families in the project location. 3. Methodology Procedure i. Conduct village/cluster level meetings ii. Disseminate information about Wadi programme iii. Complete layouts in field areas and select field guides iv. Inspect fields to ensure implementation processes are correctly followed. v. Encourage greater participation of women in wadi activities. vi. Understand and try to tackle social issues in the village vii. Establish a Village Information centre An acre of land is planted with 25 mangoes, 14 lemons and 14 cashews trees. The border is covered with forestry trees which can be used for fodder and fuel by the families. The forestry (subabul, bamboo, eucalyptus etc) takes care of the cattle fodder, fuel for the family and sometimes even reinforcements for the house. Sample: 125 wadi families in Khanda village 4. Findings, learning and subsequent action: The following activities were taken up by the SBI Youth for India fellow during the fellowship program under the larger project as described above. Regular follow up visits to wadi fields and interaction with farmer community. Dissemination of information regarding wadi programme. Participated as Valuator in eye camp where 95 people participated while three people were sent to Valsad eye hospital for treatment for motiyabind operation Screening of environment related movie Encouraged primary school students (boys and girls) to read books Mother Nature, Niru and her mango tree etc. Started Village Information centre to enable beneficiary farmers to easily access detailed information regarding Wadi project with documentation and posters in information center. The centre also provides other information regarding new policies and schemes of Gujarat government for tribal people, education, employment, agricultural related, etc. Helped in the formation Kurshi Vikas gatt (wadi-tukadi/ Farmer SHGs) Awareness creation on personal hygiene and sanitation Conducted an embroidery course in CHONDA village school, which was established by the village committee in the name of Manibhai Desai where DHRUVA, BAIF is the facilitator, to encourage better development for the school children through different activities.

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Revitalising the traditional Shade Grown Coffee Agroforestry System of Wayanad district of Kerala, India
(A Study to benefit the farmer & to promote sustainable coffee cultivation)

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Pruthvi Raj C.C. Mentor: Dr. Anilkumar N.

Introduction Traditionally, coffee is produced on farms under the tree canopy, where additional trees have been planted to produce useful products; the system is called traditional polyculture or shade grown coffee agroforestry system on which many other components are dependent for their survival. Indian coffee cultivation is usually under a well-defined two-tier mixed shade canopy, comprising evergreen trees (Artocarpus hirsutus, Artocapus Integrifolia, Syzigium Cuminii, Cinnamom Malabathrum, Chrysophyllum roxburghii, Garcinea gummigutta, Caryota urens, Spathodia campanulata, Lagestroemia macrocarpa, Ficus spp. Michelia champaka etc.,). These shade trees are known to prevent soil erosion on a sloping terrain, enrich the soil by recycling nutrients from deeper layers, protect the coffee plant from seasonal fluctuations in temperature and play host to diverse flora & fauna while performing other environmental services to mankind. Coffee agro ecosystems with complex shade canopies protect biodiversity, yield minor forest products contributing to subsidiary income and simulate a similar role for conservation as many plants and animal species that depend on the coffee plantations are the same species that are also found in the forests. These shade trees fix nitrogen into the soil and their leaf litter is home to beneficial insects that devour nematodes-soil-borne organisms that attack roots. Shade trees also reduce the stress of coffee plants by ameliorating adverse climatic conditions and nutritional imbalances hence, chemical fertilizers and pesticides aren't much needed on these farms resulting in reduced cost of cultivation.

Coffee System of Wayanad District Wayanad district is traditionally a coffee grown hilly terrain located in the southern part of the Western Ghats, a world biodiversity hotspot. The conservation significance of this agro forestry dominated landscape is high and there are efforts being made now from different quarters to prevent further depletion of the existing biodiversity and ecosystem services of the agricultural landscape of this terrain. 90% of all coffee farms in the district are small scale holdings with the average holding size of 0.68 ha and coffee plantations occupy 31 percent of surviving forested areas. Local farmers appear conscious of the biodiversity value of their plantations, which may be linked to their traditional cultural practices of conserving sacred forests and species, however, increase in labour cost, shortage of labour, international coffee price fluctuations and public policies are driving them away from traditional land
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management practices towards modern practices which favour shade tree monocultures and sun-intensive cultivation/technified farming. Although modern coffee varieties can obtain higher yields when grown under full sun in optimal environmental conditions supported with high external inputs, production is benefited by shade trees under suboptimal conditions. The advantages of using shade trees, especially under suboptimal conditions for coffee, include both climate and site amelioration, such as buffering temperature extremes in the air and soil and maintaining soil fertility through the incorporation of organic matter from leaf litter and pruning. Also, by regulating light transmission to coffee plantswhich in turn regulates coffee yields. Shade trees also support livelihood by providing timber, firewood, flowers, fruits and other minor forest produce. Coffee yields are generally unpredictable as different stages of the production cycle depend on timely and appropriate rainfall and also coffee farming being labour intensive is severely lagging behind in mechanization which leads to high labour costs. Despite these risks, farmers are obliged to invest heavily in annual plantation maintenance, which creates the need for economic buffers (Muschler, 2000). Thus farmers usually turn to timber from shade trees when the coffee market is down and also to achieve the sudden increase in yield which is short term and harmful to the farm in the long term. Shade Coffee System: Present scenario The complex agro biodiversity system is now gradually disappearing, as most of the coffee holdings are being replaced by mono cropped chemical dependent/Technified farms in many coffee grown regions of India. These ecological disasters were made possible by the development of high-yield coffee varieties that flourish in full sunlight but under chemical protection from disease. In these farms, shade tree species are cleared in order to grow coffee in the open sun and high levels of pesticides and fertilizers are applied and there is little room for plant and animal biodiversity; despite the fact that such modern agricultural practices are hazardous for the environmental, economical and social services of the ecosystem in the form of increased soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and high environmental and economic costs associated with the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides required in these systems. In recent days due to adverse effects of climate change, interest in shade grown coffee is increasing resulting in the trend towards green consumerism. To support this trend, Shade coffee certification programs have emerged over the past few years which pays premium price for farms that provide higher quality habitat for biodiversity as the coffee plantations, harbour a high density and diversity of trees. In order to protect and conserve this coffee farm biodiversity, agro ecology and conservation must overlap to protect biodiversity and farmer livelihoods. Present study: the Hypothesis Even though agricultural land is not at all a substitute for natural forests in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services, it still promotes and supports a healthy biotic and a biotic atmosphere in the ecosystem or the habitat. In Wayanad district, the farmers appreciate
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native biodiversity, but with the increasing farming pressure (input cost, labour availability, infestation of pest and diseases, wild animal menace, etc) from plantation economics and public policies they have been driven to gradually replace the original diversified cover by profusely opening up their farm tree canopy. Most of them are determined to increase the farm yield per unit area to increase their profit margin (as most of the time their cost equals the benefits) as this practice is known to increase the coffee yield in the short term, without realizing the adverse effect on the living community of opening up the tree canopy, which otherwise was serving various needs of the earth along with sustaining the long term yield. We believe that it is possible for the coffee cultivators to go back to the glory of maintaining diverse wild and cultivated trees in their farm if there is an attractive market for shade grown coffee and if they are also paid for the environmental services of their farm. Study Priority As already stated, from the farmers point of view, their agricultural land is not at all a substitute for the natural forest in terms of its environmental, economical and social services, as the farmers have their own interest in their farming as it is their livelihood especially for small scale coffee farmers. Since the services of trees/integrated farm are well recognized but not incentivised, it is everyones duty to conserve and protect the diminishing biodiversity in the coffee farms as it is substantially contributing to the countrys biodiversity. Hence in order to conserve the biodiversity of coffee farms appropriate policies and practices are required, where in the coffee farmers have to be paid for their environmental services in the form of conserving their farms biodiversity like in other countries, as farms also significantly contribute to the countrys biodiversity. Objectives & findings The study focussed from a commodity based approach to a system based approach where the major question was how to balance the average current coffee yield and the production potential with the ecosystem services and wild biodiversity of coffee farming systems of Wayanad district. Following are the specific objectives: To demonstrate the benefits of traditional coffee agroforestry system and the future prospects of shade grown coffee to the farming community and the policy makers for the overall well being of the society;

In order to demonstrate the benefits of coffee agro forestry system, random studies were taken up with in coffee plantations managed under different shade patterns like heavy, medium and light shade in Wayanad District. Data pertaining to the crop yield, crop sustainability, soil nutrient status, diversity of plants, animals and microbes was recorded and their ecological, economical and social services was compared between different shade patterns for assessing their usefulness to the farming community in terms of farm income.
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The study has indicated that shade grown coffee has contributed to sustained farm yield and farm income associated with reduced cost of cultivation due the inherent benefits contributed from different components of the system like insects, birds, animals, trees, herbs, shrubs, soil micro-organisms and by conducive environment. Improving the productivity of the Coffee farms by diversifying the farm with the use of commercially available and feasible fruit yielding tree species and also by simulating the best practices

In order to increase the farm yield & income per unit area and biodiversity of coffee farms, utilization of available space by integrating the farm was tried by analysing the feasibility and economics of integrating the commercially available fruit tree species like Lychee, Mangosteen, Nutmeg, Rambootan, Citrus species into the farm which are highly in demand and profitable to the farmer by providing alternative income. After doing the preliminary study of the above in partnership with the farmers, best varieties were selected and were sourced from within the state and some were brought from outside the state, which can adapt and survive in the local climate. In order to reduce the cost involved in farming and to improve the farming practice, some of the best practices adopted by the progressive farmers of the district like in, control of pests & diseases, soil and water conservation and other advanced farming techniques which leads to higher farm income were made known to other farmers by means of visits to such farms and through farmers training. Development of a model plot for demonstration at the MSSRF Farm

As MSSRF works with farmers, it acts as a message centre for farmers who visit the centre regularly for various training programmes. So to make coffee farming more successful and sustainable, it was decided to develop a model coffee demonstration farm. This farm would help to develop their agricultural practices while ensuring that coffee farming remains attractive for farmers and is sustainable across the value chain by integrating all the feasible components inside the farm and would also serve as an onsite demonstration plot for the farmers who visit the farm. Coffee cultivation in this farm is under a well-defined three-tier mixed shade canopy, comprising of evergreen trees, commercial fruit trees and coffee plants. This model plot incorporates all the best practices that need to be followed which will help farmers improve quality, productivity and sustainability and also help to train the farmers on how they can further improve the productivity and quality of coffee in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Name of the Fellow: Mr. Pruthvi Raj C.C. Name of the Mentor:
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Enhancing socio-economic growth of the rural tribal farmers by creating linkages with urban marketing hubs

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Soumyashree Omprakash Sahoo,

. Mentor: Mr. Bhaskar Chandra Adhikari, Consultant, BIWS Project, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Jeypore, Koraput, Odisha

Abstract:

The project aims to enhance the socio-economic development of the Small & Marginalized Farmers of Bio-Industrial Watershed Project area by organizing Farmers groups through the formation of a Producer Organization which will not only boost their productivity and income with backward and forward linkages but also provide scope for an innovative retail marketing chain.

Village Setting: The Bio-Industrial Watershed Programme in Jeypore, Koraput is implemented in Tolla Watershed Area comprising of the villages of Tolla (Revenue village), Bebaratguda, Kadamguda, Pukaguda and Maliguda - all coming under Mohuli Panchayat and Boliguda (Revenue village) which comes under Chandrapada Panchayat, which is under Boipariguda Block. The watershed site lies in the western part of Koraput at a distance of 22 km from Jeypore town. Koraput district lies in the south-eastern part of Odisha state. Koraput is well known for its rural base endowed with natural resources and rich tribal culture which constitute 69.29 % of the total population. The district is contiguous with the main land of Eastern Ghats, having 24 % land under forests. Koraput receives an average annual rainfall Project Synopsis Page 97

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 of 1440 mm of which nearly 80 % occurs during the south-west monsoon. The district experiences a dry sub-humid climate with dry summers and cool winters.

Community: Caste plays a major role in village management activities and it is important to understand the social hierarchy. Caste diversity - Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Castes (OBC) and other broad general categories.

Natural Resources: The project villages are surrounded by deep natural forests and water is available throughout the year due to water harvesting structures made by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. As water plays a significant role for agriculture activities, the community has to have proper water management for farming, domestic and animal use.

Human Resources: 41% of the total population depends upon agriculture as the primary occupation followed by 27% of the people who depend on household activities. As far as secondary occupation is concerned, 40% of the population depends on non-agricultural labor.

Labour plays a crucial part in farming practices at various stages and usually family members are involved in the field activity and if required the help of neighbouring farmers is also taken or wage labour is hired.

Technical & Financial Institutions:

There are no formal technical or financial institutions in or around the project villages. People mostly depend for their financial needs on nationalised banks viz. State Bank of India and Grameen bank which are at Boipariguda about 12 kms away from the project villages. People usually utilize these financial institutions for saving purpose and taking crop loans whenever needed. Women SHGs are playing a crucial role in the formulation of credit availability for their farming requirements.

Introduction:

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Farmers of Maliguda village produce different types of vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, potato, onion, brinjal, chilly, radish, beans, green leaves etc., through mixed cultivation practices. (Example: Potato, Cabbage or cauliflower and chilly are cultivated in one patch of land by making different sections). They sell their produce in near by weekly markets and also in the markets of nearby towns such as Boipariguda and Jeypore, which are located within a 6 km to 22 km radius. Usually they sell their produce to middlemen, directly to consumers in weekly markets and in some cases adopt a door to door approach. Most of the produce is sold to the middlemen/traders.

