Covid-19 Crisis: Rebuilding Rural Livelihoods

Livelihoods of Tribals in Dangs district of Gujarat got severely affected due to covid-19 crisis and related lock-down. Large numbers of migrants came back to Dangs district from other regions after their informal jobs were lost; mostly in construction and agriculture farms. Tribal farmers were also forced to sell their agriculture and livestock produce at much lower prices during lockdown period. Micro-enterprises like backyard poultry, bamboo crafts, honey production etc got totally collapsed in absence of regular market for these produces. In such a scenario most of the tribal households who are either landless or own less than 1 hectare of land faced severe shortage of income opportunities. Our surveys and interaction with communities in Dangs have shown that most of the households do not have regular income sources as of now and looking for support to restart their livelihoods activities. Large numbers of farmers do not have cash to buy inputs for upcoming kharif season. Similarly those involved in off-farm and non-farm activities are also short of cash and market support to restart their activities. If tribal households do not get supported for farm and non-farm based livelihoods then their food and nutrition security will be adversely affected in near future.

We plan to support vulnerable tribal households in Dangs district of Gujarat in rebuilding their livelihoods activities. Most of the households needs some small support in the form of materials such as seeds, livestock feed, raw material for micro-enterprises etc in addition to regular livelihood training to restart their income generating activities. They also need facilitation support in market linkages for their produces. Target households will do livelihoods activities like vegetable cultivation, mushroom farming, backyard poultry, bamboo crafts, agri-processing and small service shops. Each of the household will be provided need based support in the form of material support, training and market linage facilitation. Farmers will also be trained on low cost natural farming practices which will help farmers in reducing input cost for the farming. It will also ensure food and nutrition security of the vulnerable farming families. In totality our intervention will help both farm based and non-farm based livelihoods of vulnerable tribal communities of Dangs district to secure their food and income securities.

We expect following major impacts on tribal households of Dangs

• 1500 tribal families will be able to restart their livelihoods activities by engaging into farm based and non-farm based livelihoods activities.
• Supported families will be able to earn around rupees 3000 per month due to livelihoods activities supported by the project.
• Supported families will not not be forced to opt for distress migration for earning their livelihoods.
• Food and nutrition security of the supported families will be ensured to proposed livelihoods support in farm and non-farm sectors.