sdtt goat report_final

SustainableLivelihoodforWomen:

Goatrearingandarduplantation

(ProcessDocumentonsustainablelivelihoods

forwomeninvillagesofRajasthan)

Dr.AmitKumar

IsabelSofiaLopesAntunes

FinancedbySirDorabjiTataTrust(SDTT),Mumbai

KumarappaInstituteofGramSwaraj

Jaipur(Rajasthan)

2014

Copyright (2014)

All rights reserved.

Any part of this work may be translated or copied in any form, by any means, without writtenprior permission, as long as the source is properly acknowledged.

The views and interpretations expressed in this report are of the author's and do notnecessarily reflect those of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT).

Photographs:Amit Kumar, Hanuman Sahay Sharma

Authors: Dr.Amit Kumar, Isabel Sofia LopesAntunes

is Project Director with Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj in Jaipur. Hehas been working in the field of rural development especially in water resource management,rural livelihoods and micro finance for more than 15 years.

is research scholar at Research Institute of Social Sciences,University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Published by:

B-190, University Marg, Bapu Nagar, Jaipur 302015

Rajasthan (India)

Phone: 91-141-2708695

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Website: www.kigs.org

About theAuthors:

Dr.Amit Kumar

Ms. Isabel Sofia LopesAntunes

Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj

Contents

Chapter 1 Background 4-7

Chapter 2 TheGoatProgram 8-21

Chapter 3 ArduPlantation 22-28

Chapter 4 Agriculture-GreenManureandother Initiatives 29-40

Chapter 5 Conclusion 41-43

Chapter 1

Sustainable Livelihood for Women's Cooperative Society and SHG

members

Background

The state of Rajasthan, especially in the villages, has been facing several problems

related to agriculture and farming. The unfertile and arid land along with the continued use of

poor agricultural techniques by the farmers makes this activity almost unprofitable. The

traditional way of doing farming is therefore outdated. There is a considerable hesitance in

implementing with new types of plantation, soil fertility etc. in the agriculture fields.

Insufficient productivity of the animal farming adds to the problem. The villagers don't have

access to information, or either knowledge to improve a good rear or to increase their

productivity (in terms of giving milk or other breeds). Agriculture is even though one of the

most important sources of income in the village's families, but as an industrial activity is

quite rare and uncommon.

In that context Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj (KIGS) decided to take actions

and initiated a project with the aim to tackle the insufficiency of agriculture and animal

farming production, in order to create a sustainable livelihood for women.

Women have an important role in the family, although they have to face several

challenges: taking care of their children and the family and also to overcome their difficulties

to work outside home, along with the non-rights of owning property. For widows the

situation is even more difficult, as they don't have any other source of income. The only way

for them to deal with these problems is doing farming and animal husbandry in order to

increase their self-confidence and contributing in the family income.

The project

was thus prepared in consultation with the program staff of

(SDTT) which was based on natural resources, ecology, manpower, animal force etc.

available in the villages. Efforts were made to empower the Community Based

Organisations (CBOs) and Federation to demand services and schemes from the government

departments at their door steps. The project's aim was to make the best use of natural

resources and manpower, so as to achieve the goal of overall development of the area.

Kumarappa Institute of Gram Swaraj (KIGS) has been involved in promoting Self

Help Groups in Niwai block of Tonk district in Rajasthan from the last ten years. As a result

Sir Dorabji Tata

Trust

Building Local Partnership

of the great efforts put up by KIGS workers and members of the SHGs, these SHGs have now

formed a women cooperative society

, registered with the Cooperative Society office at Tonk on

March 31, 2010. This society is wholly owned and managed by women of the Niwai block.

Presently the society has about 975 members which are increasing continuously. This project

lasted for three years i.e. from April 2011 till March 2014. Along with the cooperative

society KIGS wants to highlight the importance of local ownership in order to: facilitate

empowerment of Gram Sabha (village council); to promote democracy and strengthen both

civil society and the security of the individual; to support full participation of women as

equal partners in the society and to strengthen the grassroots capacities by building

confidence, problem solving capacities, resilience and training for skills among local people.

This was a new initiative where all decisions and implementations are in the hands of rural

women and they need support in terms of information dissemination and training. Presently,

the members of the society are saving Rs. 100/200/500 per month as recurring deposit which

is given as loan to the members. The society has started livelihood initiatives through micro

finance and goat farming along with fodder plantation as one of its main component.

Similarly, programs of women empowerment and rural development are also being taken up.

The project is being implemented in nine villages of Niwai block in Tonk district and

its nearby hamlets covering about 700 families. The villages are situated within a radius of 15

km. from Niwai and are as follows:-

1. Sakatpura (Seendra Gram Panchayat)

2. Barodiya (Seendra Gram Panchayat)

3.Abhaipura (Khandwa Gram Panchayat)

4. Khandwa (Khandwa Gram Panchayat)

5. Nala (Khandwa Gram Panchayat)

6. Chikana (Khandewat Gram Panchayat)

7. Jhujharpura (Khandewat Gram Panchayat)

8. Damodarpura (Khandewat Gram Panchayat)

9. Hingotiya (Khandewat Gram Panchayat)

This project aims to increase food security and improve the socio-economic

conditions of the members of the Laxmi Nidhi Women Cooperative and SHGs through

interventions in goat farming and appropriate technology transfer in agriculture.

Laxmi Nidhi Primary Women Multipurpose

Cooperative Society Limited

Background 5F

It also wants to tackle the development and promotion of sustainable agriculture

practices for small and marginal women farmers and agro-forestry through fodder crop

demonstration and plantation of fodder trees in the project villages which are relevant,

affordable, ecological, sustainable and replicable. All this must be done by the women

cooperative society and CBOs in order to develop their skills, and empower them by linking

them with technical and financial institutions. It will prepare them to align themselves to

governmental projects and programs through advocacy and follow up. One of the aspects of

'advocacy' in this project was taken under MGNREGA framework. Women have

participated in different trainings such as: women leaders on CBO promotion and

management; women leaders on leadership development and women leaders on basic

functions of PRI, rights-based approach and RTI use.

Finally the project aims at documenting the advancement in learning and enables

them to share them for the replication and adoption at larger level.

In conclusion, this project wants to provide different avenues for agriculture (for

instance ardu plantation and goat rearing).

VillageMeetinginProgress

Background 6F

WomenCo-operativeSocietyMeetinginProgress

Background 7F

Chapter 2

TheGoatProgram

An Introduction to the Goat Program: The role of the Stakeholders

The importance of Sirohi rear in goat farming

Kumarappa Institute in the beginning of the project didn't have a prior experience of

goat farming. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) introduced them to The Goat Trust in

Lucknow to give them technical training. The technical expert and the Director of The Goat

Trust visited the project area to have an idea about the environment and the goats in the area.

After the field visit they were of the opinion that the quality of goats was good

enough and that there is no need to go outside the villages to buy Sirohi goats. This has saved

a lot of money and time which was used in purchasing more goats and improving the quality

of goats. The technical team of The Goat Trust has also given a practical training to the

selected in the villages.

The breed goat and buck are species native to Rajasthan, as referred by FAO.

This kind of rear is especially important as it provides a double source of income -

agricultural and animal (meat and milk). FAO does also recognize that this rear has a better

lactation even in severe weather conditions. In the Indian social context the goats can help

the provision of the livelihood and security for small farmers and to landless laborers, as it is

the case of most members of the women cooperative society.As Mahatma Gandhi stated, the

goat is Poor Man's Cow", as it used to be the only source of cash income for many families.

Therefore the goat has an overwhelming impact in rural India. It is also considered to be an

additional income and even acts as an insurance against disaster.

Goats are peacefully denoted in all religions (they are sacrificed to please God both

by the Muslims, and the Hindus to worship Goddess Shakti - Kali). There is no religious

taboo against goat slaughter and meat consumption is prevalent throughout the country.

