Community Empowerment Facility Profile

A pilot project for enabling the Elected Representatives of Local self Government Institutions to develop strategic alliances with Women Self Groups (SHGs) and Users Associations to carry forward the Agenda of agrarian Reforms and Community Level Food Security

PROJECT LOCATION and OPERATIONAL AREA:

48 Panchyats located in Shantipuram & Pulicherla Mandals of Chittoor District. of Andhra Pradesh, India. The Project covers 17,642 families representing Untouchable Communities, Forest Based Tribals, Backward Communities and Women who are small and marginal farmers and agriculture labourers.

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BENEFICIARIES

Landless people do not possess land to undertake crop production.  They belong the category of agriculture labourers, which constitute 47% in the operational areas.  They sell their labour and work with the big farmers on daily wages.  If employment opportunities are not available in the operational area, they are subjected to seasonal migration to cities like Bangalore and Chennai. Landless people may, or may not, possess small homestead plots with or without legal entitlements.  They are usually categorized as the Poorest of the Poor (POP).

Land owning poor people possess small piece of land, which is below 1/4 hector of rain fed land, where crop failure is a common feature. Because of low and erratic rainfall and draught situations, the families are not able to recover the cost of production. The families are usually employed less than 80 days in a year in their own farms. They also function as agriculture labourers or tenant farmers by taking land lease from big farmers.  42% families belong to this particular category.

People with long pending entitlement issues do not possess legal documents or entitlements for the lands that they are cultivating for several years or generations.  They are not entitled to receive credit from the cooperatives or the commercial banks.  At times the government may transfer the land to other influential farmers or agri. business companies by providing the legal entitlements.  Hence, they are subjected to forcible evictions or drawn into long term legal battles.

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SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

•  To achieve Community based Food Security and Agrarian Reforms by broadening the base of the local self government institutions through their strategic alliance with the Women's Self Help Groups (SHG) and other user associations that exist at the panchyat level.

•  To energize the PRI Leadership for creating their Mandal level federation with a view to negotiate with the Mandal and District Administration for achieving speedy justice and equity in favour of the marginalized communities for their long pending entitlement issues (Land, Water, Inputs etc.,).

1. To enable the Mandal Level Association for preparing 20 demonstration farmers to function as forerunners in promoting Sustainable Agriculture practices.

2. To build the capacity of 20 demonstration farmers and their associates in order to function as extension agents for advocating the alternate agriculture practices by utilizing the base at Panchyat and Mandal levels.

3. To develop the working partnership with The International Land Coalition for utilizing the existing knowledge and practices related to Sustainable Agriculture which are applicable in a drought prone region and share valuable lessons from the demonstration farmers through the various Coalition Fora.

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PLANNED ACTIVITIES

Objective 1 - Activity:

1. Organize Trainers Training Program of 3 days duration for 100 members representing PRI, Women Self Help Groups and members of the User Associations. The program helps to build critical awareness about the intended project measures and the trained people will function as trainers in conducting Panchyat level and Mandal level training programs for building a critical mass of community leadership. The trained members will develop capabilities for utilizing PRA techniques, communication skills, participatory investigation tools, and skills for Micro Level Planning.

Objective 2 - Activities :  

2. Conduct advanced training for 30 mandal representatives with a view to enhance the capabilities of the members to strengthen the organizational base through the involvement of Women SHG's and other User Associations.

3. Enable the trained cadre of local leadership in developing a vision document for the work of mandal level unions with specific details on the goals, objectives, strategies, activities with specific time frame.

4. Enable the Mandal Level Federation to organizing periodic workshops, seminars and interaction sessions. By inviting Mandal and District level officials for solving the long pending issues related to land and water and other entitlements

Objective 3 - Activities:

5. Organize short duration workshops, appreciation sessions for the mandal level federation with a view to sharpen their perspectives related to the need for S.A. Interventions for accomplishing family and community level food security.

6. Enable the Mandal Level Federation to identify 20 farmers representing small, marginal and land less peoples category for undergoing 10 days of Intensive training program with the help of outstanding S.A. demonstration farmers, Agriculture Scientists and NGO professionals. Women headed families will receive adequate weightage in the selection for the training programs.