Middlemen/traders purchase vegetables from the farmer either from the local haat or directly from the fields with pre-negotiated price in terms of baskets or bags. Sometimes the middlemen purchase cabbage or cauliflower in terms of number of rows in the field. The extent of exploitation by the middlemen is not very visible as the transaction is based on belief and credit. The middlemen take care of the packing and further selling to wholesalers, retailers and consumers at near by towns with a good margin.

Major Constraints

A. Exploitation in Weight:
In Maliguda village, the middlemen exploit the farmers by purchasing the produce without weighing and procure it in terms of baskets and bags and therefore the farmer is unaware of the quantum of produce sold in reality and the profit being derived by the middlemen.

Lack of Storage facility:

Vegetable crops are highly perishable in nature and start to deteriorate in a short time span. Currently, farmers of this area are facing problems due unavailability of storage place which compels them to go in for immediate disposal of the vegetable after harvesting.

No horizontal linkage between farmers:

In this area, as there is no farmers association for vegetable growers, the strength of the intermediaries is increasing and creating a disadvantage for the farmer at all levels of farm activity, which ultimately results in distress sale and low income.

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Approach / Methods:

Approach to Mitigate the Issues:

Maliguda hamlets vegetable growers are affected by all the above mentioned constraints and to mitigate these issues, the initial approach for the community is to assemble the farmers/producers under a single umbrella and form a Producer Organization under Orissa Self Help Cooperative Act 2001.

A. Farmers club or peoples institution:

To overcome the above constraints vegetable farmers club or OSHC will be a better solution and it can also help the farm groups to have a better and safer socio-economic environment, as it will help

To organize the vegetable farmers onto one platform. Collective marketing to reduce transportation cost. Shielding small farmers from market price fluctuations to get a good income. To arrange for storage facility in order to give sufficient time to the farmer to take a decision about whom to sell to and at what price, and so make the market competitive.

To avail backend services like fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides, seed, etc in order to minimise input cost. To avail financial assistance from various sources for the farmers as this will ultimately help the small & marginalised farmer with sustained continuation of the farming activity. To assist the vegetable farmers to adopt the best cultivation practices, in terms of packaging of produce, etc as this can help to increase market share.
B. Organising the Farm & Marketing Group

It is aimed to organize the farm and marketing group under a common umbrella for running innovative retail marketing in Jeypore town in order to achieve improvement in the socio economic condition of both groups.

The purpose is to establish a retail market which will organize the fresh produce growers and street vendors in a manner which will enable them to tackle new marketing challenges. Project Synopsis Page 100

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Due to their small scale of operations these small and marginalized groups are facing many barriers. The following innovative retail marketing plans can help-

To give identity to the small and marginalized group Help small and marginalized groups to meet the challenges of the market. Improve livelihood and social security Better returns for the growers and sellers.

Results and learning-

This is learning as well as a strategy making process to address the issues.

Collective action: This project is an effort to organise the farm group under a single umbrella to achieve the primary activity i.e. Peoples institution.

This is being done through regular and continuous interaction with 180 small and marginalized farmers out of which 40 farmers are vegetable growers. In this interaction, members are also requested to give critical information about their livelihood, credit history, etc., to help and build an effective strategy.

Enhancing productivity & Marketability: To organise the farm and marketing groups, it is important to concentrate on productivity as well as marketability, to meet the economic value and required volumes needed to fulfil the market demand.

In the first level of value addition, support needs to be provided for input supply like farm tools, seeds, fertilisers & pesticides. Further, providing clear guidelines on Package of Practices (PoPs) like IPM & INM, and build the capacities of the farmers in managing their productivity. Pre & post harvesting techniques will also be taken in to consideration and linking of efficient technology for better production can help to make the process more efficient. Project Synopsis Page 101

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

Besides working on productivity, a first and second level value addition concept will also be explored that would help in achieving incremental margins without substantial investment.

Developing dedicated Partnership:

The approach is to develop dedicated operational and strategic relationship with key players like development agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, government and private organisations to help pre and post harvesting techniques and infusion of finance to make the scheme viable.

Establishing the supply chain Network:

An effective supply chain strategy has been developed to line up the primary producer with input suppliers and marketing group.

Innovative Retail Marketing Strategy:

After the collective action we have tried to organise 12 potential wholesalers of the daily market and 40 roadside vendors of different locations of Jeypore town to formulate a direct home delivery service to target the medium and high income group customers.

Vegetables vendors are assigned a new role of sales and marketing. Male vendors are appointed as sales and marketing executives, while women vendors have been designated as process executives where they do sorting, grading and packaging of fresh vegetables as per the orders for better service delivery.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 LITERATURES CITED 1. Chengappa, P.G. and N. Nagaraj (2005). Marketing of Major Fruits and Vegetables in and around Bangalore. Report 2004-05. Department of Agricultural Economics. University of Agricultural Sciences. Bangalore.

2. Acharya, S. S. and Agarwal, N. L.2004.Agricultural marketing in India. Oxford & IBH Pub. New Delhi

3. Acharya, S.S. (2006). Agricultural Marketing Reforms: Status and Road Map. National Institute for Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur

4. Reddy, I.1995.Marketing of vegetables. Rupa Books Pvt. Ltd..Jaipur

5. Kumar, Praduman and Promod Kumar (2003). Demand, Supply and Trade Perspective of Vegetables and Fruits in India.Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing. Vol 17(3):121-130.

6. FRONTLINE (July 13,2007 Fresh Retail special issue

7. BUSINESSWORLD (July 9,2007-Fresh Retail special edition )

8. Viswanadham, N (2006). Food and retail chains in India. ISAS Working Paper No 15. 6 October 2006, Singapore.

11. http://www.freshplaza.com

12. http://www.safalindia.com

Grass Root Cinema

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Sandeep Vishwanath Mentor:
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1.

Location

Dhule district was bifurcated as two separate districts now known as Dhule and Nandurbar on 1 July 1998. Administratively, it is divided into six blocks - Akkalkuwa, Dhadgao (Akrani), Shahada, Taloda, Navapur and Nandurbar. Nandurbar district is bounded to the south and south-east by Dhule district, to the west and north is the state of Gujarat, to the north and north-east is the state of Madhya Pradesh. The northern boundary of the district is defined by the great Narmada River. Nandurbar is a tribal dominated district of Maharastra, with a population of 1,646,177 out of which 52.24% are tribal (2011 census).

Grass root cinema is carried out in four Tribal Ashram schools at 1)Akkalkuwa, 2)Shahada and 3) Nandurbar Taluks of Nandurbar district. Akkalkuwa is in a remote hilly area, and has been declared as a tribal block. It is known as the most backward block in the district. Shahada and Nandurbar are situated on the plains. 1) Akkalkuwa taluk: Ashram Schools at Veli and Jamana are in Akkalkuwa Taluk. The SBI Youth for India fellows place of residence when working at this location is at Nimbi Pada hamlet at Kati Village. School at Veli is around 10 km from Kati village. Jamana is around 3 km from Veli but the condition of the road makes the place practically inaccessible. There are two other routes available to reach the school at Jamana. One is via the hamlet of Jamli and the other is via the hamlet of Dabb. Molgi is a nearby village which is a business and transport hub to all the places mentioned above. Kati is around 5 km from Molgi. 2 &3) Shahada and Nandurbar Taluks: Ashram school at Chikli is around 15 km from Shahada Taluk city. Ashram school at Kolda is around 40 km from Shahada city. Place of residence is at Mhasawad around 10 kms from Shahada. These places lie in the plain area and are well connected with road and transport options in plenty.

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2.

Context

2.1 Tribal Ashram Shalas:

Ashram Shalas (residential schools) are administered and monitored by the Tribal Development Department. Anudanit Ashram Shalas (aided residential schools) are funded by Tribal Development Department but administered and monitored by private trusts. There are a total of 1103 ashram schools (aided Ashram Shalas included) in Maharashtra. Approximately 23% of the tribal children in the age group of 7-14 years are enrolled in ashram schools which provide upper primary as well as secondary education to the tribal children. Tribal Ashram Schools are catering to 49% of the total population of 6 -14 year age group in Nandurbar district. The contribution of residential Ashram Schools are very important for the education of tribal children as they reach out to the tribal children from remotest areas. It is a well-known fact that many of the tribal families migrate seasonally to earn their living. According to researchers, an estimated 75 per cent of Nandurbars tribal population resorts to migration. The lodging and boarding facility provided by Ashram Shalas therefore plays an important role in bringing into and retaining tribal children in the mainstream. Apart from this basic idea, special provisions such as distribution of free textbooks to all children of scheduled tribes, cluster-level model schools for tribal girls, infrastructure development in schools, and flexi-time alternative education have been specially made to improve access and quality of education for all these children.

2.2 Shikshan-Mittra Program (SMP):

SMP was initiated in 2003 in 52 schools from 15 states, as a part of the 'Jana-Utkarsha Program of MITTRA, which is now being executed as a program of the Tribal Development Department, Maharashtra. MITTRA is the state society of BAIF Research and Development Organization. At present the Shikshan-Mittra project is working with 53 schools in Nandurbar districts of Maharastra. Currently, the project is funded by NRTT (Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust).

2.3 Objectives of SMP:

1. To equip the tribal students with life skills and information. 2. To provide avenues for personality development. 3. To facilitate better career choices for tribal boys & girls. 4. To facilitate a complementary interaction between the ashram schools and the community or parents. 5. To develop a sense of ownership about the program in the school community through effective participation of the school community, more specifically students, in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the program. 6. To develop direct linkage of the program with the school pedagogy.

2.4 SMP Activities

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 1. Agriculture based activities 2. Health activities with emphasis on prevention of diseases 3. Social awareness 4. Linking syllabus with the field activities 5. Guidance camps for dropouts and alumnae. 6. Vacation projects with the purpose of disseminating knowledge at family and village level as well as study village level issues

3.

Grass Root Cinema

3.1 Rationale
It is desirable to disseminate the best practices observed in the schools under SMP to other schools and the community also. Children participating in SMP will be enabled to document activities they have performed using audio visual technology (photography and film making). The process of learning is designed to expose children to understand the practical relevance of theoretical concepts that have been taught in regular classes. Grass Root Cinema like SMP will be a 'participatory and child-centered approach' rather than an 'activity oriented approach'. Along with documentation, the project will expose children to alternative learning, introduce technology in schools and enable art as a medium of education. Few concepts of science, mathematics and history will also be involved in teaching this art. This provides a link between the syllabus and the activity.

3.2 Objectives
1. To equip children to make photographs and films. 2. To make the learning process intensive, relevant and enjoyable for the children.

3.3 Project A - Documentary/short film on SMP activities

Children aged between 11 to 14 years were part of Grass Root Cinema. A total of eighty students were involved. GRC was carried out in following phases: a. Theory sessions Syllabus worked out in a prior manner to involve audio visual presentation coupled with lectures. This would keep the interest of the pupil alive and will help us to deal with intricate subjects better. Most of the film concepts were covered during the workshops. Films were Project Synopsis Page 106

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 screened and discussions were encouraged. This was to enable learning and development of critical thinking among children. Debates demand public speaking skills and analytical thinking. Film criticism provides a platform for developing such skills. Specialized workshops Film making training was made intensive through specialized workshops and this was achieved through two such workshops. 1. Script Writing Workshop Subject expert rendered her expertise in story writing to the children. Language of instruction was Marathi. Course contents are as below: Film History Selection of Story title Orientation Story writing

Children were also encouraged to write individual stories according to their interest. Most of the stories were personal experiences and were touching. Technically, few suggestions were given to make the articulation better. 2. Film Making Workshop The workshop was designed and conducted with the aid of SMP staff. Two full days during holidays were dedicated for this workshop. The course for the workshop is as below: Persistence of Vision Cinema Team Film Screening ` b. Film Shoot After understanding how to make a film and with a rough story in hand the next thing is to make the story more intense, create characters and sequence it in a suitable manner so as to aid the shoot. (Final draft of the script).The children script the stories and meet all the requirements. The movie will then be shot by the children with close guidance. The technical team for the entire production will be the children. c. Editing This is the only phase of the project where children will not contribute directly. The editing of the movies shot by the children will be done by a professional. Due to logistical and time constraint such an arrangement is made. Project Synopsis Page 107 Stop Motion Film Mock Movie Scene and a Shot

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 The films thus made will be utilized to communicate SMPs work to more schools and communities.

3.4 Project B - Photo documentation Learning photography exposes one to science and mathematical concepts intensively. To meet the objectives the GRC syllabus was designed to make children understand the science behind photography. GRC was carried out in following phases: a) Class room session b) Practical
a) Class Room Sessions

The syllabus was designed to meet the objective of linking with the main syllabus. While class room sessions could not be eliminated, activity based learning was given importance. Pin-hole camera building was one such activity. It demonstrates the basic idea behind photography. Children enjoy the process and will actually see the result to get a feel of the concepts that they have learnt in the regular class. The following are the concepts dealt with as part of understanding photography: Aperture Camera Construction Recording Medium Lens Theory Depth of Field b) Practical Shutter Speed Color Reproduction Sensing light Focus Composition

Post the theory session prominence to be given to practical photography. Logistical problems minimize the scope of this exercise. Efforts were made to carry out these sessions with borrowed cameras. Few of the photographs that were relevant and good have been exhibited at a few avenues.

4.

