UPL Vasudha: Counting the tallest flying bird Sarus Crane on Summer Solstice in Kheda and Anand district

The Annual Sarus Crane count was held on 21^st June 2022 also known as the Summer Solstice day (the longest day of the year) in Kheda and Anand Districts.

The world’s tallest flying bird – Sarus Crane is found in good numbers in the districts of Kheda, Anand and Ahmedabad in Gujarat. UPL’s Sarus Conservation Project in the state has been documenting the population, breeding trends and threats to the species in Kheda and Anand districts since 2015. The project in association with the communities has created 89 “Rural Sarus Protection Groups” a citizen science initiative, in 35 villages of Kheda district who are active in protection and conservation of the species from egg stealing, nest destruction and poaching. As a result of this programme, the Sarus numbers increased from 500 in 2015 to 992 in 2022. The current project documented 500 Sarus cranes in 2015 during initiation of project and 992 in 2022 during annual summer total count.

The annual Sarus crane count is held during the longest day of the year, as during this period majority of the wetlands and marshes would dry up and the Sarus cranes can be seen in large congregations at the perennial water bodies available. The summer congregations help in determining the population of the Sarus cranes in the region. Total population counts are done using total count method on 21^st June each year from 2015 onwards covering 34 locations in 2015 to 141 locations.

One obvious reason for documenting the upward trend in population is the increased efforts through continuous annual single day total count followed by increase in locations and participation of the volunteers in subsequent years under the project.

The Sarus Crane count of 2022 was done with active participation of 13 UPL WAU Volunteers, 36 Rural Sarus Protection Group volunteers, 5 volunteers from Voluntary Nature Conservancy, Anand, 3 teachers from different schools, Social Forestry Division – Nadiad, and UPL project team covering 141 locations of 13 taluka of Kheda and Anand districts.

During the count total 992 Sarus Cranes including 81 sub adult were documented. Seven congregation areas of Kheda and Anand district were documented. Major summer congregations were observed in seven reservoirs. Highest congregation of Sarus was observed in Gobrapura wetland followed by 266 Sarus.

This study primarily focused on the impact of involving communities as partners in conservation of the Sarus crane as the species is mostly found outside the protected area network. Maintaining the enthusiasm of the volunteers in the longer period without any monetary or in- kind gains is a challenge. The project will help in raising the social stature of the volunteers in their own and adjoining villages to keep up their enthusiasm and involvement in conservation.

#UPLGlobal #UPLPragati #UPLVasudha #UPLSarusconservation

UPL Vasudha: Sensitizing Children & Communities to Conserve Sarus Crane, Kheda, Gujarat

Indian Sarus Crane (Grus antigone antigone) the tallest flying bird categorized as “Vulnerable” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List is the only resident crane species found in India living in association with farmers that uses wetlands and agriculture fields. With an intent to create consciousness among the farmers, communities, and youth, our team organised a series of awareness programme sensitizing them towards conservation of residential species “Sarus”. Through regular field intervention we also formed a local group name “Rural Sarus Protection Group” (RSPG). These groups have been instrumental in protecting, saving, successful fledging in last 5 years. The awareness programmes built around community participation in conservation has been effective in documenting increased number of nesting success and fledglings together with new nesting and congregation sites.  

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#UPLGlobal #UPLPragati #UPLVasudha #UPLSarusconservation

UPL Khedut Pragati: UPL works to enhance Agri. based farm income of paddy cultivators in tribal areas of Gujarat

Inadequate income from agriculture and lack of good agriculture practices has led to seasonal migration in Dang, Gujarat. To enhance the Agri. based farm income of small and marginal farmers, UPL has initiated hands-on-training on various aspects of production & practices for paddy crop which includes raising nursery, sowing methods (SRI), effective nutrient practices, establish market linkages etc. We have also established a satellite “Centre for Agriculture Excellence” at Ahwa, Dang wherein round the year, various seasonal crops have demonstrated. Under this initiative 700 farmers adopted SRI method for paddy cultivation. Better access to information has helped these tribal farmers to improve yield, enhance productivity that sequentially increase the household income. 

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UPLGlobal  #UPLPragati  #UPLKhedutPragati 

UPL Vasudha: UPL celebrating Wildlife Week 2021

Spreading the message to conserve the birds & fauna, a weeklong “Wildlife Week” awareness drive began in Kheda district from 2^nd to 8^th October 2021. The programme aimed at creating awareness among the students, farming communities to have a passionate heart for the biodiversity around them. During the celebration, several competitions like elocution, drawing competition, movie screenings were organized to raise consciousness in favor of wildlife preservation. Painting their imagination on wildlife, hundreds of students from schools took part in drawing competition. Through painting some depicted need of saving habitat to save the beautiful Vulnerable” Sarus Crane.” Interactive documentary on Sarus crane was shown to children, and the students were also informed on conserving the forest areas. At the end of the event, all the students pledge saying, “Wildlife conservation is our responsibility” and planted trees in school vicinity.

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With an intent of reaching out to communities and spreading the message of Wildlife conservation, the project team participated in a one-day program organized by Social forestry division, Nadiad and Anand on the theme “Conservation of wetlands associated species at Pariej wetland”. The experts delivered lecture on Involvement of community for Sarus Conservation and Crocodiles of Charotar.

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Similarly, also observed Wildlife week across Valsad and Vaghara cluster.

The event witnessed the participation of 881 students, 50, teachers and 70 villagers across clusters.

The valedictory function and prize distribution ceremony was held on 6^th October 2021, the team appreciated the schools for their active participation in the weeklong program. The winners were awarded and were appreciated and motivated for their contribution in wildlife conservation.