7. Enable the trained farmers to introduce S.A. interventions in their home and field environment for introducing the selected S.A. Practices (See Annexure II) for accomplishing food and Nutrition security objectives through the active participation of the family members and utilization of local technologies. The panchyat leadership extends active support for introducing S.A interventions.

8. Conduct periodic interaction sessions with 20 demonstration farmers to share their practical experiences and potentials for food security through their S.A. initiatives.

9. Each demonstration farmer will identify 5 co-operators to replicate the potential S.A. Practices.

10. The S.A Farmers - Scientists - NGO's develop partnership with the demonstration farmers by visiting their fields and participating in the monthly interaction sessions at the Mandal Level.

Objective 4 - Activities: 

11. Promote S.A farmers network at the mandal level and enable them to interact with the district level officials and elected representatives like the Members of the Legislative Assembly (M.L.A) and Member of the Parliament (M.P.) for providing feedback about the significance of their initiatives.

12. Enable the S.A. farmers to record the progress of their interventions in a simple monitoring and evaluation format and help them to publish the materials in the local language in the form of booklets, popular Agricultural Magazines etc.,

13. Help the Mandal level network to replicate the successful S.A. interventions, in the farm and home environment of the network members.

Objective 5 - Activities:

14. Collaborate with ANGOC and the Land Coalition for documenting and disseminating the experiential wisdom of the farmers related to the efficiency and effectiveness of S.A interventions. The demonstration farmers will gain access to the Coalition knowledge and obtain lessons and practices for replication in their own environment.

15. Organize Trainers Training Programs on Sustainable Agriculture with the help of ANGOC for preparing the development professionals with a view to achieve multiplier effect for the adoption and diffusion of S.A. practices which are relevant to similar Agro climatic regions.

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EXPECTED OUTCOMES

1. The Elected Representatives of the PRI, will develop a organizational base at the Panchyat and mandal levels by developing strategic partnership with the women's SHG's and other User Associations.

2. The mandal level forum will develop a vision document examining the current status, land tenurial status, home stead plots for the disadvantaged segments, surplus lands available for distribution to the resource poor farmers and women headed families. The federation will develop joint and collaborate action programs in order to introduce progressive land reforms in favour of the disadvantaged and enable them to develop access to land, water, agriculture inputs, credit and S.A. technologies support services. Since the government of Andhra Pradesh is very keen to achieve this objective within a short span of 1 year, the intervention of mandal federation in this aspect is highly helpful to the land less and marginalized farmers.

3. During the project period of 3 years duration, 100 farmers from the operation area will receive intensive training, orientation and technology support for functioning as demonstration farmers for the introduction of selected package of S.A. practices (Soil Moisture Conservation and Fertility Management Practices; Bio - Diversity; Integrated Pest Management (IPM); Market Interventions for S.A. Products. )

4. The mandal level forums will under take policy reform dialogues with their elected representatives in the Assemblies and National Parliament for formulating policy instruments to encourage the S.A. farmers with equal opportunities as that of farmers under Hi-tech agriculture.

5. The 100 demonstration farmers with their cooperators will form the mandal level network and interact with Agriculture Scientist and other Professionals for conducting their experiments on scientific basis and maintaining records of their interventions and results so that they could authentically share their experiences in various forums including interaction with scientist in the agriculture universities.

6. The lessons learnt in the implementation of the program will be fed into The Coalition Network and utilize the farmers initiatives in various regional networks, seminars and training programs.

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INDICATORS

1. EXTENT OF CC (Convergence Committee) PARTICIPATION measured in terms of degree of measured in terms of convergence of various village level committees, to join together under a one umbrella. The quality of participation will be measured in terms of extent of participation in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of community based food security and sustainable agriculture programs. 

2. CC LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY measured in terms of the adoption of community level food security and sustainable farming systems in their home and farm environment, so that they function as role models.

3. CC INSTRUMENTAL PARTICIPATION measured in terms of time investment, extent of  financial and material support offered to the SA farmers and members of grassroots functional committee members.

4. DEGREE OF ACTIVISM of CC measured in terms of extent of involvement in the training and capacity building programs of the SA farmers, contributions made for the successful implementation of project activities, resource mobilization from Government, commercial institutions and other support agencies.