Observations
With due respect to Ashram School and its concept, the things that are observed on a daily basis are expressed here. It is evident, that though various government schemes, especially SSA(Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan) have been successful in changing the outward appearance of schools, they have not been able to motivate the teachers to create a truly conducive atmosphere for the students. Attitude of the teachers towards tribal students is a matter of grave concern. They often express a commonly held belief that the pupils are not capable of learning. They complain about the grasping

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 capacity of the pupils from a tribal background. Never have they realized that it is their duty to teach, not to judge and that the failure is almost entirely theirs. Tribal students stay in the Ashram schools for the entire day, and hence, whether the school management makes any special efforts to keep them 'meaningfully' engaged assumes high significance for the progress of the students. There are separate time-slots for self-study, library, Shramadan, exercise, and sports. Self study and library activities are totally neglected. 'Shramadan' (voluntary physical work) is hugely exploited. It is for the children to contribute their time meaningfully for the benefit of the lot in the school. Teachers misinterpret or never consider this idea the way it is supposed to be. They exploit the children for their personal work and menial jobs. Toilets are made for children but they are solely utilized by the teaching community and kept locked after their use. Maintenance of these toilets is completely handled by the students. Time tables are posted in the class but sessions are held at the whim of the teachers. Though the Ashram Schools reported that the sports materials were accessible for the students, students do not seem to use these materials; instead, they play traditional games such as kabaddi, khokho, which require minimal sports material. The tribal children have the right skill and aptitude for sports but the limitation is imposed at the school administration level. Bringing the students into the mainstream is the objective of these Ashram Schools but the very working of these institutions puts a question mark on the very idea. In this context, SMP has a strong and positive impact on children and such efforts have to be given more room and prominence to keep the tribal fraternity from being marginalized in the so-called mainstream society.

Creating Value Chain of Ginger Cultivation for Small and Marginal Farmers in Wayanad
Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Santosh Choudhary Mentor: Dr. N Anil Kumar, Director, MSSRF-CAbC, Wayanad

Thematic Classification
Asset creation for the poorest Capacity building of the weakest communities Social and Economic Empowerment of the poor In-situ value addition and processing

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Description
Ginger (Zingiber Officinale) is the most abundantly cultivated crop in Wayanad district and the adjoining regions of Karnataka with major labour inputs from Paniya and Adiya community. The Indian market of fresh Ginger is now being controlled from a small market called Meenangadi in this district. The prices of ginger have been quite unstable and a cyclic change has been observed which leads to sudden drastic fall in price, which happened this year as well. So considering this price fluctuation, value of ginger and its applications, one of the mitigation strategies could be value addition processing of ginger. Ginger is usually sold as only fresh ginger, though it can be made available in three different formsFresh (green) ginger; preserved ginger (preserved in syrup and crystallized ginger and ginger candy); and dried ginger spice. MSSRF is on a value chain study of this crop with an aim of understanding the problems and prospects in promoting this crop for better prosperity of the cultivators of this crop. This project proposes to establish a processing and value addition unit for production and marketing of a handful of items such as: Ginger pulps, Pickled- ginger, Ginger candy, Ginger bread, Ginger Syrup, Ginger Jam, Dried Ginger, Ginger powder and the like. The processing of these products would be done at home, at farm level in a small group, SHG based or cooperative society based on a mass scale with visible involvement of trained women and men of Paniya, Adiya and other backward sections of the society. Scores of small farmers will get the benefit of this unit, once the marketing linkages are established.

Impact
The expected major impact will be steady price for fresh ginger as there is demand at the district itself for the raw materials. The project will be a significant example for poverty reduction strategy, sustainable utilisation of spices, inclusive agriculture, community centric value addition and marketing and above all the empowerment of the most vulnerable tribal communities of Kerala.

Outcome
The most important outcomes will be (i) availability of a decent income and self respect for a sizable number of tribal and farm families and thus a solace for the current distress; (ii) promotion of environmentally sustainable farming of Ginger; (iii) asset creation for the poor by providing food, health and education, and (iv) capacity building of the poor for risk management associated with market failure and crop failure.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

Outputs
The Key out puts will be: (i) Ginger value addition and marketing unit at community level; (ii) A replicable example for value addition and marketing of agricultural products at community level through the availability of a number of diverse Ginger products; (iii) Increased or stable cultivation of Ginger and thereby happy small growers of Ginger in the district; (iii) A Knowledge/Skill development platform for Community level Marketing and Spices Value addition.

Value chain for ginger

Creating Value Chain of Ginger Cultivation for Small and Marginal Farmers in Wayanad

Pilot project
To accomplish the value chain, one must ensure the right direction of the project, and to test the value chain a pilot project is to be introduced having the following objectives:-

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Setting up of a processing unit for dry ginger & related products Purchasing suitable varieties of ginger from selected organic farmers in Wayanad Market analysis and buying arrangements for finished products Creating employment opportunities for farmers Producing basic products such as ginger powder and ginger oil Maintaining quality standards Creating a brand image for the processed ginger products Based on the experience of the pilot project, developing a plan for the entire value chain

Consulting organizations
Appropriate consultancy and linkages will be established with: (i) District Industry centre, Wayanad; (ii) CFTRI, Mysore and (iii) an identified private sector market player in spice and food industry.

Implementing Organization
M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Workers experience of MGNREGS

Abstract The project is aimed at a) understanding the situation of workers in the MGNREG scheme and b) creating awareness among the workers about the specific worker friendly provisions of the MGNREG act. The project location is restricted to five gram panchayats in the Kalghatagi taluk, Dharwad district, Karnataka.

1. Project area
The project area comprises of Begur, Muttagi, Gambyapur, G.Basanakoppa and Dummavada Gram panchayats in Kalghatagi Taluk, Dharwad district, Karnataka. The project area comprises of five gram panchayats and eighteen villages. The area is marked by high rainfall in the southwest monsoon; the average rainfall in the Kalghatagi Taluk is around 1000mm annually. The average groundwater depth is around 8 to 11 mbgl. The groundwater situation is stable and on the whole, the taluk has underexploited resources. The main crop in the region is paddy followed by cotton and jowar. Paddy accounts for more than 40% of the net irrigated area. The landholding pattern is well disbursed and smaller landholdings are very

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 widespread in the area. Small and Marginal farmers account for more than 40 % of agricultural land in the taluk.

2. Background
BAIF Institute of Rural Development Karnataka (BIRD-K) has been chosen as the implementing agency for promoting tree based farms in five gram Panchayats in Kalghatagi Taluk, under the aegis of the MGNREG scheme. As a part of this project, small and marginal farmers (with individual landholding of less than 5 acres) and SC/ST farmers irrespective of their landholding area) are eligible as beneficiaries of this scheme. The beneficiaries are eligible for support in terms of both material (in the form of mango saplings, forestry tree saplings, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides etc) and labour (for digging pits, creation of trench cum bunds, farm ponds, etc) through the MGNREG scheme. The project is called Grama Samrudhi. The objectives of the project (twinned with the MGNREGS objectives) are to create gainful employment and a productive asset base in the project area. The administration and training costs incurred by the NGO in this project are borne by Sir Dorabjee Tata trust (to the tune of 9% of the project cost) and the respective Gram Panchayats (5 % of the project cost). The project duration is 5 years from 2010 to 2015.

3. SBI fellowship project

Within the overall scope of the abovementioned project Grama Samrudhi, the SBI fellowship project is focused solely on the Workers experience of the MGNREG scheme. The MGNREG scheme differs from other wage employment programs in the implementation principles whereby it confers the right to work for 100 days in a year to any rural household willing to take up manual unskilled labour. The right to work implies that the right is inalienable (to the rural household willing to take up work) and the enforcement of the households right to work is also a duty of the Executive. This follows from the definition of a rights based approach to development.

4. Project Objectives
1. Understand the current situation of the workers experience of the MGNREG scheme within the project area. 2. Based on the findings of objective 1, work towards greater awareness of the scheme among the workers.

5. Project phases
5.1. Data collection 5.1.1. Sources - This phase involved understanding the current state of affairs in terms of Workers perception of the scheme. Data collection was completed from the following sources 1) Existing sources Collection of data from sources such as the NREGA website (number of households registered in each village, Job card numbers)

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 2) Conducted a survey across a sample of workers across the five gram Panchayats and gathered information to capture the workers perception of the scheme under the following categories. a) Job Card related b) Employment offered c) Payment system d) Worksite facilities e) Current sources of income f) MGNREGS vis-a-vis other sources of income g) Gauge the awareness level about the MGNREG scheme h) Socio-economic status of the household 3) Existing Labour Market Completed a survey of the labour market with specific relation to the opportunities it offers to workers in the five gram Panchayats. 5.1.2. Methodology The workers were interviewed at their homes or worksites. Information related to worksite facilities and the awareness levels of the workers were measured based on direct observation. The methodology for the survey is in the form of a guided interview, where the Interviewer uses a checklist of questions/themes to talk about and the information is gathered in a conversational style (rather than the rigid questionanswer mode of a questionnaire). Digressions and long conversations were actively encouraged during the course of the survey. The idea of the survey was to actively listen to problems as expressed by the workers, and keep the survey as flexible and openended as possible. This method helped in understanding certain key issues such as the non-existence of the concept of the application for work, informal modes. A socio-economic assessment of the household is also included in the guided interview, with pre-set inclusion and exclusion criteria defined. Responses for the inclusion criteria were elicited first, in order to minimise the need for further questions. As soon as any one of the inclusion criteria was satisfied, the socio-economic assessment would indicate that the respondent is socially disadvantaged. In actuality, the socio-economic assessment form came handy only to eliminate two respondents (who were in fact middling and well-to-do land owners, but had worked on their fields under the NREGA scheme). 5.1.3. Findings 5.1.3.1 Awareness Levels about the scheme -The awareness level about the scheme was gauged on the basis of five simple questions about a) Importance of Job Card b) Application for employment c) Deadlines for work allocation and payments d) Provision of unemployment allowance e) Provision of worksite facilities. This was preceded by two questions about the number of days of work guaranteed under the act and wage payment under the scheme. Most workers scored high on the questions about the number of days per year and the amount of wage payment. However, on the second round of questions, the awareness was consistently low right across the project area. The low awareness especially about the application of work concept hinders them from availing the work under the scheme. The concept of the rights based approach followed in the NREGA is thus being subverted. The Project Synopsis Page 114

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 worker instead of being the prime mover for work in the GP is now a passive receiver of work in the scheme! Sl no 1 2 3 4 5 6 Description Job card entries (why?) Applied for work at least once Aware of the deadline for work allocation Aware of the deadline for payment of wages Aware of the provisions for worksite facilities Aware of the concept of unemployment allowance
Table 1 - Source - Worker's survey 2011-12

Percentage 0 0 14 10 0 0

5.1.3.2 Job Card related - there were no entries on the job card of the work done in terms of the dates or the number of days of work. This entry is the responsibility of the Mate and implementing agency. Not one job card had entries for the work carried out by the worker; only 3 job cards in Kalasanakoppa village had more than 2 entries each for work done in the year 2009. The worker therefore is not able to keep a correct track of the right to 100 days of work. Neither does the worker have any proof of the number of days of work utilised under the scheme. 5.1.3.3 Employment application - The most surprising fact thrown up by the survey thus far is that the concept of an application for work is simply non-existent among the workers. This has been the case with all the respondents with whom the guided interview has been undertaken. The scheme provides for the concept of application for work with the following basic details Job card number Date from which employment is required The number of days of employment required In Karnataka, all these details need to be filled in a simple form called Form number 6. Further, the scheme also states that employment must be provided within 15 days of the date of receipt of the application. In the case of advance applications, employment will be provided from the date that employment has been sought, or within 15 days of the date of application whichever is later. 5.1.3.4 Payment System related - The scheme states that the workers are entitled to be paid on a weekly basis and in any case within a fortnight of the date on which the work was done. In the event of any delay in wage payments, workers are entitled to compensation as per the provisions of the Payment of wages act, 1936. Such compensation costs shall be borne by the State Government. The payments are largely dependent on the Mate and on his willingness to act quickly in terms of getting the approvals on time. Based on this fact, the timelines of payments in different gram panchayats have varied. For instance in the village of Kalasanakoppa, workers were happy with the payments being processed within 15 days of the work being completed. However, there are major deviations related to this in other locations in terms of lateness of payments. There have been respondents reporting that the payments are made 2 or 3 months after the work has been completed. Project Synopsis Page 115

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 (This, of course could not be corroborated on the spot due to the fact that the job cards were all blank and though the respondents did show their bank passbooks to verify the date of payments). Another deviation reported is that the workers usually get paid on an informal basis by the beneficiary of the scheme (for NREGA work in individually owned land) on a daily or weekly basis, and then they pay back the money once the payment is processed via NREGA. Chances of getting paid less than their legal right of Rs.125/abound in such a scenario as this scenario of lesser payments was confirmed by many workers. They however seemed to prefer such a system where they get paid lesser amounts but on a daily basis. 5.2. Awareness Campaign The workers survey threw up the following findings 1. Awareness levels Low levels of awareness among workers about their rights under the MGNREG scheme 2. Application for work is virtually an unknown concept among the workers, and the mates/panchayat officials fill out the application for work based on when the work is available. 3. Job card entries Job cards are routinely left blank without any/incomplete entries. 4. Payment Payments are almost always delayed, sometimes to the extent of 2 to 3 months after the work has been completed. 5.2.1 Features The most favourable medium to convey the message to the workers is via a short film; especially in the light of the fact that a majority of the workers were not comfortable with reading and writing. A short film was scripted with the simple aim of targeting the issues uncovered in the survey phase. The language of the short film is Kannada. Further, due attention has been given to the specific local dialect of Kannada. Copies of Forms number 6, 8 and 9 have been used as tools for awareness creation. An awareness campaign comprises of the following steps o A short introduction on the purpose of the meeting o Screening of the short film o Eliciting feedback from the audience, followed by an extensive Q&A session o Explanation of NREGA work flow process using a Banner depicting the entire flow from the application of work through to the payment of wages. o Discuss the concept of application of work with the help of sample copies of Form number 6 (application for work). o Discuss the functions of Form numbers 8 and 9. o Discuss the role of Job card as a mechanism of documentary evidence for the workers. Extensive follow-up visits to worker groups were conducted in order to help them to understand the system of Muster rolls. Page 116