Moreover goat has also a tremendous economic significance among rural societies as they

are one of the species that can efficiently survive on available bushes and trees and in adverse

environment with low fertile lands in which no other crop can be grown. In comparison with

other species like sheep, goat is 2.5 times more economical in severe weather conditions.

Pashu Sakhi

Sirohi1

1.InFAO ANIMAL PRODUCTION ANDHEALTHPAPER30,sheepandgoatbreedsofIndia,chapter2,availablein

http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x6532e/X6532E03.htm#ch2.3.1

In addition to this, goats have also a great income because they are prolific breeders

and achieve sexual maturity at the age of 10-12 months. Their gestation period is short and at

the age of 16-17 months they start giving milk.

Realizing the importance of goat in the agrarian economy of the country, various

developmental activities have been taken up by Government of India. The Central

Government had established Central Institute for Research on Goats at Makhdoom, Farah,

Mathura District, Uttar Pradesh.

However, as it is pointed out by FAO the productivity of Indian goats is low. Some

major reasons are concerned with disease and serious lack of organized efforts for genetic

improvement. There is little selection of bucks used for breeding.Along with these problems

goats suffer also from deprivation of good food. Therefore this project has made compulsory

the plantation of ardu trees (fodder livestock) for those who wanted to carry on with goat

rearing, so that the quality of milk remains good.

In that sense, this program has given an opportunity to the participants to participate

in the micro credit program with the , in order to learn all the methods to

achieve a good goat rear.

The model works on the premises that the participants would be able to manage its

administrative expenses as well as improve the knowledge and self-confidence on goat

rearing. The distribution of the loans has taken this into account, assuming that the credit

should have ethical principles and give ownership to the women. This revolving fund was

given by the Cooperative of women which have preferred to ask for loans and not for a grant

(grants are non-repayable funds disbursed by one party grant makers). The loans schedule of

payback installments is trimestral; it creates a cycle of investments with the Cooperative

Society being able to make circulate funds thereby produced to offer further loans for the

purchase of more goats.

At present, the cooperative society provides loan to its members for goat farming.

Under this scheme a loan of Rs. 4000/- is given for one goat (Rs. 7,000 for buck) @12% p.a.

at reduced rate payable quarterly.

The project was launched planning to make available to the women cooperative

society 10 Sirohi bucks and 175 goats of genetically improved local breeds. The

reimbursement of the loan took place every 3 months with the scheme below:

2

Cooperative Society

Micro-Credit program on goat rearing

2.FAO ANIMAL PRODUCTION ANDHEALTHPAPER30,sheepandgoatbreedsofIndia,chapter1,availablein

http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/x6532e/X6532E02.htm

The Goat Program 9F

1st EMI (after 3 months) Rs. 1000/- + Rs. 120 = Rs. 1120/-

2nd EMI (after 6 months) Rs. 1000/- + Rs. 90 = Rs. 1090/-

3rd EMI (after 9 months) Rs. 1000/- + Rs. 60 = Rs. 1060/-

4th EMI (after 12 months) Rs. 1000/- + Rs. 30 = Rs. 1030/-

Total Rs. 4300/-.

A separate bank account was opened for this purpose where the entire capital as well

as interest is deposited. Approximately Rs. 10 lakhs have initially been transferred to the

cooperative society from the project for this purpose. In this way a revolving fund has been

created for women cooperative society for promotion goat farming in the project area.

The local ownership is at the same time always presented in the women cooperative

society. Firstly the cooperative of women could select the (the name for local

veterinarian) in order to bridge the community with the governmental veterinarian among

other support services for the goat rearing for women. Secondly the women of the

cooperative lead the project deciding among them who should have the loan money and who

should purchase goats. Along with this decision several trainings and a monthly exchange

of experience with the local veterinarian has also been taken. This process started when two

project staff, along with one member of Laxmi Nidhi Cooperative went to The Goat Trust,

Lucknow, in order to have the technical support and the training to better understand which

goat to purchase by choosing the best quality of rear. It was referred by Geeta Devi (Pashu

Sakhi) that this training was an important step forward; they could know the basic diseases

of a goat (which kind of vaccination, medicine, how to feed a goat) and how to avoid some

health problems. Therefore, they could get from the project the first medicine kit. This

lesson learning provides to these women a tremendous autonomy to buy from themselves

and know which kind of medicine is most suited for their animals. At the same time they

could have a better perception about the nutrition that they should use and which

components should be present (it was discover that not enough quantity of salt is given to

goats). After that long training course about 13 days, another one has took place with more

than 30 women. Simultaneously the regular trainings from the veterinary of the government

from Niwai Hospital were also done in a regular basis. All these good practices described

above were also recognized by the government which gave to the cooperative more 20

bucks.

Pashu Sakhi

The Goat Program 10F

Table1:No.ofGoatsandBucksdistributed

Thesustainabilityofthelocalownership

The first step towards the empowerment of local ownership was the possibility to buy

goats locally with a good quality of breed. With this accessibility they could save the travel

and feeding costs, in order to buy more goats. This possibility paved the way for sharply

increase in the numbers of goats among the community as 2267 goats have been treated by

. This is meaningfully as KIGS has distributed 31 bucks and 557 goats and it has

largely over passed the initial target of the project (175). More than 446 families have been

benefited from this project and this has been leading to proper management of the

community. This also defines the willingness of these women to improve by themselves and

manage their animal husbandry in the most profitable and cost efficient way.

Therefore one of the achievements of this project is that these women have been able

to generate goat milk worth Rs. 8,27,825. They could get Rs. 20,55,300 for selling goat, kids

and buck. This could be possible because of the regular efforts of and the

women along with the local veteran doctor.

Pashu Sakhi

Pashu Sakhi

Nameof Village No.ofGoatsdistributed No.offamilies

No.ofBucks

distributed

HingotiyaKiDhani 43 24 5

Seendra 24 20 2

Chikana 52 44 5

Damodarpura 22 19 3

Abhaypura 55 43 3

Hameedpura 85 59 4

Nala 13 12 2

Khandwa 8 8

Barodiya 42 30 2

Sakatpura 42 19 4

Niwai 107 107 -

Sukhadiyanagar 32 30 1

Lodera 17 17

Jhujharpura 6 5 -

Palai 9 9 -

Total 557 446 31


Actually this effort was largely considered when, in these areas the goat milk is not

sold in the market but made only for home consumption for children and making the tea. It

was during the training that women could get the information about how goat business was

undertaken. Early they used to sell bucks and goats without having any information about the

criteria of selling but under the project they were told that the price of goat depends upon its

weight. And they were also informing about various criteria on which the price of the goat

depends. For this a weighing machine was given to the cooperative society from the project

to regularly monitor the weight of the goats and their kids. Now the villagers are aware of the

goat business and they are able to make good gains from goats.

In this way the exploitation of the villagers in goat business has been reduced. Also

the mortality of goats has drastically decreased after the introduction of in the

villages.

Earlier under the traditional system the goats were fertilized once in a year but now

with the introduction of good quality and training given to the they

are able to fertilize goats twice a year. This has doubled their income, also timely vaccination

by and in house treatments have reduced the mortality of goats to its minimum.

Traditionally the villagers don't do insurance of their animals, but under the project it

was emphasized that women should be encouraged and be aware of animal insurance. After

lot of persuasion the villagers were ready, in October 2011 to get their goats insured. This

range of the time (6 months) after the launching of the project was necessary to settle down

the information sessions as well as the distribution of goats. One of the main reasons of not

getting their animals insured was that when an animal is insured their ear is punched and

there is a general belief among the villagers that punched animal is associated with some

government scheme and is of bad quality. So when the villager wants to sell this animal they

find difficult to get a buyer. But in the end they also agreed to pay the premium of their

animals and the project was able to save that money to buy more goats for the people.

