Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Impact of LIFE project on sustainable agriculture in Rajasthan: Change in thought process!


Impact of LIFE on sustainable agriculture is so influential that the thought process of the community has changed towards the agriculture as:

Thought process on agriculture before LIFE project intervention
Thought process on agriculture before LIFE project intervention
Period ( time duration taken to change the thought process)
Seeds: Purchase from market  and mainly hybrid seeds. Depend on market for purchasing it.
Seeds: Use of local/Certified seeds.
After 18 months of the project implementation.
Usage of Urea: Is important for the production
Usage of Urea: Has been replaced by Amritpani and dash Parani ark
After 26 months of the project implementation.
Organic cultivation: Not possible
Organic Cultivation: is possible and are doing.
After 2 year of the project implementation.
Discussion on field and tea shop: Price of urea and its availability
Discussion on field and tea shop: How to go for organic cultivation and preparation of amritpani.
After 18 months of the project implementation.
Access to KVK: No idea about KVK
Access to KVK: KVK is the part of farmers cropping system from sowing to harvesting
After 18 months of the project implementation
On soyabean: gives good income must be grown in more area
On soyabean: It is reducing our food grain cultivation area. Now need to cultivate more maize and wheat
After 24 months of the project implementation.

“The journey of sustainable agriculture with low input cost to of LIFE project has brought about recognition that future agriculture growth and productivity will not depend on market  rather would be individual farmer driven  also this movement of LIFE will move to  strengthen the GDP of country through generating more interest amongst the farmers and  making agriculture a profitable occupation”

Workshop with LIFE project team on analyzing data & reporting!@Ajmer


Caritas India project team has facilitated a two day workshop ( 21st-22nd Jan 2012) for the partner organisations of LIFE project ( RCDSSS-Ajmer & SJVS-Banswara) on analysing data and developing quality report from the analysis. The workshop has group exercises and this 1st time three teams, Caritas India, and two project partners of LIFE project worked together on the completion report.







Friday, January 18, 2013

Status of Women Self Help Group (SHG) in LIFE project villages


Women Self Help Groups are now entered in to the businesses model o, where they are engaged in to income generation activities and marketing of it!

Status of SELF HELP GROUPS ( SHGs)
Result
Total Target
SJVS-Banswara (Till Jan 2012)
SJVS-Banswara (Till Jul 2012)
RCDSSS-Ajmer (till Jan 2012)
RCDSSS-Ajmer (till Jul 2012)
Total (till Jul 2012)
Formation of SHGs
20
1
1
25
25
26
SHGs linked with the local bank
20
1 ( Banswara project no SHG formation, as most of the women are already in SHGs)
1
25
25
26
SHGs started IGA
20
0
1
15
15
15
SHGs functioning effectively[1]  ( on the basis of monitoring tools attached in the annexure)
20
1
1
15
15
16







Source: Monthly cluster reports and field visit of Caritas India project staff


In the SHGs there is the concept of saving, where as in the farmers club saving is optional. Out of 20 farmers club around 10 are doing the monthly saving of 100 rupees  and this saving amount they are using for the purchase of agriculture equipments for common use and supporting the needy farmer for cultivation work.

On the other hand when we talk about the saving of SHGs It is also worth to observe that in SHGs ( with an average 15 members per SHGs) on an average saving is Rs. 50 per month so in this way through LIFE project team efforts women collectiveness in the form of SHGs are able to save:

Total SHGs=26
Average membership=15
Total members in SHGs =26X15=390
Average saving amount per member per month=50 INR
Total saving in a month =26X15X50= 19500

Average age of SHGs= 24 months
Total (approx) saving till July 2012= 19500X24=468000 INR

From the above we could easily conclude that INR 468000 amount LIFE project is somewhere financially securing the present and the future of the women from the Rajasthan region. Here we need to understand the critical concept of women collectiveness in Rajasthan region that, its not that only through LIFE ;women collectiveness is coming out, earlier also government and other agencies also implemented the financial inclusion programmes in the form of SHGs ( self Help Groups), but the key intention was only limited to saving and credit , but with LIFE we have started the women collectiveness with the key intention of social inclusion and then strengthening financial systems for the women.

Production Units by Women Self Help Groups (SHGs)
Women Self Help Groups in Ajmer has initiated production units ( through Income generation support activities) there are 5 production centers being initiated and are able to produce goods and market goods also. The status of the production units are as:

  1. Total 5 productions cum training units were established for income generation and skill development of SHG members in 5 villages. The details are as follows :
                                I.      Unit–1 : Spice (Masala – Chilly, Coriander, Turmeric) Pocessing (Grading, Grinding, Packaging & Selling) Unit; run by Ghareeb Nawaj SHG of Gudha village, maily owned by Mrs. Phulbano. They process the material as per requirement of the shop setup by Phulbano earlier. Monthly she sells 20 kg. Chilly powder, 7 kg. Coriander Powder & 5 kg. Turmeric and earn profit of Rs. 1000/- to 1500 monthly.
                              II.      Unit – 2 & 3 : Tailoring cum Bag Making Unit at Kesarpura & Devliya run by Jagdamba SHG of Devliya & Vishvakarma SHG of Kesarpura. Total 14 SHG members are trained regularly, they completed tailoring and now production bags is going on for upcoming pushkar fair.
                            III.      Unit – 4 & 5 : Production Unit of Vermin Compost run by Krishna SHG Noklha & Peepalderani SHG Devliya. Total 6 SHG members have established 12 vermin compost units of 20’×3’×2’ size and producing compost. From the next two months the ready compost will be packaged by other members of SHGs & sold to the market.