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Engagement with the Taluk and Gram Panchayat administration to highlight the issues ailing the scheme has been carried out via the following mechanisms o The workers survey summary report was submitted to the Executive officer, taluk panchayat followed up with discussions with the Executive officer. o Discussions held with elected members in the Gram Panchayats followed up with meetings with the Gram panchayat officials. o Raised specific issues with the Gram panchayats (members and officials) with respect to delayed payments to workers, importance of application for work. o Active participation in the Social Audits in the project area, where Gram panchayat specific issues have been raised with the Social Audit team and the Gram panchayat elected members and officials o Awareness sessions conducted for Village Vigilance Committees in two villages. o Two RTIs filed with the Zilla panchayat, Dharwad to highlight and elicit an official response on the issue of delayed payments and the procedural delays in the period April 11 to June 11 in starting NREGA works. The impact of the awareness has been gauged on the following parameters o Workers groups who applied for work after the awareness session o Worker groups who have understood the importance of Muster rolls and have asked for the muster roll to be read out before/during work. o Worker groups who have insisted on getting their job cards filled in.

education of rural youth through ICT

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow SHuvajit payne

Mentors: MR. DEEPAK KEKAN & MR. SRINATH scientists at m.s. swaminathan research foundation,

Introduction 119 Setting 119 NGO Overview: ................................................................................................... 119 Details of Field Location:.................................................................................... 119 Profile of Community: ......................................................................................... 120 Approach / Methods 122 PHASE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE NGO ITS VISION AND WAY OF WORKING .............. 122 Academic Overview: ............................................................................................ 122 Exposure Visits: .................................................................................................. 122
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Making a Documentary on Bio-Village: .............................................................. 122 PHASE 2: UNDERSTANDING FIELD LOCATION ............................................................ 123 Interaction with Families of Suicide Farmers ...................................................... 123 Interaction with Progressive Farmers.................................................................. 123 Meetings with Local Officials .............................................................................. 123 Programs of the NGO.......................................................................................... 123 Resultant viewpoint ............................................................................................. 124 PHASE 3: FIELD WORK .............................................................................................. 124 Spoken English Course ........................................................................................ 124 Career Guidance program................................................................................... 125 Linkages:............................................................................................................. 125 Internal Capacity building ................................................................................... 126 Information Link.................................................................................................. 126 Results 127 Discussion
127

Reference Weblinks: 127

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Introduction
Vidarbhas hinterlands have been witness to more than 20000 farmer suicides over the last decade. The SBI Fellow intended to understand the underlying factors behind such occurrences through interaction at the grassroots to get perspective about the rural sector, its dynamics and opportunities, including understanding the way of working of the social sector. From the experiences, the fellow derived that the best way to contribute in the short-term will be by exploring avenues of expanding education in the project area, by utilizing the available ICT resources. Along the way, he helped in internal capacity building & served as a link between the rural and the urban sector.

Setting

NGO OVERVIEW:
The fellow was associated with the Information, Education and Communication activities of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation - an NGO operating from 1988. Since 1992, the IEC department has been using a hub and spoke model called the VRC-VKC model for agricultural, health-related and educational information dissemination in rural areas using ICT. As per this model, Village Knowledge Centers (VKCs) are village-run nodes setup with a required set of ICT tools. A cluster of VKCs are managed by a District level Village Resource Center (VRC) which is run by the Foundation. All VRCs are centrally managed through the Foundation headquarters in Chennai.

In the state of Maharashtra, the Foundation had started operating in 2006 and presently has 4 such VRCs and 4 VKCs in the Vidharbha region, in the districts of Wardha, Amravati, Washim and Yavatmal.

DETAILS

OF

FIELD LOCATION:

During the course of the year, the fellow worked in two villages of Vidarbha. The initial location was in the VRC in Waifad, 20 km away from the district level town of Wardha. Main crop grown in this area is Cotton with Soya bean, Jowar, Grams, Wheat, and Tur being grown alongside. The village has a population of approximately 10000 people (1300 households). The village did not suffer much in terms of medical access, drinking water supply, or infrastructure (post office, bank, weekly markets & local businesses). It did however, have the following setbacks: Education: Only one school up to class 12th not adequate for the size of the village. Library inaccessible from the village.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Transportation: Poor connectivity to Wardha only 10 crowded buses a day, and alternatively auto service which waits until 12-14 commuters pile up. Along with the above, the village was threatened with instances of suicides, and rising crime rate due to a set of tribal settlers. Yet, its strategic location, due to being central to 6 neighboring villages, and having links to resources via a village resource center, gives it the potential for becoming the development hub of the area. -

The fellow also took up an assignment for three months in the VKC in a small village called Sawad in the Washim district where the main crop is Soya bean while Tur, wheat and gram are also grown. The village has a population of approximately 2000 people (450 households). Unlike Waifad, Sawad only had a PHC Sub Centre for medical assistance, and lacked infrastructure and local businesses. However, being well-connected to the nearest Taluka town Risod 6 km away and a positive attitude towards education have had its impact. For a small village, it had two schools, an active library and E-setu services in the VKC. On the downside, expanding commercial lands of Risod have been eating away on agriculture.

Additionally, both villages suffered from: Telecom: Outside high-speed internet coverage area. Climate: More than 45C in summers & extremely dry Agriculture: Highly rain-dependent Power: Extreme supply problem. Around 500 households in Waifad either dont have power or illegally access it. Sanitation: 20% people in Waifad and 80% in Sawad dont have proper facilities Sewage/drainage: Filthy & inadequate Roads: Terrible conditions Rising rate of alcoholism

PROFILE
-

OF

COMMUNITY:

In general, the community in the area was characterized by: Lack of awareness of available services/schemes/opportunities Low participation in awareness programmes Low risk-bearing/entrepreneurial ability Continued government support leading to expectation of freebies Low economic condition leading to focus on sustenance over ambition or creativity Superstition, especially, health-related Low Women participation in politics Page 120

Project Synopsis

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 The situation is aggravated by movement of the educated lot out of the village, political favoritism & conflicts, huge proportion of bad debts with bank, TV penetration reducing community interaction and lack of financial acumen, i.e. spendthrift nature.

However, people were physically laborious and had religious tolerance. Further, formation of farmer groups and changing attitudes towards new practices and education provided scope for intervention.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

Approach / Methods

Phase 1: Understanding the NGO its Vision and Way of Working

ACADEMIC OVERVIEW:
In the initial fortnight the fellow was given an academic understanding of all areas of work of the NGO through lectures, conferences, presentations and readings of publications. Notably, within the area of knowledge empowerment, MSSRF follows a participatory approach intervention is aligned with assessed needs and hence, it is never against the wishes of the local community.

EXPOSURE VISITS:
The briefing followed an exposure visit to the VRCs of Thiruvayaru, Pondicherry, Nagapattinam and VKCs of Agalankan & Rajendram to understand the working of the VRC-VKC model. These VRCs range from the well-established to the newly opened and provided a brief snapshot of the scope and difficulties they face in their functioning. The visit also included brief grass root interactions at Pichavaram & Chinangudi.

Half way into the fellowship a second visit to southern VRCs & VKCs was made, accompanied by the entire Vidarbha management staff to comparatively analyze the working standards of the two regions and learn from it. A brief report was prepared identifying 12 areas of improvement and learning.

M AK ING

DOCUMENTARY

ON

BIO-VILLAGE:

Further understanding of the work of the NGO, especially, the functioning of women SHGs was achieved while preparing a documentary for the Bio-village concept of the Ecotechnology department of MSSRF. The documentary briefly described the pro-women; pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-employment, concept visualized by Prof. Swaminathan, and elaborates how it has successfully created leaders at the grassroots. The documentary is available in the web link provided in the Reference section.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

Phase 2: Understanding Field Location INTERACTION

WITH

FAMILIES

OF

SUICIDE FARMERS

Over a week, the fellow assisted Ms Laura Tantawy, a photographer showcasing the issue of suicide farmers (weblink to her work is provided below). During the process, the fellow closely interacted with more than 20 families affected by farmer suicides, irrespective of whether they have been finally compensated. This provided direct understanding of the reasons for suicide, post-suicide financial and emotional situation and the present requirements of the families.

INTERACTION

WITH

PROGRESSIVE FARMERS

On the other side of the coin, the fellow also interacted with several progressive farmers of the region who have used techniques (modern or traditional) to get notably high yields in dry land agriculture.

MSSRF tries to promote land-to-land information dissemination by identifying these farmers and nominating them as Fellows of the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy. Discussions with Shamrao Deshmukh who innovatively built a Gas Plant, Mr. Subhash Sharma, well-known proponent of organic farming and other NVA fellows, some of whom are stakeholders of the VRC/VKCs at the grassroots, highlighted the possibilities that awareness can bring in.

The fellow also interacted with several farmers due to his location in Waifad and due to travel to nearby villages of Nakchadi, Esgaon and Morosgaon for distributing soil testing reports.

M EETINGS

WITH

LOCAL OFFICIALS

Other than farmers, the fellow had discussions with officials working in the area over an extended period of time, thereby, gathering from their experience and opinions. Various ideas were collated from NABARD District Development Managers, NGO heads, local political activists, Principals & teachers of schools and colleges, government officials and even, SBI managers.

PROGRAMS

OF THE

NGO

The fellow participated in most of the important programs arranged by the resident VRC starting from training & awareness programs, vaccination camps, exhibitions, video/audio conferences, phone-in-programs, educational courses and official meetings with farmers, partners, co-workers or village management committee. Not only did this provide a way to understand the way of working of the sector and the mindset of the rural society, it also provided a way to analyze the processes of the NGO and suggest areas of improvement. Of particular mention are the need assessment programs that were held in 4 districts, which provided a hands-on experience of the participatory approach of identifying needs.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 In a similar Youth need assessment meeting held in Sawad, the requirement of a Spoken English course was reported.

RESULTANT

VIEWPO IN T

Structured thinking pointed that the rural sector needs two pronged intervention firstly, to help people in agriculture to implement efficient and scientific practices to enhance farm yield secondly, to encourage significant alternative employment yet not causing migration pressure on urban areas. The initial step required core knowledge about the sector and long-term dedication. Keeping in mind the short timeline of the fellowship, project area was defined around the second point above training & education of rural youth through ICT.

Phase 3: Field work SPOKEN ENGLISH COURSE

As per field location requirements reported by the villagers themselves, Spoken English Courses were conducted in Waifad & Sawad. The course was targeted towards students in class 10 or above (with the eldest in the course as old as 30 years). On initial assessment, the students had the following situation with regards to aspects of the language: 1. Grammar: Most students were aware of the basic grammar rules as taught in school. However, a lot of unlearning needed to happen as they had an extremely formulaic approach to language, which is a hindrance when one is speaking it. 2. Vocabulary: Extremely low. 3. Confidence: Fairly low. 4. Fluency: Not present but it was not the objective of the course either. 5. Hearing ability: Extremely low.

The project tries to utilize the existing infrastructure in Village Resource Centres/Village Knowledge centers, to expose the village youth to the English language, career options available and online resources by using ICT tools as far as possible, even beyond class timings. It aims to enable the students to confidently speak functional English and comprehend when spoken to. Each instance of the course was planned to have sixty two-hour sessions 6 days a week. However, depending on the requirement of the student, further personal coaching was provided.

Teaching methods were researched extensively, and the following were used: Use of English audio files (including audio books and popular songs) in mobile phones Use of messaging packs to communicate with the mentor in English throughout the day.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Following English through subtitles on informational documentaries Video Recording & subsequent analysis of speeches by students Comic books & story books to improve casual English Enactment of Plays Translation of articles in newspaper & in texts into English Competitive in-class games for building vocabulary Open Book Examinations Competitive Exam Style Question sheet Teaching through Presentations Group Discussions & Personal Interviews

Other than the above, standard classroom teaching with regular homework assignments and evaluation was also implemented.

CAREER GUIDANCE

PROGRAM

The fellow was a speaker in the block level career guidance program held at Risod a Taluka level town in the district of Washim. The program was targeted towards students in class 12 or above faced with the choice of career stream. There were 70 attendees, 23 of whom were female. Through the interaction, the fellow attempted to motivate the students to use e-resources to explore career options. Queries of interested students were taken down and later answered through email. A formal feedback was carried out and some students expressed that had they found the suggestions to be useful.

LINKAGES:
Several initiatives have already been undertaken in the development sector and there are tremendous opportunities of leveraging benefits through collaborations.

While conducting career guidance programs, it was realized that the internet is a brilliant source of resources. This has obstacles due to lack of understanding of English, low and unaffordable internet connectivity & unfamiliarity with internet browsing. Hence, there is a need to provide this information in an offline format in the vernacular language. For this the fellow has initiated publication of a book with collaboration between the NGO and Pragati Infosoft founders of the National Network of Education, a network of 48 educational portals of which the one dedicated to Maharashtra, has well-categorized localized career information available.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 The fellow also assisted in starting community polytechnic courses in Waifad VRC. This was already on the MSSRF action plan but proceedings were stagnant. The role of the fellow here was in driving the action and to initiate the vocational training for the rural youth. Presently all formalities have been completed.

The fellow has tried to collaborate with SBI on the proposal of a mobile van for providing information, basic health and soil testing services, with EDUSAT for making the VRCs learning centers and with Computerseekho.com for making Marathi self-learning tutorials, but either lack of available capacity, or important organizational priorities impeded such efforts.