The competitions of rears in the second year of the project, as well as, the

implementation of the best practices were good incentives of lessons learned by the

community. The larger number of participants 187 reveals the self-confidence and

enthusiasm of the people on rearing the best quality of Sirohi breed and to achieve the best

standards of procreation. This figure has widely over passed the initial target of the project

from 2 competitions to 8 competitions. More than doing goat rearing the villagers are now

building up their awareness about food security and sustainable livelihood income, and they

are proud to improve their animal husbandry perception.

Pashu Sakhi

Sirohi Bucks Pashu Sakhi

Pashu Sakhi


In the competition of rears the winners were given some useful object to collect milk

such as milk drum, tub and bucket.

The social transformation was reached due to the savings and investment made by

the community which has allowed the addition of more families to this program. In addition

to this these women are able to do their own activities and participate with guaranteed

income for their families.

The initial targets were more than accomplished, 470 (446+24) families are being

benefitted from this project. As the table shows, the number of goats treated by

is more than the double. This increase is reflecting the work done in the trainings as well the

experience and the exchange of best practices that the has done among them.

Pashu Sakhi

Pashu Sakhi

Table2:SummaryofGoatactivity

S.No. Particulars Targetfor the

project

Achievements

till 31March

2014

1. Sirohi Buck 10 31

2. No.of families benefitted - 24

3. No.ofbuckstreatedbyPashu Sakhi - 427

4. Induction Females (Goats) 175 557

5. No.of families benefitted - 446

6. No.ofgoatstreatedbyPashu Sakhi - 2267

7. No.oftrainingsorganisedforPashu Sakhi 2 2

8. No.ofPashu Sakhitrained 10 31

9. Exposurevisit(Pashu Sakhiandgoat

rearers)

2 2

10. No.ofpeopleparticipatedinexposure

visit

- 31

11. Competition among rearers 2 8

12. No.of competition organised - 8

13. No.of people participated - 187

14. MonthlymeetingsforPashu Sakhi 30 27

15. Incomefromsaleofgoat,kidsandbuck

(betweenOctober2011toMarch2014)

Rs.20,55,300

16. Goat milk produced (between August

2013toMarch2014)

33,615litres

Rs. 8,27,825


Goat rearing: a sustainable source of livelihood for village women

Rs. 5400/-.

Rs. 3375 Rs. 675

Rs. 450

Rs. 900/-

Rs. 10,000/-

Rs.16,300/-

Sita Devi w/o Ladu Ram Nayak of village Hingotia (Hamlet: Nayakon Ki Dhani) and

her family (5 members) are not financially sound; family owns a 2.5 bigha (0.5 hectares)

piece of land, since the land is not big enough for crop cultivation, the family earns their

bread and butter by laboring elsewhere. Sita Devi is a hard working woman who has also

tried to rear goats as an income generation activity but failed due to inadequate knowledge.

During a session of the members of the cooperative society meeting she kept forward

her situation that because of not so good quality breed of goats and inadequate knowledge

about goat rearing she failed at this venture. So if we are provided with proper knowledge of

the goat rearing and money to buy a good quality goat, having a good breed, it will be very

helpful for their sustenance.

Thus, this time with proper knowledge at her disposal and money to buy a good breed

goat, Sita Devi bought a goat along with two kids from the animal market from the money

provided to her by the women cooperative society.

Sita Devi bought the goat of Sirohi breed and along with her a male and a female kid

on 20 October 2011 for Rs. 4000. Now Sita Devi was equipped with enough knowledge to

take better care of her investment. Sita Devi gave special attention to the health of goat and

ensured the timely vaccination as per the vaccination schedule. With proper maintenance the

goat started giving 1.25 litres milk per day.

By the help of the Kumarappa Institute the goat was fertilized by a Sirohi breed buck

available within the village on November 2011 and gave birth to 2 female and 1 male kids on

April 2012. With availability of the buck in village the goat was again fertilized on June 2012

and gave birth to one female kid on 21 December 2012. During 14 months' time the goat

gave milk for 5 months which fetched Sita Devi monetary return of approx. The

milk was used for family consumption and was not sold in the market. (value: 2.5 litre/day x

3 months x @Rs. 15/- litre = ; 1.5 litre/day x 1 month x @Rs. 15/- litre = ; 1

litre/day x 1 month x @Rs. 15/- litre = ). The female kid which was brought with the

goat also gave birth to one male kid and one female kid on 30 November 2012. She is giving

2 litres milk per day since then (value: 2 litre/day x 30 days x @Rs. 15/- per litre = ).

On the occasion of Ed in October 2012 she sold two male kids for and repaid her

loan from the cooperative society.

In about one year time Sita Devi has increased her small animal stock from one goat

and two kids (total 3 animals) to 2 goats, one male kid and 4 female kids (total 7 animals in

December 2012). Apart from this she has also earned . This she has achieved in

st

th


hardly 14 months' time (October 2011 to December 2012). She is very grateful to

Kumarappa Institute which provided her with proper knowledge of goat rearing and finance

at the time of need. Usually due to lack of proper knowledge of goat rearing and

unavailability of the buck, most village goat owners are able to get their goats fertilized once

in a year, among which mortality rate was high. Good quality breed goat and buck ensure less

mortality rate of the infants.

Table3:Incomefromsaleofgoatandkids

Mamta Meena lives in Sakatpura village and she has studied up to class eight. In her

family she has one boy and two girls, she is a lady who believes in social service as well as

looking after the family. Her husband works in the police department and she engages herself

in agriculture as well in animal husbandry. Her husband always encouraged her for social

service. Since her childhood Mamta was interested in agriculture and animals and after

marriage at her husband place she has taken good care of animals; she is equally expert in

Veterinary (Doctor) in the village: The case of Pashu Sakhi

S.

No.

Nameof

Village No.ofanimalssold(betweenOctober 2011-March2014)

Goat Amount

Male

Kid Amount

Female

Kid Amount

1

HingotiyaKi

Dhani 16 1,46,400 40 1,01,900 1 7,500

2 Seendra 6 38,000 30 89,800 8 18,500

3 Chikana 31 1,53,500 81 3,65,500 14 36,500

4 Sakatpura 4 26,000 48 1,67,000 0 0

5 Abhaypura 12 78,000 34 1,66,300 1 6,000

6 Hameedpura 2 11,000 50 2,47,000 0 0

7 Nala 0 0 6 21,900 0 0

8

Sukhadiya

Nagar 4 22,600 18 47,800 1 1,100

9 Damodarpura 1 6,000 24 84,500 0 0

10 Barodiya 17 1,01,000 26 1,02,500 4 9,000

11 Grand Total 93 5,82,500 357 13,94,200 29 78,600

Totalno.ofgoats along

with kidssold 479

Total Amount 20,55,300


looking after small as well as big animals. And her family is very satisfied with her work.

Sometimes when animals get sick she used to treat them with traditional therapies but when

they become serious they have to take them to the doctor. Small animals are more prompt to

diseases and in many cases due to the non-availability of doctor small animals like sheep and

goat die in large numbers. As a result the family had to suffer financially and also they feel

very disappointed for this, but there was no way out.

In May 2011 when Kumarappa Institute was looking for in her villages

she voluntary came forward to do this job, but she was a little hesitant to take up as she was

not very literate. Kumarappa Institute main focus was to look for such Para veterinary

volunteers who have love for animals and who could carry on this service once the project is

over. Mamta was seen as a perfect choice for this job. The Institute assured to give her

support and training. In return, Mamta showed full confidence and interest in doing her job

skillfully if she gets the training. When Mamta was selected she was very happy and went to

each family in the village and informed them that she has been selected as Pashu Sakhi of the

village. The Institute gave five days of training to Pashu Sakhi in which the experts gave first

aid and basic goat farming training. During the training sessions whenever Mamta was in

doubt she used to ask again and again. After five days of theoretical aspects of training,

Mamta got the first place in the exams. This shows her love and dedication towards the

animals and the Institute was confident that in future she will do a good job. Mamta had a

passion of learning new things and moving forward. She did more than her capacity and

always encouraged people to take good care of the animals.