Change Factor through Women SHGs…
  • With SHGs women have moved beyond the concept of saving and credit, infect now in terms of income they are more in the role of entrepreneur rather than a women just getting and submitting a loan! The word loan has changed with income!
  •  Now all the SHGs are linked with the government banks rather than linking with micro-finance institutions (which charges quite high rate of interest) and this lead to have loan for the group with an interest rate ranging from 12-18% and in some cases with subsidy of 1-2%.
  • Village heath worker/asha worker participate in the monthly meetings of almost 80% of SHGs formed under LIFE. This includes information on premature pregnancy, motherhood, menstruation cycle irregularities etc.
  • Around 90% of SHGs women have school going children and good to observe that all are going to the village schools and now with more income through entrepreneurship women spent 5-10% of amount on providing bags and school dresses to their children  ( as books are available free of cost in the government schools).
  • Have financial knowledge on bank and its transactions, 90% of SHGs at  Ajmer do every thing by themselves without any support from our cluster Coordinator. It includes going to bank, doing transactions, meeting with PRI and bank officials etc. and interesting factor is that they all are illiterate; they take support of field animator only for minutes writing.
  • Now women started living neat and clean and are aware about bank, PHC, vaccination and school.
  • Participate in Gram sabha[2] meetings and micro-plans of the village.  We need to understand that women participation in decision making either at their home or at the public forum is vital. In LIFE gender aspect is a cross cutting issue and to strengthen the same through the project we have structures like SHGs and farmers club have been developed, where 33% of female membership is compulsory. Apart from this in all the activities, exposures we project have give space and scope for the female representation and positively they comes foreword for the same. This all has boost up the moral and confidence level of target women in the LIFE project villages.

3.2.2 What sort of discussion SHGs  members do during the meeting?
It is good to notice that 80% of SHGs have their regular monthly meetings on fixed date, time and place (in some cases place get changed every month). On an average duration of meeting is around 1-2 hours in which the members initially do prayers, and then do their saving and credit process and later on discus on the various issues[3] as:
  • NREGA work
  • On health issues
  • On their household work
  • Children education
  • Loan repayment
  • On organic Cultivation
  • On their husbands and family
  • On festivals
  • On their daughter marriage
  • On their health concerns
  • On government schemes ( social security schemes)
  • On IGA



[1] Effective SHGS criteria in LIFE are as: collectiveness 10-20 women from BPL families, regular meeting, discussion on social issues in the meeting, regular saving, promotion of IGP activities, regular attendance, rotation of leadership, linkages with banks, timely repayment & participation in gram sabha meetings

[2] What is a Gram Sabha of the Panchayat?

Gram Sabha means a body consisting of persons whose names are for the time being entered as electors in the electoral roll for a Panchayat.
When does the Gram Sabha meet ?
1. There shall be four ordinary meetings of the Gram Sabha to be held on any Sunday of January, April, July and October of every year, and is to be convened by the Sarpanch.
2. There shall also be four Special Meetings of the Gram Sabha on 26th January, l5th August, 2nd October and 19th December of every year and is to be convened by the Sarpanch.
3. An extra ordinary meeting of the Gram Sabha shall be convened by the Sarpanch, upon a requisition in writing of not less than one-tenth number of members of the Gram Sabha, within thirty days from the receipt of such requisition.

[3]  Information based on the data collected from the minutes register of the SHGs and FGDs with the SHGs.


LIFE PROJECT IN RELATION WITH    
CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING (CST)


With LIFE project in Rajasthan, we are able to bring out change not only in terms of securing entitlements and enhancing agriculture production but also women empowerment  in highly male dominated society of Rajasthan. Along with all this changes the basi principles of catholic Social teaching has been considered as the core values for all the development through the LIFE project in giving new life to the people as:

No discrimination in caste, creed, religion during selection of project of beneficiaries & context and Reaching to the poorest of the poor: In LIFE project we are working with 1552 target households out of 2500 total households. This 1552 target households are mainly of deprived community with have poor living status in terms of no livelihood source, maximum land up to 10 bigha, no access to entitlement and families with no two time full meals. While targeting these 1552 neither religion nor creed and not caste system has been adopted, only focus has given to the status of the community, although it has come out that tribals and SC community people has more status and thus more importance has given to them , but in the target community beneficiaries are also from the poor and marginalized families from OBC and other categories.