IN TERN AL CAPACITY

B U ILD IN G

A direct area of skill building is by enabling the local coworkers with better managerial skill sets. Further training on proper planning and on techniques in handling large scale projects can enhance the impact and penetration of NGO activities considerably. Keeping that in mind, several initiatives were undertaken and, as per feedback from the co-workers, some of them were useful to them, such as, training of advanced concept of Excel and data maintenance, preparation of action plan, emphasizing & clarifying the importance of documentation, guidance on how to document follow up for report making, stressing on using worksheets to standardize teaching quality, creating templates for registers and presentations, encouraging coworkers in identifying areas where they can improve their functioning.

INFORMATION LINK
One advantage of the urban sector over the rural sector is the ready availability and easy access to information. Even though the NGO provides the necessary ICT tools, the local workers are not fully aware how to make the best use of such tools and hence, the utilization of such tools has a lot of scope for improvement. By default, the fellow, with awareness of modern technological tools and information sources, becomes an information bridge between the sectors:

Even though internet access is available in the VRC, the workers were unaware of the eservices available online. After briefing them on the use of online electronic bill generation & payment for utility bills (electricity, phone & broadband) they can now save sufficient travel time to the offices that are far-located. The fact that most e-resources are in English and that its difficult to type in the vernacular on an English keyboard deters many workers to actively explore such resources. Promoting use of Google translation and transliteration tools helped them a lot in browsing through the internet for specific information. A lot of educational material is available online for free. Educational games like Sebran or GCompris helped primary level students to learn simple concepts while playing. Freely available English speaking aids or use of YouTube for self-learning videos were also novel ideas in the region. Workers were also informed that they can access ePaper versions when newspaper is not in circulation in areas under consideration. They also found it useful that they could look up old versions of newspapers in the online archives.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Under the Right to Information Act, various government departments are making catalogued information and citizen services available online. Under such circumstances, making the rural communities accustomed to searching for information online is pivotal to inclusive development.

Results
In Sawad, 11 students completed the Spoken English course and in Waifad, 10 students completed the same. The students were externally evaluated by another SBI Youth for India fellow, Anu Jacob through telephonic interviews. Locally, the students were interviewed by officers from local Krishi Vigyan Kendra & by Mr. Ukhalkale ex-BDO Taluka Agriculture Officer. Case studies of 5 successful students who can manage to speak functional English with confidence were documented. All 12 students who completed the course gave feedback that they have positively benefitted from the course. The interest in English & in education & career in general, were further augmented by two social works students interning with the NGO posted in the same village. Students presently hold English discussions within themselves once a fortnight. Three students regularly interact on phone & internet regarding general topics & career issues.

Discussion
The major learning from implementing the English speaking course is that students need a prolonged exposure to material (audio/visual/text) in English. This needs an English Exposure module a structured library of selected material which a student needs to go through to get used to the common words in functional English. On the basis of this, a self-learning module was being designed with 60 sessions which involves the students listening to audio or watching a video and then answering worksheets on the multimedia content. The module can be replicated in all Village Resource Centers and Village Knowledge Centers with a coordinator monitoring it centrally, and animators monitoring it locally.

However, during a similar implementation in Waifad, it appeared that implementation of such a module without a human instructor is not practical. The sincerity and dedication of the students seems to depend centrally on the personality of the instructor and without one, a self-learning module with content in an unfamiliar language, seems to be only a matter of temporary entertainment.

Reference Weblinks:

Bio Village Documentary Page 127

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n-m6L0HX2I Educational Portal for Maharashtra www.maharashtraeducation.com Details of MS Swaminathan Research Foundation www.mssrf.org Details of SBI Youth for India program www.youthforindia.org Work of Laura El Tantawy on Farmer Suicides www.illdieforyou.com Video Documentation of Spoken English Students http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gObAWKDMnQo Photographic Documentation www.shuvajitpayne.com

Alternative Energy & Micro-Entrepreneurship: Reaching out to the Bottom of the Pyramid

(Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Programme) (YEEP)

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Simran Singh Grover

Mentor: Shri Ronak Shah, Development Professional, Seva Mandir, Udaipur

1.

INTRODUCTION Page 128

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Energy consumption is considered as one of the critical indicators of growth and standard of living in the modern era. The dependency on energy has become so critical that a disruption or a shortage in supply can cause havoc in an affected region, and beyond. Even when energy is taken for granted by most, its uninterrupted supply is critical for smooth functioning of the Social and Economic machinery. Of all the forms of energy, electricity is the one which is most closely integrated into our personal lives. Simple tasks like waking up in the morning, enjoying a piece of music and communicating with others are accomplished mostly through electronic means.

India has an installed capacity of 185.5 GW as of November 2011, the world's fifth largest. Yet, in December 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens had no access to electricity. Over one-third of India's rural population lacks electricity, as does 6% of the urban population. Of those who did have access to electricity in India, the supply was intermittent and unreliable. India currently suffers from a major shortage of electricity generation capacity, even though it's the world's fourth largest consumer after the United States, China and Russia.

The importance of rural electrification is self evident, especially when Government of India Planning Commission's strategy for the development of Rural India as well as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals are inherently dependent on the integration of electricity services. Viable and reliable electricity services can result in increased productivity in agriculture and labour, improvement in the delivery of health and education, access to communication, access to quality light after sunset, etc.

2.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

The challenges for rural electrification are also immense. The cost for development of Rural Electricity Infrastructure is very high because of remote locations with harsh terrains of varying degree, mismatch between supply and demand and theft of electricity. On top of that, political challenges further dampen the progress.

Alternative energy, which provides de-centralised solutions, can overcome many of the obstacles faced by centralised grid solutions. It eliminates the requirement for a major transmission infrastructure and hence the transmission losses inherently associated with it. A decentralised

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_India

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 solution can be managed locally, which ensures its sustainability. Many options in alternate energy solutions are available today, which mainly include wind, solar and biomass energy. Such solutions have the potential of meeting the energy requirements of people in rural areas, who don't have access to grid-electricity while at the same time being economically feasible.

Alternative energy is being aggressively promoted by the Indian Government, many international organisations and Non-government Organizations. These institutions are promoting alternative energy by subsidizing the solutions and educating people about its advantages. But even despite all the efforts, alternative energy has failed to live up to its potential till date, especially when it comes to solving the energy requirements of people in Rural India. The high cost of the alternative energy solutions is touted as one of the main reasons for this. But mostly it is because of the following reasons: 2. Lack of market access People living in remote/rural areas dont have easy access to products offering alternative energy solutions. Most of the distribution is centred on urban areas. Reaching out to the remote areas isn't financially appealing, since volumes are low because of the limited buying power of people and sometimes because the cost for reaching out to these pockets can be very high due to demographical and geographical challenges.

6. Lack of awareness Although many people in rural areas are aware of alternative technologies, they aren't up to date with the recent developments in the field. The lack of awareness of which technology is most suitable to their area is also critical. Because of the large initial investment involved, people generally don't comprehend how going for alternative energy solutions can be cheaper in the long run.

7. Absence of after-sales service Many institutions are trying to promote alternative energy by either highly subsidizing it or giving it free as charity. Although this works well initially in helping the technology to penetrate rural areas, but in the long run it has had an adverse effect. When such products are distributed at highly subsidised rates or as charity, there is no accountability once the products are distributed. And in the absence of after-sales service the products are known to be rendered as useless. This is because 'the receiver' doesn't have a strong ownership feeling since he hasn't made any investment in the product to begin with. So he doesn't make the extra effort for getting his product repaired once it breaks down, even though it may last for many more years if the necessary service is provided. As a result, negative feedback is generated about the technology as a person might think that it does not last long enough.

Rather than cost, these challenges are the major hindrances to the penetration of alternative energy in Rural India. Subsidizing the technology might have been the right path to begin with, but a better support model is now required to ensure that the alternative technologies have a much wider impact.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 3. MICRO-ENTREPRENEURSHIP

A micro-entrepreneurship model is a smart way to go for promoting alternative energy in rural areas and for reaching out to the BOP market. This model basically focuses on creating Energy Entrepreneurs in rural and remote areas where the demand for alternative energy solutions is most needed. These entrepreneurs are trained in the technology for doing sales and providing after-sales support. Each entrepreneur caters to his/her own village along with the nearby areas within his reach. The entrepreneur takes on the job of marketing the technology in his work area, and acts as a nodal point for Institutions offering the solutions, to reach out to a wider population.

In this approach, along with the promotion of alternative energy, livelihood opportunities are also created which in turn ensures that penetration of the technology is permanent and sustainable.

4.

YOUTH ENERGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM

Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Program (YEEP) is a micro-enterprise project that aims to inspire, train and support the youth in rural villages to become agents in creating energy independence, better health, a cleaner environment and unique business opportunities within their communities through the use of alternative energy options.

The project is being implemented in tribal belts of Udaipur and Rajsamand districts, which have zero or poor grid connectivity. In such areas, rural entrepreneurs are being encouraged to establish their micro-enterprise of selling solar products and providing service support. Such a model will not only provide access to good quality solar products to people living in rural areas, but also help them by providing service support through rural entrepreneurs. The Programme is currently being executed in 5 blocks of Seva Mandir; namely Badgaon, Jhadol, Kherwara, Kotra and Kumbhalgarh.

4.1

Organisational Support

Seva Mandir is an Indian non-profit organisation that has been working for 40 years with the rural, predominantly tribal population in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts of Southern Rajasthan. Seva Mandir's work has centred on efforts to bring together and organise fragmented communities through a wide variety of interventions across diverse sectors, thereby simultaneously addressing

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 people's immediate development needs and empowering them to become conscious agents of their society.

Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Programme is one of the latest programmes in the already diverse work portfolio of Seva Mandir. The programme is designed to meet the energy requirements of rural and tribal populations in a holistic way.

Seva Mandir selects youth who wish to be affiliated with the programme, offering them the opportunity and support to run an independent business enterprise in which they promote and sell alternative energy. Seva Mandir helps the entrepreneurs to kick start their business by allocating a seed grant to them. But after that, they have to run the whole business on their own, with Seva Mandir providing the necessary support and training during the incubation period. The entrepreneurs, who are mostly traditional farmers, are not only trained to service the products they sell but also to manage their business independently. Entrepreneurs conduct all the necessary business transactions independently, without any participation and support of Seva Mandir.

Seva Mandir is currently working in 634 villages in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts of Rajasthan. This also works in the favour of the entrepreneurs as a huge platform is available at their disposal which they can use for marketing. Meanwhile, Seva Mandir acts as a mentor for these young entrepreneurs and helps them in making their venture sustainable; and in the process reaches out to a larger section of the population through them.

4.2

Energy Entrepreneurs

The youth entrepreneurs are the most critical link in this programme, since the whole programme is designed around them. The success of the programme depends on whether or not these youth are able to run a sustainable enterprise.

These youth, who are from rural and tribal populations with varying levels of education, generally aren't proficient salesman or business men to begin with. The areas to which they belong are generally very remote, and often lack basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and mobile connectivity. The villages are sparsely populated, with households spread over at least a few hillocks.

In such a situation, marketing becomes a major challenge. These youth begin their work by marketing through various channels: namely, using their own personal connections, targeting any

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 group activities within or around their village and the platform provided by Seva Mandir during its various interactions with villagers in its work area.

4.3

Product Partners

After a long period of research, Seva Mandir signed MOUs with 2 companies for providing solar and other products based on alternative energy technologies to the entrepreneurs. The 2 companies are: 'Boond Engineering and Development Products' and 'D. Light Design'. These partners ensure that the entrepreneurs have access to products of the highest quality; they have significant profit margins on the products they sell and assist Seva Mandir in the technical capacity building of the entrepreneurs, as and when required. In the process, these partners have access to the huge BOP market.

4.4

Challenges

YEEP is not only a programme which promotes alternative energy, but also a livelihood opportunity for the youth. It requires youth who are not only self-motivated, but also patient enough to last out a long gestation period associated with almost any new venture. The sales of the energy entrepreneurs are known to grow slowly because of high cost of the products and lack of visibility. Since marketing is a major challenge because of scattered settlements and hilly terrain, the visibility of entrepreneurs in their respective areas is quite low. As a result, it takes some time before a product starts to generate demand on its own.

4.5

Results

Presently, 5 entrepreneurs are a part of 'Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Programme', who have been showing consistent results since August 2011. These entrepreneurs generate an average monthly income of Rs 2000 to Rs 2500. In the process, in a period of six months, more than 250 families have started using solar lamps bought through these entrepreneurs.

5.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

www.boond.net www.dlightdesign.com

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Youth Energy Entrepreneurship Programme is unique since it is promoting alternative energy through rural entrepreneurs. The success of the programme depends on the sustainability of the entrepreneurs. Some of the project activities are as follows:

5.1 Selection of Entrepreneurs: Since entrepreneurs are the most critical link of this programme, it was important to have youth on board, who were not only self motivated for monetary success but also shared the vision of the programme as a whole; the vision being that the entrepreneurs have to become channels for ensuring energy security in their own respective clusters.

5.2 Training: Being, traditionally, from farming background, most of the youth were neither entrepreneurial nor affluent salesmen to begin with. Therefore, comprehensive business training programmes have to be conducted from time to time to groom their selling skills along with educating them regarding the nitty-gritty of an independent enterprise. These training programmes are an addition to the technical training designed to train the entrepreneurs in the servicing of the products they sell.

5.3 Marketing: Marketing is a major challenge in this programme. Various channels were explored to increase the visibility of the entrepreneurs in their respective clusters. Along with supporting entrepreneurs in various village meetings, materials such as posters and pamphlets were also provided to the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs were also encouraged to take part in local 'Melas' and similar occasions in their respective clusters.