After training Mamta started to look after goats in her village and slowly she also

started giving injections to them. Her self-confidence increased and her work was

improving. During the time of vaccination of goats she used to go from house to house to

each family in the village to give the vaccine. If some goat gets sick she was giving them

treatment and the villagers are very happy that they don't have to call doctors every now and

then. Mamta believes in the saying that prevention is better than cure and focuses on proper

timely vaccination and timely treatment. Now Mamta is also treating big animals. Her work

is so good that during government vaccination drive the government veterinary doctor takes

her help in giving vaccination to the animals around her villages. Due to her efficiency she is

able to approximately earn 600 rupees per month.

Vimla Devi story tells us how she has made goat farming as the main livelihood

activity. Vimla and her husband Pappu Lal are villager laborers. Both of them are doing

Pashu Sakhi

Promotion through goat rearing


agriculture and goat farming. In her family there are total six members - husband, wife, two

girls and two boys. Both husband and wife are very hard working and are simple in nature.

They both are illiterate. They earn their livelihood by agriculture and doing labor in the

villages. Both of them work very hard and what they earn is not enough to run the family, but

they want their children to study because they don't want their children to be like them. They

want their children to go to school and work hard for a bright future. Under the livelihood

promotion program for the members of the woman cooperative society; members were

given one goat. Along with the goat she got two babies one male and one female. Within six

months her goats increased to six. Vimla used to keep the goats with her and sell the buck.

Slowly she started earning good amount of money.

Kumarappa Institute has also introduced good quality of bucks in the village as a

result of this, the people have started getting good quality of goats. Vimla says that whenever

she is in need of money she sells one buck. In a period of two and half years (after October

2011, onwards) the number of the goats with Vimla increased to sixteen.

Now she has the problem of rearing these goats, when both husband and wife were

busy in the fields and children were off to school then the problem of rearing the goats

become serious. Vimla suggested her husband that why they don't sell the goats and get one

buffalo. Her husband agreed to her suggestion and purchased one buffalo from the nearby

villages for Rs. 32,000 by selling six goats. Both husband and wife proudly says that

Kumarappa Institute taught us goat farming but we have promoted ourselves to dairy and the

family is very happy.

This option taken by this family expresses also the openness towards other forms of

income that are more feasible for their family conditions. The difference between goats and

buffalo are related to the fatness of the milk. The buffalo's milk normally is fatter that gives

an additional market value. On the one hand goats are less risky and can better bear the dry

seasons. They are small animals that can easily be reared. So this family could realize all the

pro and cons of goat and buffalo rearing. In the end they have realized the importance of goat

in family economy and they have learnt how to rear other animals without losing the daily

income. With this buffalo this family could earn Rs. 240 per day.

This case study is of Jhamari Devi (lives in Hingotiya village) who was able to treat

her burnt son with the income of goat farming. Jhamari Devi is a fifty year old widow who

has two sons but both of them live separately. She lives alone and does agriculture and labor

Goats: Lifeline for widow


for her livelihood. The small piece of land which she has is also given to his two sons who do

agriculture on it.

Jhamari is able to survive herself with whatever people give to her. She is honest and

hardworking lady and in this age also she doesn't want to be dependent on her sons and she

does labour and cultivation. In this, whatever she earns she spends on herself and from time

to time she also helps her two sons. In 2011 when Kumarappa Institute started working in her

villages, she came in contact with the project. She was made one of the partners in goat

farming activity. She told about her family conditions and informed that she had one goat but

due to the family problems she had to sell her. Now she doesn't have any money but she can

take care of the goats. She was given a goat from the project and slowly she started increasing

the number of goats. Jhamari Devi was doing agriculture along with goat farming and slowly

her economic conditions began to improve.

Now when she had money, the attitude of son also changed and the younger son

started asking for money from her and when she refused to give him money he started

fighting with her. The youngest son was unemployed and slowly he started taking alcohol.

Jhamari was disappointed and she didn't know what to do. Kumarappa Institute workers

talked to her son but he didn't listen.

One day his son's wife left him and went to her parents place. Now the son was alone

and started creating more problems for his mother.After the wife left, her son used to come to

her mother's place and was always fighting with her.

Jhamari Devi is an honest hardworking and self-respecting woman but she is a

mother too. This is a unique example of a mother who takes care of her good-for-nothing son

and tries to help him out with food and with money even though in this age the children

should take care of their mother.

Jhamari Devi's life came to a cross road when the son who was creating a lot of

problems for her burnt himself in the house. His sixty percent of body was burnt. This

accident was caused by a cigarette that he threw away, when he was drunk.

But the mother hadn't lost hope and confidence and took up the challenge of his

treatment. With that regard, from her work this mother was convinced to repay back Rs.

44,000 from the loans that she took from other people by doing goat farming. She spent about

Rs. 60,000 on her son's treatment which she was managing to get by selling the goats and the

bucks. She could get Rs. 16,000 from goat supplies. Now this son is able to walk and Jhamari


Devi gives full credit to the goat project in saving his son. She proudly admits that if she

didn't have goats she will be not have been able to provide good treatment for her son.

Kanchan Devi lives in Nayak Ki Dhani in Hingotiya village. There are six members

in the family, they are very poor and they don't have much land for doing agriculture. They

earn their livelihood by goat rearing and doing labor in the field. In the village about fifteen

families are engaged in goat farming but the main problem for all these families was non

availability of buck in the villages for their goats. They have to take their goats to nearby

villages for fertilization. Sometimes the buck owner used to refuse and in that case they have

to bring back their goats empty handed and sometimes they also ask for money. When this

problem was put forward in front of Kumarappa Institute workers the villagers informed that

since the number of goats have increased in the area nobody leaves their buck alone and they

have to give money to get their goats fertilize.After much discussion with the villagers it was

suggested that someone in the villages should take the responsibility of keeping buck with

him.

Kanchan Devi who belongs to this hamlet agreed to keep buck if she is helped with

some money. In 2012 she was given a good quality of Sirohi buck from the nearby village

Bhatadiya (Gurjaron Ki Dhani) from Mr. Ramsukh Gurjar, Kanchan Devi bought this buck

for rupees six thousands and this buck started living with the goats of the village. Kanchan

says that when there was no buck in the hamlet their goats did not receive heat on time and

there was a gap in the pregnancy of the goats but now since the buck is living with the goats

they get heat on time and the goats are able to give birth two times in a year. She could get the

income of Rs. 8,000 by selling 2 bucks, as each buck is 4,000 rupees.

As the buck lives in the hamlet it saves lot of time and money. Other woman in the

area Santara, Vimla, Sita, Jhamri, Santosh etc. are very happy and inform that due to good

quality of buck given by Kumarappa Institute they are getting good quality of goat kids.

Kanchan Devi informs that her goats are bearing babies every sixth months and in two years'

time she has learnt a lot. All the families in the hamlet have benefited and they all thank

Kumarappa Institute for this.

Improving goat breed in the area: Case Study of Sirohi Buck

ooo


TrainingofPashuSakhi

GoatDistribution

WeighingGoatBeforeSelling


GoatDistribution

GoatCompetition

PrizeDistributiontoGoatCompetition Winner


Chapter 3

ArduPlantation

Background

The deforestation in the villages has been going on for several years. The causes

behind this are essentially economic ones. Wood is used for industrial purposes and the

income generated by that are a meaningful resource to a poor family with vulnerable

economic power. Another reason of deforestation is the fact that wood is very important for

domestic work of cooking and heating. Along with this, the major challenges in Indian

agriculture are related to renewing and overcoming ancient and traditional beliefs of

agriculture. The low access to a more efficient agriculture in the villages can be also

understood by this poorness status as it was stated by FAO inequality is growing and the

two-thirds of the population living in rural areas are depending on agriculture, is being left

behind.

In the Rajasthan districts' this social-economic scenario can be even more

challenging in poor soils, arid and unfavorable climatic conditions. Agriculture and goat

rearing are therefore a hazard. In that sense, goat rearing needs to have a diversified source of

fodder and feed, in order to have good breeds.

