Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

The project operational area includes 100 villages in 5 Mandals of the Mahabubnagar district- Andhra Pradesh.

During the past couple of year in many villages of SDDPA operational area Government Revenue Land was distributed to the landless and weaker communities and in majority of the cases land title provided. However demarcation of the land is not executed hindering physical occupation and productive utilization of the land.

The land distributed to the landless are often uncultivable or fallow or barren land such as denuded hillocks, alkaline etc, most of which could not be utilized for conventional agriculture. A good amount of Government Revenue land, left fallow, is still available in many villages and there are a number of landless, especially weaker communities in these villages. If managerial rights are given to the women CBOs in the village, these lands could be made productive leading to income for the CBOs and Panchayat Raj besides creation of employment opportunities.

The new land owners and majority of other small and marginal farmers are either unaware or do not have the confidence and means to utilize such land for productive purposes other than conventional agriculture, such as dry land horticulture, bio-diesel forestry, silvi-pasture, dry land fodder development, stone quarry, etc.

Although a number of poverty alleviation supportive schemes are there with the Government, majority of the needy in the rural areas are either unaware or do not have access to them.

Over dependency on agrochemicals and adverse climatic conditions rendered agriculture non-feasible for small and marginal farmers. They are not aware or confident of alternate methods such as organic farming;

Interventions of vested interests and undue expectations for government support have kept many Self Help Groups (SHGs) away from joining the village and mandal federations of CBOs. Federation and united effort of the SHGs only can ensure sustainable development process.

There is an urgent need to create better awareness among the farmers, especially small and marginal, to turn to appropriate water management, dry crops, cost effective organic farming and environment conservation.

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INTERVENTION

The project purposes are:

• Organizing community, mobilizing, networking and united action for procuring land titles for allotted land and building up pressure group for accelerating land distribution for the landless in weaker communities.

• Enhancing productivity in acquired land for Poverty Alleviation

• Enhancing united effort of the needy for mobilization of local resources.

The specific Objectives are :

• Organizing and federating the unorganized for united action for poverty alleviation;

• Enhancing the awareness of rural poor to instigate spirit of action in cooperation;

• Empowering the powerless to consciously and actively participate in poverty alleviation;

• Promotion of activists and action groups to gather and disseminate information and pressurize policy makers and authorities to cooperate with the poor in their development efforts;

• Productivity enhancement through appropriate utilization of waste land, organic farming, effective water management, feasible crop pattern, etc.;

• Value addition to local products for alternate employment opportunity and additional income;

• Direct marketing and market linkage development for more income for producers and availability of quality products at affordable rate to consumers;

• Organizing and enabling the rural poor for effectively utilizing untapped natural resources such as government land, common land;

• To explore, experiment and facilitate feasible and innovative interventions to alleviate poverty.

The expected outcomes and indicators for measurement are:

• All the unorganized, weak, deprived and distorted in the operational area are organized and actively involved in sustainable development of themselves and the area;

• Through the federation of CBOs action pressure groups at village, cluster and mandal level take up issues regarding land titles, land distribution, identification of assignable land, identification of landless, etc. The outcomes can be measured by the number of action groups identified in the operational area and amount of issues taken up and tackled by the action groups;

• A wider federation of the CBOs in the operational area, having networking with CBOs in other mandals, districts and states. The achievements can be measured by the activities taken up through his networking, no. of meetings conducted for net working, business links developed through this network;

• Effective utilization of common land, waste land, land of absentee landlords, etc. by the women self help groups who negotiate with concerned authorities and owners to develop this such land. The results can be measured by number of such cases in each village and income from such programs;

• A general awareness among the rural poor regarding government policies concerning land distribution, development schemes supported by the government, etc. The results can be measured by the number of schemes mobilized by each village federations and mandal action committees;

• The existing MACS (Mutual Aided Cooperative Society or WOMEN bank) is further strengthened with wider activities and management capacities and new such cooperatives are formed in the area. The achievements can be measured from the growing number members in the MACS and their wider activities.

• The otherwise left out assignment land is put into productive purposes in all the villages of the operational area through various waste land development programs and soil and water conservation measures. By effective utilization of otherwise left out and unproductive land, the income in the family of such land owners are improved. More farmers adapt this system by observing demonstration plots and interacting with experienced farmers.

• The small and marginal farmers are more aware of and take up wider practice of cost effective and eco-friendly organic farming for better benefits and sustainable income. The achievements can be measured by the increasing number of organic farmers in the operational area. The demonstration units become training centres for more farmers through exposure visits and interactions.

In general very promising and sustainable outcomes are expected from this project. Majority of the outcomes are visible and physically measurable.

Activities

A. Community Organization and Capacity Building:

1. Awareness Building , community mobilization, federation, networking, data collection, etc.

Specific activities are:

• General awareness building through audio visual aids, cultural programs, discussions, etc. in all the villages proposed.

• Organizing the left out deprived, women in particular:

• Federating the CBOs and promoting network with Panchayat Raj:

• Organizing mandal level action groups:

• Development of network with CBOs and NGOs:

2. Capacity Building for action groups, SHG leaders, Network leaders, etc. through trainings, exposure visits:

Subjects for training:

• Land distribution policies of the government;

• Land title regulations and procedures to procure land titles;

• Common land title issues in the area and legal procedures to tackle the same;

• Methods of liaison - whom to approach, how to approach, etc. especially with regard to land issues;

Methods of training:

Class room lectures experts (legal experts) with audio visual aids;

Exposure visits and interaction with experienced persons especially with regard to land issues

3. Public gatherings

4. Capacity strengthening in productivity enhancement and value addition:

Subjects for training:

• Dryland agriculture

• Organic farming and bio technology in agriculture;

• Water and crop management for lower input and higher production;

• Waste land development and soil and water conservation measures;

• Alternate fallow land utilization methodology: Bio diesel forestation, silvi pasture development, social forestry, agro-forestry, herbal and aromatic plants cultivation, etc.

• Value addition to local products : conversion of local agro products to ready-to-consume articles such as Chilli to chilli powder, Ragi (finger millet) to baby food, Jowar (Sorgum) to roti, turmeric, tamarind, other millets and cereals etc. to ready-to-consume products;

• Packaging and marketing of such products;

• Contacting and interacting with CBOs in other areas for business negotiation and promotion.

Methodology of training:

Class room lectures

Demonstrations

Exposure visits and interactions;

Practical in productions

Liaison

B. Productivity Enhancement:

1. Demonstration in organic farming

Through this project SDDPA proposes to further substantiate the ongoing promotional activities through development of more demonstration plots in more villages. The basic and common input for agriculture such as, cost of seed, labour, etc. will be the contribution of the farmers. The input is required for bio-pesticides and fertilizers and to cover the risk factors until the farmers are convinced and widely take up activities. The input from the project will remain as revolving fund with the concerned villages.

2. Value addition to agro-products

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WHO WILL BENEFIT?

Over 30000 families of weaker communities, small and marginal farmers, landless are expected to gain by this program by getting organized and gaining awareness regarding various schemes of government and through united efforts for mobilizing them. Over 1000 women are expected to gain, economically by participating in capacity strengthening programs under productivity enhancement, value addition to products and market linkage developments. Over 250 families are expected to benefit directly from the demonstration schemes.

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