Market Access

Project name:

Market Access

Project Title:

“Facilitating Market Access for local communities in three watersheds of Jharkhand” with three partners at the district of Hazaribag, Latehar and Ranchi in Jharkhand

Partners and thseir address:

Bihar Pradesh Yuva Parisad –  Registered office at Abadganj, Near Mission Girls High School, Medininagar (Daltonganj), Jharkhand

Mahila Mandal Trust- Registered office at Village – Chapari, Via – Barhi, P.O – Pandeybara, Block – Chouparan, District – Hazaribag – 825406, Jharkhand,

Society for Rural Industrialization- Registered office at Bariatu, Ranchi – 834009, Jharkhand

Sukhar Virodhi Abhiyan- Cordinating Office:  Lok Jargiti Kendra at Madhupur, Deoghar – 815353, Jharkhand

Project field area: no. and name of the villages, block, district etc.

Org Total 20 Villages Block District Beneficiaries
SRI Jarga , Paika Angara Ranchi 502
MMT Pandebara, Ratanpur, Sirma, Chaprokala, Chaprikhurd Chauparan Hazaribag 542
BPYP Manika, Chandana, Besna, Ezamad, Awratar, Parshia, Banghiphokar, Jamuna Kewakarma, Lalli, Piskamore, Jingur, Dunda Manika Latehar 511

Total project period and starting date:

Total project period is 3 years. Project Duration: November 2009 – October 2012

Total approved budget and budget for the present year:

Total Costs Year1 Year2 Year3
Total Costs in EURO  Currency Exchange Rate (1 EURO = 65 INR)  40,309.66 85,360.34 44,330

Project Objective / overall Goal and Expected Results:

Overall goal: To contribute to increased food and nutrition security in 22 villages at three districts of Jharkhand

Objective: A participatory model of sustainable agriculture and rural economy developed on market linkages of local products

Result 1: Improved food availability and income from local agriculture production

Result 2: Village level institutions strengthened for value chain and social reengineering

Result 3: Post harvest management, distribution and collective market linkages for selected commodities identified and initiated

Result 4: Improved collaboration among different stakeholders for policies and practices related to sustainable agriculture in the state.

Major achievements till date:

The project is contributing towards improving food availability and income from local agriculture production. This change of development has come across in the project location through farm and off farm activities with institution building. The project has developed extensive and intensive use of integrated water management techniques, revival of indigenous seed and planting material, age old tried farming technology and the use of biotechnology tools to meet effectively the future challenges to improve agriculture production.

 

Raising crop productivity is taken up sincerely to increase crop yields. The available data shows the productivity of Kharif Rice has increased 2-3 times by adopting SRI technique (System of Rice Intensification). The productivity of pulses and vegetables have increased 1-2 times from the current level of productivity, through attention on seed inputs, bio fertilizers, pest management, checking soil health, equipped irrigation and adopting appropriate post harvest technology.

 

The Self Help Groups, Federations and Kisan clubs have stepped forward and have developed farming ventures such as poultry farming, fish farming, lac production etc. These SHG and federation are organized to take the task of input delivery among the group members and marketing of their produce. The seed money support for the start of small business and livelihood options has integrated the community to work collectively for the food availability and income generation for the family. The Common Facility Centres have initiated rendering their services to intensify agricultural operations.

The project foresees convergence with Vocational Education and Training Program (VET) in the project location which aims at skill building of the same community in taking up agriculture and allied activities as rural enterprises. The VET project has been an added input support to enhance the knowledge and capacity of the target beneficiaries. The convergence with government programs has also been continuously tried.

The storage facilities for perishable goods and processing facilities for the farmers have been set up during the reporting period towards Market Development and Promotion.

Under policy and practice change the issue of poor market infrastructure, need for other regulatory framework and various reasons for the poorer not being able to access market is taken up by CWS and network partners Sukhar Virodhi Abhiyan (SVA) with the State Government for advocacy. The other line departments are always put accountable to handhold their input delivery services to further scale the lac, mahua, fishery, poultry, pigeon pea production and village level institutions strengthening to collectively market their produce to get the fair price in the regulatory market.

Concerned staff member:

Ms. Pushpa Dahanga- Programme Officer

Donor:

Welthungerhilfe -Germany and Hivos- Netherlands

Significant learning till date:

Creating opportunities for the people to develop understanding of the holistic perspectives in the contemporary context and capacitating the people to play their role in social action.

Empowering the community through managerial autonomy and access to the organisation and its decision makers was a crucial factor in the success of programme implementation. The message from the cases is that community when properly empowered can be an effective instrument for innovation in process and desired change.

Livelihood