Ardu plantation is a landmark in this project as it has created new forms of good

nutrition for the animal farming especially the goats. It is known that these animals can

survive in severe temperatures as well as eat improper food like the bark of the trees.

However with the Ardu plantation the quality of good food was really improved in

the animal farming. Their leaves are highly palatable and protein rich nutritious fodder for

sheep and goats are said to augment milk production, even if the animals have to get used to

acrid smell of these leave. In addition to this, these plants give also green fodder for animals

on the farm. These trees are also easily procreative, once the same yield is again possible

from coppice crop after 6 years (2nd crop on the earlier harvested stumps).

Ardu is therefore is largely planted on farm lands, as it has been used successfully in

agro forestry for planting around the margins of cultivated fields. Lopping of foliage is done

twice in a year during the main cropping season, thus reducing competition, mostly during

November-January and May-July.

http://coin.fao.org/cms/world/india/en/CountryInformation.html

In addition to this, this tree has also a considerable income. The spacing is doing only

in 5 m along the bunds and in 1 acre will accommodate about 60 seedlings. In 10 years the

whole tree could give an earnings of about Rs 7000/-. If a farmer has 1 acre ofArdu plantation

this earning could increase and in 10 years will be Rs 4,20,000/- acre. Besides this, Ardu

wood is also used in packing cases, plywood, matchwood boxes.

Kumarappa Institute set up this project along with the villagers, to overcome all the

traditional beliefs about the plantation of these trees. This possibility allowed them to

develop their skills as well as to bridge the technical knowledge with economic one, by

increasing the avenue from agricultural and animal farming, especially for the goats feeding.

The Ardu plantation was one of the important components in undertaking goat

farming in the project villages and one of the most challenged one, to implement in the rural

agriculture. Two fundamental lessons were learnt during this project by the Institute among

the people about the nursery performance, and secondly only by the people, who had to make

some efforts to overcome their unwillingness aboutArdu farming.

Therefore, KIGS developed its support on an advocacy level among these women.

Its purpose is not related directly to educate women in formal education schemes (going to

school and studying) but to discuss and work with them in order to raise awareness of the

issues and to be selfsustainable, by improving their capacity-building. In that context, KIGS

staff went for an exposure visit in Tapukara to see ardu plantation and multi-level farming

techniques. Along with this, the project staff Sh. Hanuman Sahay Sharma and Ms. Geeta

Sain from the cooperative society participated in the Dahod workshop organized by SDTT.

Another exposure visit took place to PRADAN field in Balrampur, Puruliya (WB) to see

farm pond activity with Dr. Awadh Prasad/Dr. Amit Kumar. Besides this, Dr. Amit Kumar

also participated in Program on Credit Aspects in Rural Development organized by

Banker Institute of Rural Development (BIRD, Lucknow) at Jodhpur, in order to follow up

new aspect of the micro credit rural development.

Hingotiya a small village in Khandewat Panchayat is an overwhelming example of

the disbelief of the people about Ardu plantation. This village comprises fifteen houses of

The ardu plantation: challenges and achievements

The first challenge of Ardu plantation in the village: the impact of new agriculture

farming

Ardu Plantation 23F

nayaks and ten families of bairwa community, whose main activities are agriculture and goat

farming. Some families also do some work in the famous Banasthali Vidhyapeeth

(University) that is close to this village.

Kumarappa Institute knowing the importance of the main income of these families

organized a meeting, where both men and women participated to discuss the methods and

techniques of agriculture and goat rearing activities, especially the availability of fodder for

goats, withArdu plantation. However the majority of the villagers were very skeptical. They

believed that Ardu could be a threat for the crops if it was planted on the farm boundary and

also that under its shade any seed could fertilize. Although these disbeliefs were largely

accepted in the community who were not conscious. When they were asked if anyone has

plantedArdu or if they had seen this plant, the answer was negative.

Kumarappa Institute based its methodology in an open discussion, which helped

some farmers ending up to agree for planting Ardu, in order to freely check if it has any

arduous effect on their regular agriculture production. It is known by that local

ownership cannot be imposed, but selfconstructed among the people, as the only drivers of

change are these villagers, especially women.

This fruitful discussion, therefore, resulted in one thousand saplings being planted in

the hamlet in the first year.Along with the plantation, the farmers have also fertilized the land

with goat manure, as a result, the Ardu plants have grown very fast and no problem was

noticed with the other crops. This experience convinced people that their disbeliefs about

Ardu plantation were unfounded, and in the second year they all started to plant Ardu on the

boundary of their farms, as a proof of the self-trust towards this plantation.

In two years the agricultural, social and economical landscape has changed. People

realized that from now on they could feed their goats in their fields instead of going to the

jungle as the fields had plenty of Ardu plantations. Therefore they could improve the health

of the goats as well as the quality and quantity of the milk produced. This lesson learnt in

three years was the biggest Kumarappa's project which allowed people to learn by doing and

creating constructive work within the community.

In conclusion the people of these hamlets have benefitted very much and if one goes

after five years the scene of these hamlets could be very different. The result of that can be

seen in the figures when the Ardu plantation has been four times more than the initial

provisions.

Kumarappa

Ardu Plantation 24F

Table4: Arduplantationanditssurvivalinthethirdyear (2014)

The second challenge ofArdu plantation: the nursery of the plants

In the first year as KIGS didn't have any previous experiences inArdu plantation, the

plants were purchased from the government nursery in Chaksu. But before this, a group of

farmers went to Tapukada village to see Ardu plantation. After this visit the farmers started

showing interest in this. However in that year a lot of saplings were destroyed when they

were transported from Chaksu to Niwai, as we all know Ardu saplings are very delicate and

need extra care in transportation and this was a big problem in the project.

After much discussion the Director of the Institute Dr. Prasad suggested to train

someone from the project in the village in nursery. In this way Kumarappa Institute could

distribute more plants to the farmers. Due to this fact some specificity on ardu plantation

were also discussed. Ardu excelsa is a strong light demanding tree. The seedlings get easily

suppressed by weeds as a result of shading and hence nursery should be kept weed free.

Prolonged drought kills seedlings, though the trees are drought resistant. Seedlings should

be planted in the rainy season and must be hand watered during the summer season. The tree

is very susceptible to water logging or excess of moisture in the soil. Hence plants in nursery

should be watered with care and planting in the field should be in well drained areas. Some

threats can also occur as seedlings are susceptible to damping off disease therefore heavy

watering should be avoided and only optimum level of moisture should be maintained.

Ailanthus webworm is fatal and serious defoliator (occurring from April to June), which

damages fruits, seeds and leaves. If detected, some common pesticides may be sprayed.

Nameof

Village

No.of

beneficiaries

Ardu saplings

Distributed

PlantsSurvivalin

April2014 Percentage

Hingotiya 86 3670 3294 90

Chikana 47 9255 4873 53

Jhujharpura 34 2486 1716 69

Sakatpura 37 3680 2377 65

Damodarpura 28 480 336 70

Seendra 41 1234 822 67

Chourpura 33 3278 2606 79

Abhaypura 11 1582 1216 77

Sukhadiyanagar 22 1550 1158 75

Hameedpura 31 3620 1711 47

Total 370 30835 20109 65

Ardu Plantation 25F

During all this discussion in the villages Rasal Devi from Chikana village came

forward to set up nursery, provided she is given proper training and hand on support. In

March 2012 she was sent to Sir Syed Trust to take training in setting up of a nursery for Ardu

plantation. There she learnt how to select seed, how to prepare beds and precautions to be

taken etc.

She was able to raise 10,000 saplings in the first year out of which only 6,000

saplings were able to survive. But she was not disappointed and assured of preparing more

saplings in the next year. In the first year she was able to earn Rs. 30,000.

In the next year she motivated one more farmer to prepare the nursery and both of

them together started working on it. Their efforts went in vain when the nursery prepared by

them from market seeds didn't grow up. Now they decided to collect fresh seeds from nearby

villages and started preparing new saplings at their respective wells. While preparing the

nursery whenever they were faced with any problem they used to consult among themselves.