5. OPINION LEADERSHIP measured in terms of the ability of the convergence committee in undertaking policy dialog with the Government and other multilateral agencies for the advancement of sustainable agriculture agenda.

INDICATORS RELATED TO THE SA (Sustainable Agriculture) ADOPTORS (20 DEMONSTRATION FARMERS AND THEIR 100 ASSOCIATES):

1. EXTENT OF PARTICIPATION of the selected farmers in the SA training and follow-up support programs, measured in terms of time investment, financial and material contribution for the programme implementation.

2. DEGREE OF SA AWARENESS, knowledge and skills for promotion of SA and Food Security Practices.

3. LEVEL OF COMMITMENT and capacity (Skills) for the adoption of SA practices.

4. RISK TAKING ABILITY measured in terms of the capacity of the farmers to function as innovators and key communicators for the promotion of SA package of   practices.

5. Extent of interactions and collaborations of the demonstration farmers with SA Scientists Farmers and Activists.

6. Leadership capability of SA farmers to influence the practice adoption by their five associates and other farmers.

7. Extent of participation of demonstration farmers in the SA networks, measured in terms of their attendance in the interaction sessions, participation in the discussions and debates.

8. Extent of participation of family members in the SA initiatives

9. Participation of women members in the SA initiatives.

10. Market leadership measured in terms of the ability of the SA farmers in marketing the SA products.

11. Value orientations measured in terms of the level of adjustment of SA farmers to face the stiff competition from the conventional market for agricultural products.

12. Professionalism status measured in terms of the ability of the farmers to utilize various communications including the website and the internet for updating the SA knowledge and information.

Degree of instrumental support measured in terms of

• Extent of community participation in the selection and identification of appropriate young men and women for the capacity building and leadership development training programs on SA and food security.  The indicator will be measured by examining the number of local men and women who have participated in the planning and monitoring committee related to SA and Agrarian Reforms.  Extent of contribution by the members in terms of their time investment, financial support and material contribution. 

• Level of activism in furthering the SA and FS agenda in favour of the local community.  The indicator will be measured in terms of value orientations of the elected PRI representatives, SHG network and other user associations for furthering the agenda of agrarian reforms and FS.

• Opinion leadership of the convergence network measured in terms of advocacy capability for changing the opinions and attitudes of the provincial and national level elected representatives like the MLAs and the parliament members (MPs).

• Level of participation of the convergence network in monitoring the progress of SA measures with the involvement of 20 SA demonstration farmers.

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ASSUMPTIONS

The main assumptions guiding the project is that the dominant corporate models of agriculture development like the Green Revolution Technologies and Bio Technologies which are being pursued aggressively by Indian National Governments have not helped the small and marginal farmers. The multinational cooperation's are very keen to find their markets for their Hybrid Seeds, chemical fertilizers, Irrigation equipments, Pesticides and Farm machinery. Various evaluation studies have clearly indicated that the corporate models of agriculture development have helped the 10% affluent farmers of the nation. The small and marginal farmers could not participate due to the heavy cost involved for the purchase of external inputs. Due to the heavy incentives offered by the National Government such corporate models of Agricultural development could penetrate into the rural sector. Apart from causing ecological devastation, the disadvantaged rural communities including women could not utilize their productive assets because the extension agency could not offer alternate package of practices for their popular participation in the family and community level food security.

It is possible to organize, mobilize the leadership of local self Government sector to function as the countervailing force by developing negotiating capabilities with the political leadership at the provincial and national levels. This strategy helps in helping the resource poor farmers to introduce alternate approaches to food security by selecting appropriate agriculture practices which are based on their heritage and cultural system.

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IMPLEMENTATION

Procedure for implementation

During the first three months SARRA will prepare the elected PRI functionaries to broaden their organization base at the Panchyat and Mandal Levels through training, workshops and interaction sessions in Santhipuram and Pulicherla Mandals. There are 48 Panchyat Presidents, 26 Members of Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency Members and more than 500 Ward Members. The survey records indicate that 224 women's self help groups are already functioning in the above mandals. In addition to this, there are 742 user associations representing the education sector, health sector, water shed development sector and the forest resource development sector. Hence the PRI Representatives who have the statutory powers for the development and empowerment of rural communities, a broad based alliance of PRI's with the women self help groups and user associations will help in achieving significant development in favour of the disadvantaged rural communities. The initial  exercise of network building and strengthening the organizational base at the mandal level requires at least six months duration. This period will be utilized in undertaking a trainers training program for 100 selected local activists from PRI and other agencies so that they could undertake the activities of awareness-

building through periodic training programs helping the local leadership to promote their networks and organize mandal level federation for translating the ideals of vision document into action.