5.4 Monitoring: Special reporting formats were designed for the entrepreneurs to keep a track of their activities and their experiences in general. This was on top of the field visits to the respective clusters of the entrepreneurs. Monitoring helped in keeping track of the progress of the entrepreneur, along with helping them to plan their future activities.

6.

IMPACT / LEARNINGS

De-centralised energy solutions can have a significant impact in Rural India by improving the energy security in these areas. This will help in improving the productivity of the people, along with an opportunity to improve their educational capabilities by simply providing better lighting as and when required. Such solutions also tend to be financially cheaper in the long run, given that quality products and after-sales support is assured. Project Synopsis Page 134

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12

There are a number of direct and indirect ways to measure the environmental and social impact of the project. Following are some of the parameters which are useful in evaluation of the project.

6.1

Financial Impact

Kerosene lamps have been the traditional source of lighting in households in rural areas. It is available through the Public Distribution System, where it is subsidised by the government at the cost of Rs 15.00 per litre. Here, there is a quota of 3 litres per month, per ration-card. Monthly consumption of Kerosene varies from 5 to 8 litres depending on the usage pattern. To meet the demand, families generally buy the kerosene from the market at a price of Rs 25.00 per litre or above in Udaipur district. This accounts for a monthly expenditure of Rs 95.00 to Rs 175.00 per month. This is the amount of saving for an average household if it goes in for a Solar Lamp instead of using Kerosene lamps. On top of this, households using mobile phones can save another Rs 50.00 to Rs 100.00 per month, which they have to otherwise spend for charging the batteries at a shop in the nearest village having connectivity to grid-electricity.

6.2

Health Impact

Solar lamps carry no risk of fire and produce no smoke. Also, the quality of light is much better when compared to the traditional kerosene lamps. This helps in reducing eye problems and prevents any harmful effects that smoke of kerosene might cause. Along with this, energy entrepreneurs also promote affordable water-filters which can help in preventing many water-borne diseases. By substituting kerosene, solar lamps also directly help in controlling CO2 emissions.

6.3

Productivity Enhancement

The quality of light of a solar lamp is much better than that of a kerosene lamp. These can be used by children while studying at night, by women while cooking and doing other household activities at night and even by farmers and labourers to work effectively after sun-set.

6.4

Employment
Most of the solar lamps sold by Energy Entrepreneurs have an option for mobile charging.

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Since this project promotes local people to become energy entrepreneurs, it is providing them a good livelihood opportunity. The income generated by each entrepreneur has the potential to sufficiently complement his/her farming income. Hence, each entrepreneur who is able establish his business won't have to migrate in search of other cash income.

7.

CONCLUSION

The prospects and market for alternative technology is certainly very promising when it comes to rural areas. In spite of low income levels, buying such products makes a lot of economic sense especially in remote areas with inconsistent or zero supply of grid electricity. In such cases, decentralised energy solutions can have a huge impact and success, given that the market for such products is within the reach of the people and that it is supported by quality after-sales services.

PLANNING & MANAGING ENDOGENOUS TOURISM ENTERPRISE AND PROMOTING TRIBAL ARTS & HANDICRAFTS
Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Sourabh Potdar Mentor: Dr. Rajashree Joshi, Thematic Program Executive, BAIF Research Foundation

Location
The endogenous tourism enterprise is setup at Kelichapada and the artists guild has been formed at Kalamvira. Kelichapada and Kalamvira are small hamlets near Jawhar, the tribal kingdom of Thane district of Maharashtra. Kelichapda nestles near a perennial waterfall, which adds to the scenic beauty that is usually desired by a tourist. Kalamvira is home to several artists who are exceptionally good in Warli art, bamboo art, paper mache art, making Toran and motifs from paddy straw, etc.

Introduction
Endogenous means something produced, originating or growing from within. Endogenous Tourism is radically different from the popular notion of 'tourism'. Generally, conventional tourism is associated with thousands of urban people crowding at particular scenic places
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during a short span of time and disturbing or even destroying the natural balance of resources in that region by littering the ecosystem with plastic and toxic rubbish, vehicular pollution, and other ills usually associated with city life. On the other hand, endogenous tourism identifies beautiful natural places of interest that may be relatively remote, where tourists can appreciate the natural beauty and experience the rural or tribal way of life in small groups and in a controlled manner. Rather than offering typical restaurant food, endogenous tourism encourages and trains local families in basic hospitality so that urban tourists get a chance to taste local food prepared and served in the traditional way. Thus, rather than putting pressure on natural resources, and destroying local customs and traditions, endogenous tourism helps to preserve and protect them. Unlike "Ecotourism", which focuses principally on conservation of natural landscapes and resources, endogenous tourism pivots around the culture and craft of a location, while simultaneously seeking to create livelihood opportunities for the local population through projects that are owned by the community, culturally expressive and ecologically sustainable. Endogenous tourism activities not only create employment opportunities for rural people, but also makeS them realize that natural heritage such as forests, lakes, waterfalls, etc. and man-made heritage such as traditional art, temples, paintings, forts, sacred groves, etc. can be good sources of income and that such natural and man-made heritage should be protected and preserved.

Objective
Create sustainable livelihood opportunities in rural and tribal areas by supplementing the existing agro-based income through an endogenous tourism enterprise that is run and managed by the local people.

Project Assignment
The main objective of the hospitality project was stabilizing and standardizing the processes followed by the managing committee, packaging the entire activity as a product, carrying out marketing, capacity building of the participants, improving the existing setup, and introducing new activities to attract more tourists. As an offshoot of the hospitality project, the promotion of tribal art and handicrafts was undertaken as a major activity to generate income by marketing the tribal art in the nearby cities.

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Methodology
Planning & managing the Hospitality Enterprise:
Evaluation of the existing tourism setup: Conducted SWOT analysis, interviewed the tourists visiting Jawhar and Kelichapada, interacted with the hotel owners/tour operators in Jawhar. Preparation of attractive and profitable packages: Different group of tourists demand different activities. For example, adventure lovers like the trek to the waterfalls. On the other hand, family tourists enjoy the visit to Wadi, local sightseeing, and engaging in other village activities such as drawing water from the well, chopping firewood, etc. The packages were developed keeping in mind the needs of the various groups. While designing these packages due consideration was given to the cost of depreciation & maintenance of the infrastructure, which is important to ensure the sustainability of the activity. Capacity building: Conducted trainings, workshops, exposure visits to existing tourism sites etc. to teach the participants the nuances of hospitality and management of the tourism enterprise. Facilitated visits by experts/tour operators to Kelichapada. Developing a standard process for the functioning of the enterprise: Devised a standard for profit sharing among the committee members, responsibilities of the committee, accounting procedures, processes for better maintenance & management of the infrastructure etc. Facilitating the development of infrastructure required to attract more tourists: Included landscaping, decoration of the stay facilities, provision of basic amenities, etc. Advertising: Designed posters, published articles in newspapers, created a page on face book. Setting up well defined process for conducting tours: Devised a model itinerary, and the handing over of the itinerary to the tourists in printed format. Government support: Participated in the Gram Sabha and initiated discussions for the development of the enterprise.

Promoting tribal art and handicrafts through artists guild at Kalamvira

Evaluation: Understanding the local art forms, handicrafts, artistic skills of the tribal people of Jawhar. Internationally famous Warli art was omnipresent in the villages. Besides the Warli art, people were adept in making various items using bamboo. There are artists who make idols and masks using paper mache. Identification: Identified Kalamvira to setup an artists guild as it has needy people skilled in multiple art forms. Sadanand Nakre, a dumb and deaf Warli artist is one of the major beneficiaries of the guild.
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Assessing the demand for tribal art: Assessed the demand for the art forms in Mumbai, Thane, Nasik, and Pune and started marketing of the different products and decided the price of these products. Participated in trade fairs and exhibitions to market the products and also to understand the demand. Introducing new art form: 26 people of Kalamvira have been trained in preparing Toran and motifs from paddy straws, an art previously unknown to the people. Promotion: Published articles on Warli artists and Kalamvira as a typical tribal village. Photos of Warli paintings have been collected to be made into a catalogue that will facilitate marketing. Ensuring sustainability: Identified a group of local youth to manage the artists guild in the future. Introduced them to the sellers in Mumbai and also taught them marketing skills hands-on by including them in the discussions with the seller. Linkage development: Setup linkage with Mrs. Hina Choksi, Mumbai franchise of eCoexist group.

Project Outcome
Generated occupancy of 27 bed nights in the hospitality enterprise through word-ofmouth publicity, marketing through face book page, publicity in trade fair etc. Generated a total income of about Rs. 32,300/- by selling the products prepared by the artists of Kalamvira.

Lessons
Thematic
Difficulties in convincing a prospective tourist and the art of marketing. Difficulties in convincing and motivating the village folks to provide better services. Packaging and marketing a group of services as a product to meet the demands of a varied clientele while providing equal opportunities for all the service providers. Also, learnt the drawbacks of pay-per-service costing. The importance of considering the cost of depreciation and maintenance while fixing the costs. Nuances of managing a hospitality enterprise. Understood the significant role of marketing in sustaining a community development initiative of such type. Understood the immense value of rural art and handicrafts that usually goes unnoticed.

Administrative
Government apathy towards new initiatives and self-initiated proposals. Difficulty in introducing a change in an organisational process.
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Limitations and effects of a project-based approach in an NGO. Participated in a Gram Sabha and realized the importance of local self-governance.

Personal
Learnt critical leadership skills such as team building, conflict management, patience, perseverance, entrepreneurship, resources management, etc. While the village folk religiously follow their tribal culture and traditions, they are not aware of the importance of preserving their tribal culture. The hardships faced by the women in the villages. Realized the ill effects of migration, which is a common problem in the tribal villages. Importance of mobilizing the youth towards a selfless cause and in the process, understood the difficulties in effective team building. Importance of basic amenities such as running water, uninterrupted power supply, etc.

Project Synopsis
Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Ms Suhasini.V

Mentors: - Dr.Hopper, Director, JRD Ecotechnology Centre & Dr.Vidyaa Ramkumar, Coordinator, Biocentre, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation

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SBI YFI Fellow Period April 1st, 2011 to January, 2012 Location Biocentre, Pillaiyarkuppam, Puducherry.

Mentors:

Location & Background Puducherry is one of the rapidly urbanizing territories of the country where urbanization amounts to 66.6% against the all India rate of 25.7%, the current percentage of people below the poverty line in Puducherry is 21.7. The once agro-based state is slowly giving way to non-farm and service sectors. Only a little over one third of the rural population depends on agriculture which provides around 25% of the employment. Over a decade back when agriculture was still the primary occupation of villagers and urbanization rates were lower M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in partnership with UNDP and the Government of Puducherry initiated the Bio-village concept here. MSSRF is a research based NGO founded in Chennai. It was established by the well known Prof. Swaminathan, recipient of the world food prize and father of the green revolution.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 The Bio-Village concept is based on four principles; Pro-Women, Pro-Nature, Pro-Poor, Proemployment. The Bio village project seeks to bring about sustainable development through an integrated approach on lines of the above. The Biocentre located in Pillayarkuppam, a village about 20km from the city, is the tool through which all Biovillage activities are carried out. The Biocentre imparts training, provides credit support, bank linkages, promotes enterprises, etc. It also has a strong Self Help Group (SHG) movement which has been channeled into a federation called Innuyir Grama Sangam. Objectives To assist a kalamkari bag making enterprise run by SHG women. To get an overall experience of rural India.

Methodology Initially I went there to set up a kalamkari bag making unit. Identifying stakeholders through a survey. I formulated a questionnaire for an initial base line survey among the members of the federation. Seventy-six women from twelve villages took part in the survey. The objective of the questionnaire was to identify the main stakeholders and decide on the location of the unit. Meetings/Discussions with key players We held numerous meetings with the key players and the representatives to discuss the prospects of having such a unit including the finances, challenges, and outcomes. Risk Analysis After discussions and meetings, we also did a thorough risk analysis of the same along with the women. The sustainability of such a unit was debated. Finally the proposed unit did not take off.

Instead, I ended up working with an older kalamkari unit which was already established four months prior to my arrival. Coordinating stalls/Exhibitions I got in touch with various IT companies for stalls and exhibitions. Coordinated and set up a stall at Capgemini campus, Chennai. Design inputs/Raw material sourcing Depending on the latest models and designs in fashion, we would try to make the women work on new models by showing them pictures on the laptop. Found a link to directly source kalamkari from the state of Andhra Pradesh. Using contact base to explore new avenues In the meantime, I have been using my contact base and hunting on the internet for various organizations that support such initiatives so that the group finds a sustainable market.

Findings/Learning

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 1. The case of the failed unit - through this we learnt an important lesson, it is very difficult to convince rural women to take the leap without a promised output. Making entrepreneurs out of our women is not an easy task and looks like it may take a few more years to get there when it comes to convincing women to take up slightly risk based ventures. 2. Rural vs. Urban enterprises - marketing is a challenge for both rural and urban enterprises but what I realized was that it is all the more difficult for rural entrepreneurs due to lack of access to some of the opportunities urban folk have. This is because of their location and limited access to technology and information, especially if the enterprise is dealing with products that dont have a local market. But sadly, most of our rural products are handicrafts and handlooms which sell in urban markets only. 3. True sense of empowerment - most of us go with the objective of empowering rural India but at the end of the day we may want to ask ourselves, do they want to be empowered? I found most of the women were better off being just housewives or daily wage laborers. They didnt want to be masters of their work. 4. The spirit of rural India - the love and affection of the people in rural India truly sets it apart from the urban setting we live in. The spirit of the community is something I will take back to cherish for the rest of my life.