With joint efforts the nursery was a big success and they were able to raise about thirty

thousand saplings which gave them an income of Rs. 1,05,000.

Table5:Statusoffodder plantationduringtheperiod April2011-March2014

S.No. ParticularsAchievementstill31

March2014

1. Foddercropdemo - rajka 79 farmers

2. Foddercropdemoplot 1.5hec.

3. Plantationoffoddertree 43,339

4. Foddertreessurvived(ardu,neemandbabool)26,880

(62.02%)

5. No.offamiliesbenefitted 710

6. No.of Ardusaplingsplanted 35,233

7. No.of Ardusaplingssurvived22,130

(62.81%)

8. No.ofNeem,Baboolsaplingsplanted 8,106

9. No.ofNeem,Baboolsaplingssurvived4,750

(58.59%)

10. No.ofFruitsaplingsplanted 3,239

11. No.ofFruitsaplingssurvived2,197

(67.82%)

12. No.of VillageNurserysetup 8

13. No.ofsaplingsprepared 50,000

14. No.ofsaplingsdistributed 39,935

Ardu Plantation 26F

In the dry conditions of Rajasthan the survival of plants is a big challenge but the

project area was fortunate to have occasional rains after the sowing. As a result the survival

rate of fodder plants which include ardu, neem and babool was 62%. Survival of ardu plant

was about 63%, neem and babool are native plants of the area their suvival was about 59%

and fruit plants survival was 68%. In the second year the villagers advised to sow babool on

the boundary of the field instead of preparing saplings, this gave us satisfactory results. Since

fruit plants are expensive and only selected farmers took this initiative their survival rate was

more than ardu and neem/babool.

To conclude we may say that this activity encouraged farmers to go for plantation of

indigenous fodder plants which would give them fodder and fuel in future.

ArduDistribution

Ardu Plantation 27F

ArduPlantation

ArduNurseryby WomenSelfHelpGroup

Ardu Plantation 28F

Chapter 4

Agriculture-GreenManureandother initiatives

Agriculture in Rajasthan is a very challenging activity, as it is stated by the

government 20 million hectare are cultivated but only 20% of this area is irrigated.

However since Rajasthan is one of the largest states of India, where 66% of the population

depends on agricultural for their livelihood, the improvement in agriculture is fundamental.

There are several reasons behind this poor and vulnerable agricultural status. One reason

tackled by our project is the lack of natural fertilization in the soils. In that regard,

Kumarappa Institute has started training the villagers about green manure. The main aim was

to prepare the agriculture more sustainable and less dependent. The technique, for instance

about fertilization, is related to a green undecomposed material used as manure. It is obtained

in two ways: by growing green manure crops (such assunnhemp, dhaincha, pillipesara,

cluster beans and Sesbaniarostrata, usually belong to the leguminous family) or by collecting

green leaf (along with twigs) from plants grown in wastelands, field bunds and forest.

The benefits of this method are various in order to avoid soil exhaustion. The soil

deterioration is significant under a monoculture cropping. With green manure it will increase

the organic humus as it will raise the soil nitrogen supply. Another advantage is that it will

help the upturn of water holding capacity in the soils. Finally the natural organic fertilizer

could be easily available among farmers, and would be cheaper than buying chemical

fertilizers that often cannot be afford by them.

This was the study case of green manure of a village 10 km from Niwai town.

There are about 200 (two hundred) families living in the village mainly comprising of Jat,

Bairwa, Brahmin, Khati, Meena community. All families are engaged in agriculture. The

main crops growing in the area are wheat, mustard, gram, millets, groundnut etc.Along with

agriculture all the families keep animals, but most of the families have big animals such as

cows and buffaloes. Average number of animals in one family in this village is between five

to ten. Since this village is near the town, the people are able to sell milk easily which gives

them good returns. Since majority of the villagers were or are engaged in animal husbandry

they need fodder for their animals in large quantity and for this they have to grow lots of

fodder for which they use chemical fertilizers. Due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers in

Nal

their fields the soil has become unfertile. Earlier due to use of chemical fertilizers the

production increased but the people's greed increased too and they started using more and

more fertilizers. The impact of this on the land was that in some fields the seeds stopped

fertilizing and over the period of years due to less rainfall the fertility of the soil kept on

decreasing.

Now the people have realized the bad effect of chemical fertilizers in their fields

whichhavedestroyedtheirlandandsoil. ThevillagersofNalastartedlookingfor

alternatives in which the use of cow dung was suggested. But these people did not have

sufficient quantity of cow dung in the village. Moreover most of the people were using cow

dung as fuel in the kitchen. As a result its use as fertilizer was insufficient. The villagers also

approached the agriculture department for some solution but they didn't receive any practical

solution.

In 2012 the villagers come in contact with Kumarappa Institute social workers and

discussed about their problem. The institute advised them to grow green manure (dhaincha

grass) in their fields. The villagers agreed to it and ten of them were given training by the

Institute and out of them seven farmers grow green manure in their one bigha of land. After

this they took mustard crop from this land.

In the first year they received better production from the previous year and the people

got convinced that this manure helps production and it also restricts various diseases in the

crop. Also the fertility of soil has increased. A number of farmers from the village such as

Harishankar, Puranmal, Shyojiram, Ratanlal, Sohanlal, Omprakash experimented green

manure in their field and have taken oath to take this task forward with other farmers in the

village.

After seeing this good production, other farmers of the village also come forward to

grow dhaincha grass in their fields. In this second year ten more farmers experimented this

grass in their fields and slowly when people got information about this green manure they

started contacting Kumarappa Institute staff for advice and help.

Earlier the project staff was going to the village and making people aware about

dhaincha grass, but now the farmers are coming to NGO office to enquire about this. The

farmers who are using this manure for last two years have informed that in the third year

(2013) as a result of this grass the productions in their fields have increased two fold. In the

third year about fifty farmers used dhaincha grass in their fields which shows the growing

Agriculture-GreenManureandotherinitiatives 30F

interest of the farmers in the villages about green manure. It is clearly visible that with the use

of green manure the crop is different from the other crop and it does not have infections. We

can clearly say that green manure is a boom for the soil and it increases the fertility (nutrition)

and production.

In conclusion during the three years of the project several farmers come forward by

cultivating different crops of green manure as well as growing some vegetables.

The success of this venture is also connected with the trainings that has took place in

the community, where they could learn by doing and discuss the main problems.

Consequently the project provided six trainings on the best practices of farming

such as: on herbal pesticides, compost making and improved agriculture techniques at

Rajasthan Go Sewa Sangh, Jaipur; improvement of agriculture techniques as such; training

on organic farming for farmers at Go Sewa Sangh, Jaipur; the participation in Krishi Mela at

KVK, Banasthali with 200 participants from Barodiya, Hameedpura, Khandwa, Chikana,

Jhujharpura, Hingotiya, Abhaypura and Sakatpura; the participation in Organic Farmers

Conference at Bikaner, 9-12 March 2013, with 13 farmers; the training of vegetable growing

farmers organized and finally the training of Daicha growing farmers was organized on 21

June 2013 in Nala village.

Therefore, there were different achievements that can be underlined. The

improvement of farming techniques has been one of the major successes of the capacity

building of these farmers. They have tripled the initial target launch for the project (it was

expect to have only 300 and then in the end it was reaching 675 farmers), what foresees a

lesson learnt of agriculture farming.

The second achievement is related to the good returns taken from their fields. In

average the people were able to earn twice their expenses. This is directly connected with the

good management of the lands, through agriculture differentiation. People could avoid soil

exhaustion; as a result, they have wisely chosen the products feasible for their land. To some

extent the figures are not the same for all farmers, as they have freely chosen which kind of

products and in which area of the land they could be grown. On the other hand this reveals the

maturity and the openness towards their capacity building.