During the first 6 months, the network partners of Farmer - Scientist - NGO alliances will be invited to participate in the exercise of awareness building for the organized rural communities on the need and relevance of their participation in the Agrarian Reforms and food security. With the help of Mandal level leadership 20 farmers will be identified and selected for intensive field level training by utilizing the central S.A demonstration facilities of SARRA which is located at Pulicherla. After receiving initial orientation from the SARRA demonstration centers the selected farmers will stay with outstanding farmers in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for developing knowledge skills and motivation for increasing their participation in the implementation of Sustainable Agriculture Technologies in their own fields. The trained farmers will receive small incentives in order to prepare their fields as the S.A. demonstration centers. The S.A. resource farmers who conduct the training programs will interact with the participating farmers at quarterly intervals in order to energies their motivation and skills. The visiting S.A. farmers will also participate in the interaction sessions with the people's representatives at the mandal level. The demonstration farmers will be prepared for accelerating the adoption of S.A. programmes with the help of their associates. During the fourth quarter of the first year associate farmers will be identified and trained by the 20 demonstration farmers.

During the Second year the 20 demonstration farmers and their 100 associate farmers will develop their mandal level alliance for strengthening the base for the introduction of Sustainable Agricultures Technologies. The mandal level federation of S.A. farmers will invite outstanding S.A. scientists and NGO professionals in order to develop their scientific capabilities to function as indigenous researchers by developing systematic records about their work related to the adoption of S.A. technologies.

During the Third year the mandal level networks will negotiate with the political leaders and the district level administrators in order to obtain needed infrastructure facilities and incentives (Land, Water, Credit, Technology Support, Official Patronage and other Incentives). The mandal level unions will develop negotiations with the Parliament Members and their representative in the Provincial Assembly in preparing needed policy instruments for promoting S.A. initiative on a wider scale.

From the very inception SARRA will help the organized rural communities to utilize the Web Sites created by the LAND COALITION for deriving valuable knowledge and linkages for undertaking the experiments on Alternate Agriculture Practices. Moreover the people's representatives will patronize the web site by incorporating their valuable experience and the results of their experimentations will be shared through the web sites so that the global community is able to develop insights regarding the need for such a people centered initiative on Agrarian Reforms and Food Security.

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FACTORS ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY

The present project aims at strengthening the organizational base of PRI sector by building their strategic alliances with the women SHG's and other user associations. Hence the project initiatives contribute to the capacity building of local leadership who has statutory powers for their participation in Agrarian Reforms aimed at poverty reduction in rural areas and food security measures. The Government of Andhra Pradesh is very keen on building board based alliances at the panchyat level and mandal levels so that accelerated rural development strategies with effective peoples partnership could be promoted for translating the vision into practical actions. Since the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh represents Kuppam area it is possible to achieve official support and support from the political leadership for building board based people's organization for achieving smart governance at the ground level. Since the Chief Minster intends to utilize Kuppam experiments to train the senior government officials and political leaders on the effective strategies for speedy transformation of rural communities, the S.A. initiatives under the current project will help the government agencies to understand the rationale and the relevance of such initiatives. At the end of the project period the provincial government will provide needed democratic space and official patronage through the adoption of appropriate policy instruments.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh is presently encouraging the NGO sector and the Agricultural Universities for initiating innovative and people centered agriculture and Agrarian Reforms strategies. The government has not provided specified budget allocations for such innovative experiments it is possible to obtain administrative and financial support from some of the states sponsored programs which are known as "VELUGU" (SUNLIGHT) and "Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty" ("SERP"). A large-scale budget to the tune of 1 Million Dollars is available with the mandal administration. There is a provision for the NGDO sector to obtain small matching grants for innovative and path breaking pilot projects aimed at increasing the capacity of poor and marginalized farmers for their enhanced participation to carry forward the agenda of Agrarian Reforms and food security.

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