Integrated Tribal Development and Environment Enhancement

Report prepared by SBI Youth for India Fellow Taher B Sarthalwala Mentor: Mr. V.C. Badve( Advisor), Mr. J.R. Mori (Chief Program Co-coordinator) The Tribal area of Southern Gujarat is one of the most backward areas in the State. Valsad, Navsari and The Dangs are predominantly tribal districts in south Gujarat. Various tribal communities like Kokna, Warli, Bhil, Gamit, Kolcha and Kotwalia dwell in this area. The area is characterized by hilly terrain, poor soil and poor infrastructure. Majority of the tribal population in this area depends on rain-fed agriculture and forest resources. Though the total annual rainfall of the region is 1800 to 2200 mm, most of the water flows away due to the hilly terrain. The water also washes off the rich top soil cover leaving barren and unproductive lands. The region hence faces severe water scarcity during the post monsoon phase of every year. Features of the project area: Proximity to urban areas (towns/cities) Vansda town is around 15 kms from the project area. The district head quarters is Navsari which is around 80 kms away.

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Connectivity There is medium to good connectivity up to the villages, but within the villages there are so many small hamlets and the connectivity between hamlets is poor. Village market There is no village market. The weekly markets are there in some specific locations. The major marketing points are Bilimora, Vapi, Surat and Nashik. School Primary education is there in all villages. Secondary level education is available in some locations at a distance of around 10 15 kms. Primary health centre There is one Primary health centre and 3 sub centres in the project area. The average distance for all villages is 08-10 kms. Bank For all the identified villages, banks are available only in Vansda town. Average distance to avail of bank services is in the range of 2 40 kms. Cooperative society, etc- Multipurpose co-operatives are there in all the villages. A horticulture based Co-operative has been formed under the facilitation of NABARD and Dhruva. The Co-op. is doing processing and marketing of farmers produce. Literacy level-The literacy rate for men is 78.25% and for women it is 65%. The major horticulture crops are mango, banana, and custard apple; on a minor scale there is guava and lemon. The major agriculture is subsistence and major cultivation is undertaken during the monsoon season. The major crops during the monsoon season are rice, pigeon pea, black gram. Other prominent allied activities in the village are dairy, poultry, goat rearing.

Soil Solarization Treatment- An Alternative to Rabb Project Objective: Tribals of this area practice a unique system of agriculture called rabb since the late 18th century. The usual practice of rabb is to pile up leaf litter and biomass from the forest on a small plot of land up to 2 ft high and then burn it. On an average, 750kg of biomass is used in a plot of the above mentioned size. Seeds of millet and paddy are then sown after the first shower. Once the rains start, the area around this plot is ploughed and the germinated crop seedlings with an average height of 17 inches are transplanted to the prepared land. Weeding is carried out periodically and the crops are harvested after the monsoon in October/November. This practice is putting immense pressure on forest resources of the area because the practice requires wood and dry leaves from the forest, also, tree cutting takes place on a large scale for land requirement for the above practice. It also adds to the farmers drudgery According to the farmers, good quality seedlings are obtained by using this indigenous method. According to farmers' perceptions, the practice apparently also reduces weeds, improves soil fertility and controls soil-borne diseases. But this practice destroys soil organic matter. The practice is labor-intensive, time-consuming, destructive, unsustainable and detrimental to the environment. To address this issue there is a need to put in place sustainable soil fertility management strategies for raising seedlings for finger millet and paddy. The objective of this study therefore is to experiment and popularize an alternative Project Synopsis Page 144

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 technique to rabb and assess its effect on the quality of seedlings. The effect of heating soil on the yield of rice and finger millet was also studied in this experiment. An attempt was made to economically analyze the effect of the Soil Solarization Treatment through on-farm demonstrations, to study the economic feasibility of the technique. Methodology: Soil solarization is a method of heating soil by covering it with transparent polythene sheet. It is a non-chemical alternative for disease, insect pest and weed control. Soil solarization has potential application as it can be successfully used for disinfection of any seedbed to produce healthy seedlings of rice crops. The land to be solarized is ploughed and leveled properly. Beds are prepared according to the width of the polythene sheet. Beds are then wrapped with the polythene sheet and the margins are covered with soil to avoided air movement inside the bed. Care should be taken to avoid premature break down of the polythene sheet. If this happens, the tear should be immediately sealed with white plastic tape. Solarization is usually done in the hottest months of the year (April-May) for a period of 4 to 5 weeks. The plastic sheet will maintain the necessary heat required for the seedlings to grow, thereby keeping the necessary nutrients in the soil intact which would otherwise get destroyed during burning in the rabb technique. An improved farming technique was practiced on an experimental basis. Six Farmers from the MOLAMBA Village in Vansda Block were selected, technical and material support was provided and impact study was conducted. In order to make a fair comparison, half of the land was cultivated as per the traditional method of rabb technique. The beds were required to be covered for 20 days. After the respective period got over the plastic sheets were removed and the seeds were sown after the first rain. Once the seedlings grew, the following study was conducted. All the other practices were similar in solarized and rabb plots, according to their traditional practice. 1. Plant Height 2. Number of leaves per plant 3. Root Length 4. Number of weeds per sq.ft. Observations: Soil Solarization experiment was conducted with 6 farmers preparing 8 beds, the beds were of size 8*4 meters. The data below is the average of all the 8 beds. Although the method followed in all the beds were slightly different; however there was no major variations in the outcome. The rabb practice was also followed with the same farmers near the Solarized beds, to facilitate easy comparison. Particulars Soil Treatment Solarization Rabb(Traditional practice)

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Weeds No. of Leaves Plant Height Time Required bed preparartion Cost per bed Less than 1% weeds in the bed 6-7 leaves/Plant Average 19 inch for 1 day More than 5% weeds 4-5 leaves/plant Average 17 inch 15days*

Rs. 100

Opportunity cost for 15 days of labor

Environmental Impact

Plastic used, can be re-used for Use of Appx.750 kg of biomass, rainy season(compulsory tree branches to burn the field requirement in this area)

(Note: - The time required for collecting the dry leaves, tree branches and other bio-mass is 6 hours for 20-25 days. Also, the activity is carried out by all family members, if the family has 4 members; all of them will go to collect the bio-mass)

Findings & Learning Soil Solarization helps to improve the root health, controls soil-borne pathogen pressured by increasing nutrient availability. Soil solarization technique involves covering the soil with polythene sheet during summer to raise soil temperature to levels that are lethal to soil-borne pests including weeds. Soil solarization increases nitrogen availability which may lead to higher biomass and yield. Seedbed solarization improves the growth of rice seedlings. This practice will be extended to other areas under millet and paddy cropping which at present also follow the rabb process. Forest Protection and Conservation Objective: The objective of this program is to save the forests from tree- cutting and trading, with the intervention of the villagers. In the process, inculcate in them the need for environment protection. The setting up of a forest committee will empower them towards better livelihood and saving of the green cover of the village. The Problem Forest Department has set up JFMC (Joint Forest Management Committees) in all the villages of Vansda Taluk. The main function of JFMC is to protect the forest from illegal cutting and to provide the villagers with alternatives for livelihood and fuel. However, the forest department in Molamba Village has not been able to form the JFMC committee due to some misunderstanding. Since then, nothing has been done in the village so far and the vulnerable teak in the village has been cut down extensively for fuel, rabbing and for trading purposes. The idea evolved when a group of villagers came forward to discuss about the issue and after the discussion the real problem was identified. The problem was due to the vested interests of a few persons. I took the problem to the seniors in BAIF, conducted village level meetings,

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 met up with Range Forest Officer (the highest authority in the forest department, at Tal.) and later planned to form a village level forest protection committee. Possible Interventions The village level committee was formed, for which the facilitation between the RFO and the villagers (including the political leader) has been done through the village level meeting. Various other activities like screening a movie on environment protection to promote the sense of forest protection were also undertaken. The following structure was formed as a forest protection committee: Village Leader

Cluster Leader Sub-leader of 5-10 houses for closer Monitoring

Villagers for their own monitoring

The committee once formed will be linked with JFMC under the Forest department. Khel-Khel mein Subsequent to my other project, my passion for teaching led me to one of the schools in the village which is supported by BAIF DHRUVA. My visit there made me realize that a lot can be done for the overall development of the students in the school. The school is a secondary school with a girls hostel. Another SBI Youth for India fellow, Parveen and I, started an embroidery class there as a skill enhancement activity. Twice a week we conducted classes in the school for teaching embroidery work. Also, the other focus of taking the class was for environment protection, general health and hygiene. In future, this skill in embroidery work could become an entrepreneurship activity for the girls.

Village Institutions: Scope and Insights

Report prepared by Vaibhav Rathi, SBI Youth for India Fellow Mentor Shri

Abstract:
Development sector in India is now a vibrant sector, with one of the biggest welfare budgets funded both by state and private funds (both Indian and foreign). While a lot of efforts are being put into creating new infrastructure, assets or service base, there is also an urgent need to create responsible institutions so that longevity of these assets can be ensured. The project focuses on the later, yet more vital part of the developmental process, of creating effective Village Institutions serving to the sustainability part of the whole developmental process. The process consists of creating democratically elected Village Institutions, providing them with necessary training and awareness, Project Synopsis Page 147

SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 and providing them with an opportunity to take up the responsibility as a prime agent of developmental activities. The project, which is a combination of qualitative study and its implementation, focuses on building awareness base among people regarding Village Development Fund (hereafter called Gram Vikas Kosh or GVK) and its effective management and use.

Project Location: Project Location:

The project is located in Kotra block of Udaipur district about 125km south-west of district headquarter. Brief description is as follows: Population: 183,504 (per 2001 census) 36 Panchayats comprising of 302 villages spread over an area of 1211 sq km. Main populace includes Garasia, Meena and Bhil tribes with a number of sub caste along with Muslims and some other caste. Primarily spoken language is a variant of Wangdi, which is a native language of nearby Kherwara region. The area is defined by extreme hilly terrain most of which comes under sanctuary area and is controlled by Forest Department. The typical village consists of 150 families comprising of many hamlets and spread across an average of 3-4 km radius. Agriculture serves as the primary source of income, although just a small section of the total land is devoted to it, due to low soil moisture from the recurring drought and limited irrigation capacities. And like already mention, majority of land is under forest area. Majority of the produce is self-consumed or sold in the local market in small amount as the need arises. At 24.52%, Kotra blocks literacy rate is the lowest of any of the blocks, with the female literacy rate at only 11.5% and male at 37.55%. ( source: Seva Mandirs website)

Objective:
The project is based on, and an extension of Village Institutions Program (VIP), a visionary initiative by Seva Mandir. One of the key objectives of the project was to understand peoples perspective towards development by providing them with a platform to express their problems, concerns and so often anxiety. Village Institution is essentially an exercise undertaken to build and promote dialogue with and among people, while building upon and enhancing their capacity.

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Methodology:
Methodology which I followed for the project primarily derives from simple yet immaculate process of already running VIP. The process works by first introducing villagers to the concept of Village Institutions, as well as their role and responsibility in the developmental process. Villagers are encouraged to form a democratically elected committee (hereafter called Gram Vikas Committee or GVC) with representation from every hamlet of the village. GVC is sensitized towards the importance of building a culture of dialogue and debate in the village by holding regular meetings and encouraging more and more people to take part. Each GVC is endowed with a number of specially designed Training Sessions, details of which are as follows:

Newly-elected GVC training:

Its an induction of sorts for a new GVC.

Support to Peoples Initiative (SPI): This training focuses on teaching GVCs about the conduct of developmental programs in their villages and the specific responsibilities for supervising and managing these development activities. Follow-up GVC training: This training is to strengthen existing GVCs in assessing their previous work and expanding upon their knowledge of development. Government welfare schemes training: In this training a representative from every Panchayat zone is selected and informed about the major welfare programs and schemes of the Government. It is then the responsibility of that representative to go back to their zone and inform all the constituents about these programs and schemes and assist them in participating wherever possible and necessary. Women members training: This training is specifically to develop women leaders. It teaches women about development and enables them to participate and become more involved in the village development process. Accountant training: This training is to strengthen committee members financial knowledge and understanding of basic accounting and banking techniques. In addition, any committee can seek out guidance whenever the need arises. In short, training of any sort is conceptualized with the sole aim of capacity building of Village Institutions. Each GVC maintains and manages a GVK which is a village level collective fund aimed at promoting financial self-sufficiency of the village. Kotra block has 97 GVKs managed by 80 GVCs amounting to a total corpus of about Rs 14 Lac sourced mainly from developmental activities carried out by Seva Mandir.

Gram Vikas Kosh Awareness Initiative:

One of my most important involvements in VIP was through the GVK Awareness Initiative which addresses the need to increase financial self-sufficiency among the GVCs and Samuhs at large. Gram

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 Vikas Kosh ( GVK) is a village corpus conceptualized to address their respective developmental needs and make GVCs, and Samuhs at large, more self-reliant and self-sufficient. Tribes in Kotra dont have the same perception of money as people in the mainstream. Unlike us, most of the things the local populace requires are either produced by them only or some welfare scheme covers it. This attitude is reflected in the fact that most of the people stock their produce and sell it only when some need arises, that too in small quantities. Other contradictory facts include spendthrift habits, predominantly in the young population, again reflecting the attitude that money is primarily viewed as a means to purchase luxury goods. Thus GVK awareness campaign aims to encourage people to build a constructive perception and financial awareness towards developmental activities. The aim was to understand peoples mindset, introduce the idea of community resources to them, encourage them to take ownership of the community fund and utilize it to build a resource base for the village. Listed below are some of the things which seemed to need the most attention and along which I aligned my plan of action: Interface with the Village Management System of GVK use Follow-up System Building a constructive perspective about GVK

With the help and guidance of Seva Mandir staff, I chose the following set of villages from different zones (sub-division of a block): Bikarni : Mamer: Sada: Patherpadi: Thep Budhiya, Mandwal, Vasela, Gura, Koldhara, Nakola, Patherpadi, Dedhmariya.