The level of optimism could be witnessed among the community that has enriched

the social capital. All the new introductions were seen as another addition that encouraged

the farmers. In this climate KIGS has introduced fruit plantation and rose nursery which is


used as an incentive to the farmers in Jhujharpura village. It allowed them to experiment with

other form of activity and experiment another agriculture zone to increase the income of the

families.

Table6:Progressinagricultureextensionactivities(April2011-March2014)

S.No. Particulars Unit Target

for the

project

Achievements

till31March

2014

1.Demonstrationofimprovedfarming No.of

farmers 300 675

2. DemonstrationPlots(area) Hec. 250

DemonstrationofMoong/Urad/Chaula

3. DemonstrationPlot Hec. 8.89

4. No.offarmers No. 99

5. Inputcostoffarming-cashexpensesonly Rs. 53,340

6. Outputvalueofproduction Rs. 3,20,040

7. Incomeperhectare Rs. 30,000

DemonstrationofBajra






Demonstrationof Til




16. Outputvalueofproduction Rs. 87,200


DemonstrationofGroundnut






DemonstrationofDaicha




SeedSovereignty:

Anothercauseofthepoornessofagriculturefarmingisrelatedtotheinabilityof

preparingownseeds.Farmersareusedtotakeseedsfromthemarket,ataveryexpensive

priceandoftenwithapoorquality;onesthattheyareusuallycounterfeitproducts. This

wasthecaseofPremDeviawomanwholivesinHingotiyavillage.

PremDevilivesinBairwaKiDhaniinHingotiyavillage. Themainoccupationof

PremDeviisagriculturealongwithanimalhusbandry.Herhusbandisamasonsoshehas

todoalltheagricultureandanimals'relatedworkonherown.Sheisnotliteratebutshe

candosignatureandshehasagoodknowledgeofagriculture.

In 2011 when she came in contact with Kumarappa Institute, she informed that she

grows vegetables in her field, however when we asked about where the seeds come from, she

told that the seeds were bought from the market. She also informed that the seeds which she

purchases from the market are very expensive and sometimes they don't even grow. In the

project she was given training so as to how to prepare her own seeds. After the training she

started preparing her own seeds from the various techniques that she had learnt.

Initially she prepared the seeds of lauki (bottle gourd) which she grew to about three

feet. In the second year she prepared seeds of chili and slowly she experimented in palak

(spinach), methi, carrot, beans, lady finger etc.

PremDevipreparesherownseed:

Demonstrationof Vegetables

25. DemonstrationPlot Hec. 104


27. Inputcostoffarming-cash expensesonly Rs. 12,89,600

28. Outputvalueofproduction Rs. 1,04,00,000


DemonstrationofGuarGumfarmers



32. Inputcostoffarming-cashexpensesonly Rs. 7,78,000



35. WellRechargestructures No. 9


Seeing Prem Devi the other women of the hamlet such as Kamla Devi, Ratni Devi,

Santara Devi, Sita Devi, etc. also started preparing rajka seeds which is a fodder.

Prem Devi says that if one prepares one's own seeds then the seed also will be good

and it will reduce the expenses on seeds which they are buying from the market. Prem Devi

shares her experience and states that if the seeds are good then the vegetables are also of good

quality, they also need less pesticides. She also states that she herself prepares herbal

pesticides at home. She is against the medicines available in the market as they may lead to

various types of diseases. The vegetables which use organic manure and herbal pesticides do

not cause diseases, the taste is very good and they are also produced at a low cost.

Today Prem Devi prepares her own seeds, grows vegetable and saves money. Prem

Devi accepts that she has learnt a lot from the project and also has been benefitted by it and in

future she plans to prepare seeds of other crops too.

The organic vegetables were also another innovation implemented for the farmers.

Kumarappa Institute was able to spread the message of a diversified agriculture instead of

putting all eggs in the same basket. The soil remains exhausted, the nutrition of the people

only turns repetitive with long force fasting. Therefore the Institute gave a strong support

for the ones that were prepared to grow vegetables, as they can be easily sold in the market

with quick returns. This was the case of Sheoraj Mali.

Sheoraj Mali lives in Chikana village. He is 25 years old and his father died when he

was a child as a result he was not able to study and had to take care of the family. His mother

engaged him in agriculture and labor at a very young age.

Due to their poor economic status other people in the village also did not support

them. With a lot of efforts his mother was able to marry him and now there were three

members in the family. Sheoraj and his mother started thinking of increasing their

agriculture by growing vegetables along with cereals. Since the vegetables seeds in the

market were very expensive they couldn't buy it, and it was a very difficult time for the

family. He and mother and wife had to work on the fields but they didn't have money to grow

vegetables. In 2011 when Sheoraj came with the contact with project workers he told them

that he has land and water but he does not have money to buy seeds. The project supported

him by giving him seeds of lady finger, turai (ridge gourd), gwar (beans), lauki (bottle

gourd), etc. He was also given training by specialists about vegetables growing.

Sheoraj Mali: Propagating organically grown vegetables


With this encouragement he started growing vegetables in his two and half bigha of

land. Now he was getting vegetables from his field and he goes to Niwai daily to sell them.

One of the most important specialties of his vegetables was that they were grown with

organic manure and no chemical fertilizers were used. Also the medicines he was using to

prevent the crop from diseases were herbal. He used the leaves of neem, aak, dhatura to make

herbal pesticide. In this way he saved a lot of money and the quality of vegetables was also

good.

Now Sheoraj is selling vegetables worth Rs. 40-45,000 every year. This year in 2013

he has sown tomatoes in two bigha of land in which he is using compost. Now other people in

the village are also coming forward to grow vegetables. Sheoraj accepts that it was only due

to the support and encouragement from the project that his economic condition has improved

and other people are motivated to move forward. People are coming to me to take my advice

which makes me very happy. I'm grateful for the project for putting me on the path of

development, my family is also very happy.

Another case of entrepreneurship in agriculture is related to Mamta. This woman is a

real entrepreneur, more than doing just the farming of one crop she learnt through the

training imparted by the Institute how to cultivate and fertilize with organic farming in

several crops in the same area. From the flower cultivation especially the rose nursery she

grew fruit plants and fodder for the animals.All these activities had an overwhelming impact

in her life.

Mamta Sharma lives in Jhujharpura, she has studied up to class twelve. In her family

she has husband, father and mother in law and two daughters. All the family is engaged in

agriculture and animal husbandry, but their main occupation is rearing, they have buffalos

and they supply buffalo milk to nearby town of Niwai. Her father-in-law does this for the

family. Mamta and her mother-in-law take care of buffalos and agriculture. Mamta takes lot

of interest in all agriculture activities. She is always interested in doing new things but due to

lack of information it is difficult for her.

She is literate as well as hardworking and always looks for new experiments in

agriculture which would give more income and profit. She always discusses this in her

family and with her husband and father in law.

She always felt sorry that even though they have land and good water but because of

limited information they are not able to utilize it completely. In May 2013 when KIGS was

Mamta spreads the fragrance of rose: rose nursery


giving training in organic farming, Mamta was also one of the participants. During the

training Mamta showed her interest for flower cultivation along with organic farming but she

didn't have any information regarding this. During the training she was assured of getting

technical guidance from the Institute. Mamta was very happy to hear this and decided to do

flower cultivation with the help of project staff. After the training, Mamta starting preparing

her field for flower cultivation. She cleaned all the area and started making pits. She also

started preparing compost from animal dung.

In July 2013 Mamta was given two hundred rose saplings and three hundred fruit

plants which included lemon, pomegranate, gooseberries, karonda, guava, etc. She planted

roses in half a bigha of land and fruit plants in other half bigha of land. The empty space

between fruit plants were used to grow green fodder for the animals and wheat. Mamta has

experimented a new thing she had grown fruits plants along with wheat and fodder in the

same field.