Respect the dignity & culture of people and promoting human values: Rajasthan is known for its culture and in LIFE project the two project districts-Ajmer and Banswara has two unique and different cultures one has entirely tribal culture ( at Banswara) and another has entirely Marwari culture( Ajmer) and  in LIFE project we have consideration and respect for both this culture and have intiated concept seeding of LIFE project in the local dialect and even implementation in the same. LIFE has celebrated the tribal festivals as “Hariyyali aamwasya” ( a festival for worshiping trees) and also has seeded the concept of conserving tribals identity by moving back to natural cultivation, creating new forests and promotion of local breeds.

Care for creation for natural resources: It is impotrrtant to know that in the state like Rajasthan, where water scarcity is there, production of agriculture is low and more than 99.6% of farmers practice synthetic fertilizer based cultivation , with LIFE project more than 30% of its target families practice 100% of organic cultivation. Also It is worth to note that with LIFE we also focused on environment security and 70% of the programme we have used cloth banners, rather than plastic or flex banners. Used of clothe banners itself has created the attention of mass and stakeholders

Promoting peace through collective action: In LIFE project community collectiveness has been promoted to take action for the development of the entire village, either in the form of adopting low cost agriculture or demanding for entitlements or initiating income generation activities as sustainable source of livelihood all this is to give a better life to each and every individual not to disturb the society. Even in terms of demanding for entitlements all the movements either by the women collectiveness or by the farmer’s collectiveness it all peaceful movements in a Gandhian way to demand their due rights. Also it is worth to know that with LIFE project the collective actions by the community in Naulakha Panchayat ( the LIFE project panchayat) has become the best  panchayat in implimnetation of NREGA, which has  secured 100days work for 95% of households which means the community has better earning to live a peaceful life! And 95% people rights have been secured!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Graduate degree certification for the farmers @LIFE Banswara


Rajasthan Government announces to give graduate level degree certification and 15000 INR to the farmers who all are practicing organic cultivation. Almost 100 farmers from LIFE project villages of Banswara are applying for the same.



Major Achievements in LIFE project in Dec 2012@SJVS-Banswara



·         2 farmers have received benefits of free Demonstration plot Onion from KVK Banswara.
·         1 farmer have received benefits of the free Demonstration plot of Gram from agriculture department kushalgarh.
·         8 farmers have received benefits of free demonstration plot of Grass seeds from agriculture department Kushalgarh.
·         200 farmers have been benefited through the Pratapdhan barite of Hen and cocks from Maharana Pratap University of agriculture and technology Udaipur which will give 140 to 160 Eggs Continuously.
·          94 Households are linked with panchayat through the MGNREGA training.
·         8 farmers have prepared Amritpani and they are using it in present crops.
·         179 villagers had visited in Rozgar Dhaba in reporting month.

 Source: Monthly Progress Report  of Dec 2012 by SJVS-Banswara LIFE project team

LIFE project progress in Dec 2012@RCDSSS Ajmer


The project has come up to the ending now with its full achievements and results reported time to time. This month we initiated application of PMF tools for final evaluation of the project for drawing the final results and achievements. Sanctions were furnished for social security schemes such as Indira Awas & Disable Pension and agricultural schemes such as farm pond pump set for 6 farmers. Similarly, followup of production units and Rojgar Dhaba and its functionality is enhanced by monitoring and support. The production will be marketed in the next month after proper packing and labelling. 

Major Achievements : (Results/targeted achievements) :
  • Chokhi Kheti (Good Agriculture) Magazine published by KVK Ajmer is subscribed by 10 farmers of Nepoli for a year. It will help them in adopting good agriculture practices timely and with proper methods.

  • Final PMF tools application is conducted in 8 villages by the animators this month and hence project results are drawn from the field for final evaluation.

  • First production of vermin compost is produced from 7 units in Develiya village. Average 150 kg. compost per unit is produced in 5 months in the first term.

  •  Jagriti SHG of Devaliya applied for loan in ICICI bank.

  • Amri w/o Ladhu Meghwal (SC) of Mavashiya got sanction of Indira Awas.

  •  Mrs. Nosar w/o Shrikishan of Nepoli village got sanction of Disabled Pension.

  • Four applications were processed for availing pump set on farm pond by Narayan s/o Shrikishan, Kalu s/o Hagamaram Jat, Rodu s/o Chhagana Jat of Surajpura village, and Ramswaroop s/o Gajju of Mavashiya village.

  • An application file is furnished for getting agricultural electricity connection by Chhotulal s/o Heeralal of Nepoli village through our handholding support.

  • Helped in furnishing Adhar Card for 9 children in Nolkha village.

  • Krishna SHG of Nolkha village mobilized bank loan of Rs. 200000/- from ICICI bank.

  • A hand pump is dug and installed in Dhamadi Dhani which was proposed in microplan developed in the project last year.

  • 25 Women of Devaliya, 2 of Mavashiya and 3 pregnant women of Kesarpura initiated Adhaar Card through our support.

  • Total 2487 people visited Rojgar Dhaba in month of December.

Source: Monthly Progress Report (Dec 2012) by RCDSSS-Ajmer LIFE project team