The criteria for choosing the above set of villages was two fold: A comparatively cohesive Samuh and a substantive GVK. Furthermore, as the project progressed, I realized the need of not restricting to a certain number of villages but to let the idea flow wherever it could and to focus on the village which showed some interest. So in this way, I made contact with, in addition to the villages mentioned in the list, many more villages and followed the process there too. A number of meetings and training sessions were held for Samuhs to start a dialogue on the issue. Special emphasis was given to encouraging opinions from each Samuh or GVC according to their local needs and requirement. Thereafter, each Samuh was approached individually and the same process was carried out on an individual basis. The exercise threw up many requirements and opinions from the people and these were systematically followed up. Project Synopsis Page 150

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Results and Future Challenges:

A village is a complex entity which in most cases is very different from the corresponding revenue village that is found in official records. What I experienced in Kotra is that, what outsiders view as a village is nothing but settlements in places wherever possible. And people in these settlements are divided (or cohesive) along various factors among which caste, physical proximity or feudal arrangements are the most prominent. The prime challenge arises from the fact that the people in most of these settlements have been virtually cut-off from the outside world until recently and consequently their thinking process has a wholly different logical structure. Another variant of the same thing is, most of the time people are simply inaccessible due to one or the other reason and it affects your ability to accurately gauge the peoples mindset. And since every village (or settlement is unique) no assumptions can be made. Most of the Samuhs that were involved in the activity were open to the idea of managing and utilizing GVK but suffered from a lack of clear consensus on the method to do it.

Following is a brief layout detailing activities along with corresponding results or remarks: Work planned Understanding local populace Results/Remarks Promoting dialogue served as a means and an end, which helped me to grasp the local situation and challenges in a more comprehensive way. Village People here have unusually strong allegiance to social institutions, which are dominating, largely repressive and resistant to any change. My experiences of introducing people to the idea of Village Institutions have largely been mixed and diverse. Statistically speaking, in the absence of a responsible leader to lead the VI, its importance to people in general is greatly diminished. Its not the idea that works; its how people make it work that would determine an ideal VI. Acting as an ever ready assistant for VIs was one of the most important aspects of my project. Like any democratic institution, VIs takes time to mature. Exposing the people to the idea of a Community Fund which belongs to no one in particular but the whole community. It was one of the trickiest parts of the project since wherever there is money involved, the situation is prone to controversy and conflict. In addition to it, I informed the VIs Page 151

Promoting Institutions

ideas

about

Acting as a consultant cum assistant to formally formed Village Institutions Spreading Awareness about GVK

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SBI Youth For India Fellowship 2011-12 having substantial unused fund to opt for an investment plan, such as a Fixed Deposit. A number of fixed deposits have been successfully made, and the process is continuing. Conducting cases of GVK Use This is one part of the work-plan which I have tenaciously pursued in the case of a number of VIs, but have not achieved full blown success. How do you spend the money which is not owned by anyone in particular? In most cases its rather impractical to use a sum of money for the entire Village at once and I have observed even competent VIs facing indecision when confronted with the need to spend the money. Seva Mandir provides some solution by helping VIs to manage the money but as it happens in some cases, solution feeds back to the problem.

All the efforts yielded some very positive results such as the people in Thep were motivated to buy better fertilizers from a different place and at even lower prices; people in Patherpadi were able to device a system to manage the set of utensils they had bought for collective use, people in Tiloi have had a stupendous experience defending their forest from encroachment, people in Kham have realized their priorities in terms of education and solving the water problem, people in the virgin Bijuri have just stumbled upon the idea of community led development and are already running an education center and are all set to work on a community well, people in Mandwal are all set to open a Community Atta-Chakki, youth in Palesar have developed the small piece of waste land beside their Youth Resource Center( another visionary initiative by Seva Mandir) into a garden, etc.

Discussions:
The idea of Village Institutions is a powerful yet under- utilized concept. Exploration of the idea leads one to real insights in development philosophy, anthropology and political structure of the people. It brings the people themselves onto the center of the stage as one of the most important and responsible agents of change, invariably requiring their competence.

Tribal Development through Financial Inclusion

Report prepared by Vineet Kumar Singh Mentors: Mr V.C. Badve (Advisor) & Mr J.R.Mori (CPC)

1. Background:
DHRUVA is an associate organization of BAIF Development Research Foundation (Head Office in Pune) working in the South Gujarat region which is predominantly
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inhabited by tribal population. DHRUVA introduced a tree based farming project called Wadi. Wadi consists of mango, cashew or lemon or any fruit crop suitable to the area. Wadi has been a very popular intervention in the tribal areas of South Gujarat due to its long term nature of providing a sustained income from the available resources. Wadi not only necessitates plantation activity but also encompasses multifaceted development through microfinance and development of market linkages for the tribal families. Seasonal migration has been reduced to a great extent as wadi provides year-round employment opportunities to tribal families. Institutional credit has been recognized as one of the key inputs for development. However, the program area has had very low level of credit disbursement. So DHRUVA came up with a plan for micro-loan disbursement (called SAHABHAGI VIKAS YOJANA) in the region which was financially supported by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). A loan of 5.62 Cr was given to DHRUVA at an interest rate of six percent per annum and consequently given in rural areas by DHRUVA through the recommendation of GVMs (Gram Vikas Mandal- a group of 10-12 farmers in a village panchayat). Features of the project: A joint initiative by NABARD and DHRUVA First of its kind project (micro-loan disbursement) in this tribal area Started with the aim of inculcating the habit of availing credit among tribals Fully focused on village growth aspect Loan amounting to 5.62Cr disbursed in the project out of that 3.34Cr was disbursed only in Kaparada taluka Project implementation period was 1998-till now Sector-wise loan disbursed Sector Farm Implementation On-farm Activities Non-farm Activities Livestock development Water Resource Management Loan Disbursed (in Rs Lacs) 18 140 234 74 97

(Not explaining Village-wise and other breakage due to abundance of data) Till now the total recovery done in the SAHABHAGI VIKAS YOJANA is around ninety four percent which is very high when compared to the banking standard.

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Abstract: The aim of the project is: 1. To understand the trend of loan disbursement in the Kaparada taluk. 2. To create awareness among people about the benefits of banking services

2. District Profile:
Total Geographical Area: 2947 Sq Km Total Population: 1699879 Literacy Rate: 50 percent No. Of Villages: 462 Climate: Semi Arid & Sub dry humid Main Crops: Paddy, Jawar, Tuar, Sugarcane, Ground Nut Forest Land: 87000 Ha No. Of Primary Health Centres: 39

3. Project Location:
The project area is located in Kaparada taluka of Valsad District of Gujarat. The project area comprises of ten villages in the taluka out of which in half the number of villages, the NGO (DHRUVA) has its presence through interventions in various developmental and livelihood projects while the other five villages are non-project villages. The project area is located at the southern most tip of Gujarat near the Gulf of Khambhat in the Arabian Sea. It has several advantages, both natural and manmade that makes it one of the most prosperous districts of Gujarat in terms of potential for new and innovative experimentation in agro-horticulture and food processing sectors. The mentioned area falls under high rainfall zone and gets southwest monsoon, around 1800-2000mm and the climate of the project area is humid to subhumid.

4. SBI Fellowship Project:

Within the above mentioned project SAHABHAGI VIKAS YOJANA, the SBI project focused solely on the mechanism of loan disbursement, selection criteria of the beneficiaries, criteria to impart the subsidy to farmers and I was encouraged to see such a high rate of recovery achieved in the above mentioned project. Also, in the same period the study covered the trend of disbursement of loans by various banks established in the region and which sector was most touched by them and which untouched. However, while the above mentioned project has been implemented in hundred and sixty villages but due to some constraints there was a need to focus on
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a small number of villages. I therefore concentrated on five project villages where DHRUVA has intervention in developmental projects and on five non-project villages of DHRUVA. 5. Project Objective: 1. To understand the trend of loan disbursement in the Kaparada taluk 2. To create awareness among people about the benefit of banking services 3. To narrow down on ten (five project + five Non-project) villages for exhaustive analysis

6. Project:
A. Data Collection of loans from banks: There were totally five banks present in the project area: 1. SBI, Kaparada 2. Bank of Baroda 3. Gramin Bank Nanapondha 4. Gramin Bank Sutharpada 5. Gramin Bank Kaparada Data was collected from all the five banks for all the loans given in the Kaparada taluka during the last ten years.

Loans given by various Banks in Kaparada taluka in last ten years (all figures in lacs)

Year 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Total

GB Nanapondha 42 34 49 111 98 91 191 139 98 162 1038

GB Kaparada 15 19 20 72 65 89 117 97 70 52 615

GB Sutharpada 8 17 18 32 62 19 48 32 27 20 280

BoB Kaparada 56 62 48 52 106 72 97 88 108 111 800

SBI Kaparada 23 27 29 33 35 36 42 46 73 49 393

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B. Selection of Ten Villages:

For exhaustive analysis, ten villages were chosen from all across Kaparada taluka. Selection was done in such a manner that there were five villages from the project area where DHRUVA already has intervention in the development work and the other five villages are non-project villages so that we can also measure how the development work and awareness created by the NGO helps in making people more credit worthy. PROJECT VILLAGES NON-PROJECT VILLAGES Amba Jungle Biloniya Hunda Umarpada Amdha Fatehpur Malungi Burla Piproni Bamanwada

Loan Disburement in Five project villages in last ten years Amba Jungle Hunda Amdha Malungi Agriculture 18.8 4 14.7 12.4 Livestock+ Small 14 6.25 18 9.5 Business Personal+ Others 12.6 1.95 21.3 6.2 Total 45.4 12.2 54 28.1 No. Of Beneficiary 222 69 231 112 Loan disbursement in five non-project villages Biloniya Umarpada Agriculture 14 3.2 Livestock+ Small 7.5 5 Business Personal+ Others 7.1 2.8 Total 28.6 11 No. Of Beneficiary 98 65

Piproni 10 6.2 12.2 28.4 128

Fatehpur 2.65 2.25 4.3 9.2 43

Burla 15 0 5.6 7.1 42

Bamanwada 10.2 6 6.6 22.8 111

Total Loan in all 126 villages of Kaparada Taluka in last 10 Years= 32.3 Cr
Total Subsidy given is around 5Cr Average loan given to each village per Year=25.6 lacs Average Period of loan repayment= 5 Years Average Rate of Interest 7-7.5% per annum Expected income of all banks from last ten years loan disbursement= 12.3Cr (when recovery rate is 100%) But actual expected income from last ten years loan disbursement= 5.55Cr (As recovery rate is 45 %)

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C. Further Steps: While examining the various development programmes in the tribal part of South Gujarat region, it was also realized that instead of approaching the community people with any pre-conceived programme, we should go with an open mind to identify their needs, problems, skill sets and resources needed by them for their all round development. We are taking help from experts to analyze the detailed data obtained from the villages and banks. After that, probably with the help of funding agency, we will try to launch a financial inclusion program to help the rural people in accordance with their need.

Tribal Development through Agriculture Intervention ( 2nd Project) 1. 2. Project Location:

The project called TDF (Tribal Development Fund) had been initiated in the six villages of Vansda taluka of Navsari district. The main activity under this project is the tree based farming called Wadi program. A Wadi is an orchard of one acre land where farmers plant horticulture crops (like, mango, cashew and lemon) along with vegetables.

3. Objective:
To work with the community people who have low land holding which is degraded, hilly and less fertile, to grow seasonal crops to provide them livelihood at their doorstep and also to create a long term income source which would be sufficient to check their distress migration.

4. Methodology:
Work undertaken: A. To conduct village meetings to make people aware about the benefits of Wadi. B. To conduct meetings at the hamlet level to form groups and appoint leaders to take up the responsibility to follow up with the other beneficiaries of the projects. C. Selection of beneficiaries on the basis of economic condition, land holding, distress migration, etc.

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D. After selecting beneficiaries, appointing field guides and giving them training to give Wadi lay-put. E. Encourage the participation of all family members in the Wadi activity.

5. Project:
In this project, around three hundred and fifty families were chosen in six villages of Vansda taluka of Navsari district. My involvement is in the two villages of Nirpan and Chorabani. The selection criteria involves the financial condition of the family, assets possessed by them , land owned, migration issues, etc. As mentioned above, the land in the project area is hilly terrain, water deprived, less fertile and because of that people grow crops only once in a year i.e. during the rainy season. In the project, we helped the beneficiaries of the project to develop an orchard on one acre land. Three fourths of the acre is used to grow horticulture crop like, mango, cashew and lemon. What I observed during the project phase is that there is a difference between a tribal and rural family in that the tribal family doesnt think about the long term aspect. They have the mentality to ensure their food security for only a few days. For that they prefer to work as labour in nearby cities like, Nashik, Surat, Vapi etc., even when they have their own land. So, this program helped in creating remunerative selfemployment and to develop sustainable livelihood practices in tribal farmers. Most of the land used under this project is waste land which is generally not used or is the least used. It is a subsistence way of farming as we follow the soil and water conservation practices in parallel. As the horticulture crops, provided by us take around five years to give any fruit of labour to the farmers so along with the horticulture, we also promoted vegetable cultivation in the remaining one fourth acre. As it doesnt take much time to grow, the vegetables provide an immediate income generation opportunity to farmers on a seasonal basis. The support given by us to the farmers continues up to five years. The investment on all activities is also shared equally during the duration of the project.

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