Livelihood Development of small and marginal women farmers through agriculture and allied activities in an integrated approach

Agricultural and allied activities dominate the economy of tribal villages in Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district, Odisha. Agriculture dominates the economy. A household has a maximum holding of 2-3 acres of land. The fertility of the soil gives good returns from the field, even when double cropping is undertaken. Therefore, agriculture and allied activities provide livelihoods for people. People who don't have land for agriculture work in small household enterprises. In an integrated approach to agriculture and allied activities, the following issues pose major challenges to small and marginal farmers: 

• Lack of know-how to maximize productivity in small patches of land holding
• High cost of cultivation, input intensiveness, lack of access to institutional credit, insufficient irrigation and inadequate state-run extension services are contributing to the vulnerability of farmers in the area.
• Distress sale and exploitation by middlemen due to lack of knowledge about market dynamics and collective bargaining power
• Lack of small-scale farm machinery for various operations including post-harvest handling suitable for small and marginal farmers.
• Widespread cultivation of non-climate resilient rice varieties
• Deterioration of soil fertility and productivity.
• Indiscriminate/imbalanced use of fertilizers and pesticides
• Lack of assured irrigation for timely sowing in certain areas.

Major Problem in achieving the demonstrated yield in vegetable, cash crop and Pulses cultivation:

• Pre-harvest sprouting during Kharif season
• Intermittent moisture stress
• Weed menace
• Lack of Processing Facilities
• Poor Marketing System and Access to Markets
• Lack of Information about the price and Market

Major problems observed for low productivity in Backyard Poultry farming and goat rearing:

• Lack of knowledge about poultry farming and goat rearing
• Lack of knowledge of Poultry and goat rearing health management and Disease control measures.
• Lack of proper health care, poor feeding and poor marketing information
• Limitation of feed resources, proper poultry shade and prevalence of diseases as well as institutional and Socio-
• Economic constraints remain the major challenges in village-based backyard poultry farming and goat rearing.

The above are some of the crucial problems, the proposed PIA will try to address and achieve through the promotion of sustainable agriculture and allied activities.

Project Summary:

The proposed project plans to improve the livelihoods of 2000 small and marginal farmers, poultry and goat rearing farmers including landless and ultra-poor families. The project intervention will benefit 2000 beneficiary households directly and will impact 10,000 people indirectly. The key focus is to ensure food security for the 2000 targeted households through the following activities:

1. Vegetable, cash crop and Pulses Cultivation by adopting the System of Crop Intensification (SCI)
2. Backyard poultry Farming & Goat rearing
3. Promotion of Nutri Garden
4. Establishment of a Community Managed Farmers Resource centre.

The above activities will be achieved through community mobilisation and awareness, capacity building, technical training and exposure visits with handholding support to farmers, producers and SHGs and increase production, income, and purchasing power with collective bargaining power. 

Overall Goal:

The overall goal of this project is to improve production, productivity and profitability of small and marginal farmers; landless and ultra-poor families associated with agriculture and allied activities. 

Objective

·       To support 2000 small and marginal farmers, landless and migrant families by addressing their issues to secure food and nutrition, ecological, livelihood, along with access to rights and entitlements in an integrated cluster-based approach towards self-sustaining economic development in selected tribal villages.

·       To address the issues of food and nutrition security, livelihoods, access to rights and entitlements for 2000 families belonging to small and marginal farmers, ultra-poor and landless individuals in 30 villages.

·       To build the capacity of Community Resource Persons (CRPs) in Crop Cultivation, Backyard poultry farming, Fish farming and Nutri garden Promotion who in turn would train other farmers locally using the acquired knowledge for a sustainable and resource-saving agriculture and allied farming system.

·       To strengthen FPOs institutionally by building the capacity of Producers and Livelihood Collectives towards enhanced productivity collectively and linking Livelihood Collectives to different markets along with access to finance and various government-supported schemes within 3-5 years. 

1.     Vegetable, Cash Crop and pulses Cultivation:

·       Supporting 1500 small and marginal farmers by equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills, and tools. Supported farmers gained skills and knowledge about sustainable crop production and raised their annual incomes from Rs 32,000/- to Rs 39,000/-. 

2.    Backyard poultry farming and goat rearing:

·       A total of 500 landless and ultra-poor families were trained and supported, resulting in an average additional income of Rs 36000-45,000 per year through poultry farming and goat rearing.

3.    Promotion of Nutri Garden among all 2000 net beneficiaries and demonstration of model Nutri-garden as common activities.

Developed a Nutri garden among the 2000 households as a common activity that helped them consume fresh vegetables and reduce malnutrition, and also reduced annual expenditure by not buying vegetables from the market.