Backyard Family Fruit Trees

In the light of fast changing environment, planting trees is the least we can do. Benefits of increasing the green canopy is many fold - cleaner air, cooler earth, less soil erosion, increased habitat for other species, and so on. But expansion of human habitat reclaiming forest land, it is not possible to create green coverage without extensive planning and institutional level intervention. So the challenge is, what is the least we can do that is feasible at an individual level, maintainable on long term, yet scalable.

We motivate villagers to subscribe to our idea of growing one or two fruit tree in their backyard. They prepare the pit for tree planting, we provide a sapling old enough to bear fruit in a year or two, they plant the sapling and maintain it, we monitor for a year to ascertain healthy growth, they harvest the fruits for own consumption or selling, the tree grows further as all gets the benefit - overall we increase the green cover - our small endeavor to respect nature and make our surrounding sustainable.

Key success parameters of our endeavor are:

1. Identify areas which are less fertile, and has limited use as kitchen garden or cultivation

2. Identify motivated villagers interested in this project

3. Have the plantation pit prepared as a pre-condition of extending this support

4. Provide saplings 3 to 4 feet in height, so that there is high chances of fruit yield in a year of two.

5. Monitor the trees and record their health on quarterly basis.

6. Create ongoing demand

This idea was successfully implemented last year in Basanti, Sunderbon. This year Kalyan Sanghya has decided to join the project and increase green coverage in the relative barren fields in the foothils of Sushunia. We feel this project will deliver both social and environmental benefit in an innovative way. We have already motivated a number of our village people, and they are excited to be a part of the project. We plan to plant 250 fruit trees this year. Monitor the success - and embark on a larger scale next year. Our coordinator for this project in Binay Mandi who will manage all these activities. 

Estimated cost of this project is Rs.25,000, roughly Rs.100 per tree, this includes administrative and supervision cost for a year over and above the cost of the saplings.