The land was suitable for rose plantation and in the second month it started giving

flowers. Mamta states that every alternative day she plucks roses and sells them in Niwai

town. She is earning between one hundred fifteen to two hundred rupees per day and her

family income has increased by more than three thousand rupees a month. Now Mamta and

her family are very happy and thankful for the project.

The water harvesting and management is very important, not only because it helps to

store water but also creates a structure that can help to filter, which will allow the irrigation of

the soils with good quality of water.

The artificial recharging of wells and ground water is an important technique for its

replenishment. The recharge of these wells is done when the runoff is deviated to a dugout pit

or a very small sunken pond close to the individual well. To help in this process sometimes

well is below the bottom of the pit then one or two cement pipes are connecting to the well

through the walls. These discharges act as a percolation or filtration method because of the

recharge of the aquifer. There can be also used some layers in the pit of filtering materials as

stones or pebbles, and sand in order to help the filtration process and the purification of the

water. This technique is very useful for the cleaning of the water removing all types of traps.

This was the case with Badri Narayan. After knowing how to use this technique he could

finally create good quality of water and store it to irrigate his fields.

Badri Narayan Bhanwariya lives in Barodiya village and is engaged in agriculture

and labor for his livelihood. There are thirteen members in this family who are dependent on

Collecting the water where it falls: well recharge through the rain water


him. The family is middle class and all members are very hardworking and interested in

agriculture. Along with agriculture they also do animal husbandry they have cow, buffalo

and goats. But Badri says that earlier he used to do agriculture with bulls, even irrigation was

done by bulls. But slowly and slowly as time changed it was difficult for him to do agriculture

by bulls. He remembers even today his experience of doing agriculture by bulls as it was very

useful since it required less capital.

Now agriculture or farming is done by tractors which are very expensive. Sometimes

when the crop fails he has to bear huge losses. But Badri has fifteen bigha of land in which he

constructed new well about six years back. He received water in the well but it was not

enough and the quality was also not good, the bad quality water when irrigated in the field

made the soil even worse. The fertility of soil decreased and slowly he was not able to grow

anything in his field.

The family was facing a very big problem. He tried various measures to improve the

soil but all in vain. The well water as soon as it came in contact with the soil it made the soil

infertile. The production decreased and the water in the well also decreased. The diesel

engine on the well used to run for three or four hours only. In July 2013 KIGS worker

contacted Badri for well recharge structure. But he was not ready for it as he thought that if

rain water is diverted into his well then the well will be of no use because along with water the

soil will also deposit into the well.

He was very skeptical that in his big well the rainwater would have any impact. He

had several questions like this about this activity, but with continuous persuasion he was

ready to make well recharge structure. He was informed that the soil which will come along

with water will be first put to a water filter which will separate soil from the water and only

fresh rain water will go into the well. When rains started and water started going to the well

he saw that no waste is going into his well and in two months of rainy season his well was

filled with water. After seeing the filled well Badri says that he hadn't seen so much water in

his well ever. After the recharge the engine on the well is running for ten to twelve hours per

day, and still it has water. Now he is able to irrigate his fifteen bigha of land, also he has taken

the neighboring thirty five bigha of land in partnership for cultivation. He didn't stop at this

and he sold water to other farmers for irrigation at the rate of one thousand rupees per day and

earned eight thousand rupees. He is very happy and grateful for the project.

ooo


VegetableProduction-Lauki(bottlegourd)

VegetableProduction- Tomatoes

Guar Gum


SeedProduction

WellRecharge

WellRecharge


RoseNursery

ParticipationinKrishiMela

Fodder Development


Chapter 5

Conclusion

The principal aim of this project was to strengthen the women cooperative society

and SHGs by working in close collaboration with them. This lasting self-sufficiency was

achieved in different levels. Thus the local ownership was therefore manifold achieved as all

the activities were mainstreamed in a partnership perspective without compulsory rules, but

in a continuous process of learning and empowerment.

KIGS entailed always the civil society as key partner in this project. Before

starting the implementation of any of the activities (goat rearing and ardu plantation), KIGS

encouraged the women to participate in two exposure visits, to Lucknow for goat rearing and

in Tapukada (to disseminate information about the nursery of ardu plantation). In that way

these women were motivated and contributed towards strengthening the social capital of the

community.

Besides this Women lead the process of deciding amongst them who should have the

loan of money and who should purchase the goats in a self-responsible perspective,

providing a good interest rate of the loans. This avoided any kind of exploitation as well as

dependency on the family's relatives.

Along with that several trainings have been implemented to share the best

practices among the community. People are now aware of the goat's diseases and how to

keep a goat properly. Before the project no one knew about the nutrition that should be used

for the goats, for instance the quantity of salt that should be given to them. All these efforts

and due to the work of the , women are now more confident and resilient in goat

rearing. Their avenues from the goats have increased abruptly; because of the sanitary

treatments and the better nutrition's components that now they supply to them. The centrality

of the work of is also proof in terms of social commitment, as 31 women i.e.

more than triple (of the initial target) have come forward to receive trainings in order to be

local veterans. With the same enthusiasm the competition of the rears was organized twice

during the three years.

In that extent, the results of the three years of the project largely express all these

achievements. The goats treated by the Pashu Sakhi have been 2267. This shows how the

Pashu Sakhi

Pashu Sakhi

goats are now a part of the community economy. From 31 bucks distributed by the project the

women cooperative society were able to increase it as much as they could. Therefore they

could also at the same time provide the induction female all the year round in the project

villages and this has improved the quality of the breed in the area.

Along with that women have also taken the decision to assure the insurance for their

animals as they could understand with the project the benefits to have their animals insured.

This proactive attitude has safeguarded money and has contributed for their financial

independence.

All these efforts have resulted in an earning of Rs. 8,27,825 in three years due to the

good quality of the milk and the good returns from selling the goats, kids and buck in Rs.

20,55,300. Along with this women now are able to apply for the market criteria in terms of

quality of breed and weight of the goat. Thus the income from the goats is now a sustainable

financial resource for several families, as it is largely express by the quality of the milk and its

revenues.

The agriculture facilities were promoted during this project such as: the

intensification of Ardu Plantation and the improvement of agricultural techniques. These

initiatives were largely used among farmers, tackling the root cause of agricultural poorness.

Therefore the ardu nursery plantation performance in the villages was a step forward to

assure better nutrition for animal husbandry. People could overcome their disbeliefs as well

as intensify the plantation of these trees and this has changed completely the landscape of

these villages. More than 43,000 saplings were planted in the villages along with 3,239 fruits

plants to practice other forms of agricultural production. Before the project started the lands

were dry and only monoculture agriculture was being practiced. In the same way the

introduction of green manure techniques have assure a more sustainable livelihood incomes.

People were happy to realize that they were not more dependent on chemical fertilizers and

they could save money by creating their own compost. This technique also avoided the soil

exhaustion and this has improved the quality of the seeds, and the growth of products with

fewer diseases.

The enthusiasm for new and more recent farming techniques allowed the villagers to

experience organic farming. They grow a diversity of vegetables for their own consumption

and this has substantially improved their daily diet. It is meaningful, in a region that often

suffers from severe and dry conditions, causing a scarcity of food stocks.

Conclusion 42F

In the same way the project aimed successfully at the artificial water recharge in the

wells. Due to the long harvest water periods, the farmers in this project could also experience

how to store water from the rainfalls in their well. This experimental technique also gave

good returns. People were able after using this technique to sell water for their neighbors as

well as to assure proper water in their own fields.

In conclusion the social transformation of these villages was only possible by the real

commitment and the self-confidence that they put in this new way of doing animal

husbandry and agriculture. The local ownership was possible due to the fact, that these

cooperative societies of women along with the villagers were really the drives of change.

KIGS along with them could build up the social bridges necessary to implement a better

inclusive sustainable livelihood for all the villagers.

Conclusion 43F

CompostPit

sdtt goat report_final

Documents

animal farming

agriculture fields

insufficiency of agriculture

family income

source of income

amit kumarms

sustainable livelihood

important sources of