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#UPLGlobal #UPLPragati #UPLVasudha #UPLSarusconservation #Wildlifeweek2021

UPL South Africa: Outreach & Stewardship program in the Eastern Cape

In South Africa our major initiative for society is Outreach & Stewardship program in the Eastern Cape called Galela Kakuhle (Xhosa for “Apply well”) which does training for subsistence farmers in the region.

#UPLGlobal #UPLSouthAfrica #UPLAgriculturedevelopment

UPLVietnam: Together with humanity- UPL Vietnam community initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic

Meet our Frontline Heroes: Despite the hardship and health risk these heroes the Doctors & Medical Staffs, enforcement, essential service workers continued to do their duty during the COVID-19 pandemic while we stayed at home.  UPL Vietnam and our Heroes “Team from UPL Vietnam Factories” together felt it is important to help and support these frontline responders. So, our team put together their best efforts to support these frontline responders in all possible ways with our time, resources, capacity and limitation. We produce and distributed hand sanitizers and face mask to several Medical centers, Hospitals, vaccination centers and quarantine areas in Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh and Binh Duong Provinces. We are proud of our UPL Vietnam team, in such a difficult time they came forward to support the communities and set a great example of restoring humanity’s faith.

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UPL Provides Sustainable Livelihood to Small and Marginal Tribal Farmers of Narmada District of Gujarat

UPL initiated pilot project in the year 2016 in  3 villages of Dumkal Panchayat (Taluka Dedipada) in Narmada “to provide sustainable livelihood to small and marginal tribal farmers through agriculture development”. We started with water conservation along-with the land development activities. We also worked on technical support, trainings, exposure visits and demonstrations. Finally, we have formed community-based organization to ensure ownership and sustainability.

Various activities that we did in pilot phase are.

• Water resource development: 2 Checkdams, 10 Boribands, 8 Borewells and 1 lift irrigation system, directly impacted and benefited 233 Farmers and Area Irrigated: 245 Acres
• Land Development: 70 Acres Land levelled, Farm bund in 37 acres that benefited 135 farmers.
• Multi-cropping: This year farmers cultivated second crop due to availability of water through various activities. Near about 250 acers of land brought under irrigation.
• MIX and Integrated Cropping: Promoted integrated farming and currently 75 farmers are doing mix cropping for maximizing their benefits
• Orchard farming: More than 300 farmers participated in Agricultural training on orchard farming and as of now, 7,523 Horticulture Plants have been Planted (FY 2021- 6175 Plants) covering 2,115 farmers.

Achievement in pilot phase are:

• By March 2021, 500+ farmer families have a better income and quality of life.
• Ownership of the Community: whole project and program owned by the community which will sustain the program for long run.
• Innovation: Looking into the topography, the All the water harvesting structures have been constructed at higher elevation with suitable location. And command area of each structure is at lower elevation so that farmers can irrigate their field by gravitation force only. This technique very efficient and effective also saving huge amount of investment and natural resources that we spent on electricity and fuel. 
• Employment Generation: The initiative and the projects restricted the migration and helped to generate employment in their own locality. 35 % of migration decreased due to intervention in the lean period.

UPSCALING PROJECT WITH LARGER COMMUNITY

• Based on outcome of response from 3 villages of Dumkhal cluster we are ready to scale up the project in the other parts of the district.
• Next 3 years we will focus on “Agriculture development” by developing sustainable “Value Chains” in the Agriculture sector.
• We are targeting about 10,000 farmers/Women in more than 100 villages of four blocks(taluka) that are Sagbara, Dediyapada, Nandod and Garudeshwar of Narmada district.
• Partnership model along with government and NGO’s.

UPL National Area Needs – Addressing Child Labour through our sustainable programme “United Against Child Labour”

“Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on Dreams”

Child labour can be defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and dignity. Today, 152 million children are still in child labour. Although child labour occurs in almost all sectors, seven out of ten is in agriculture. Millions of children are forced into child labour due to poverty and illiteracy. This is a cultural issue that need to be addressed in a holistic manner. Considering the magnitude and extent of the problem Advanta has initiated a unique drive at seed production field to combat the child labour issue and work towards the National goal of eliminating child labour at their fields by supporting Education, Health and Sanitation of the children in production villages through a unique initiative “United Against Child Labour” (UACL).

The project team conducted Mega Awareness Campaign programs at production villages to create awareness and major emphasis was to work on zero child labor through sensitization and mobilization programs. Advanta has conducted the programs in the regions of Lonar (MH), Rewari (Haryana), Lunawada (Gujarat), Kanpur (UP), Ranibennur (Karnataka), Koppal (Karnataka) covering all production zones. A total of 1796 direct growers from 749 seed production villages, 72 Advanta staff, 99 third party field staff, 39 government staff and 244 from NGO’s have participated in the program. With this initiative, it was expected, that there will be impact on reduction of children engagement in seed production fields and would get the children back to the schools.

Glimpse of the event observed across location:

Our first awareness program “United Against Child Labour” was held in Jambhora of Buldana district in Maharashtra, India on 21^st Nov 2018 to create awareness on issues related to child labour along with emphasis on importance of education for children.

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Observed “World Day Against Child Labour” 2019

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Highlights of the year 2021

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Apart from these programs, UACL is also focusing on providing accessories like science lab, computer lab, sports kits, school bags, notebooks, LED TV, Projectors, Desks and tables, dining items, mobile toilets, to school children who are attending schools regularly. More than 1400 plus students benefited through this initiative, sensitized 157 growers/villagers. The event was attended by 34 Government officials, around 68 Advanta team and field staff volunteered for the event.

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#UPLGlobal  #UPLPragati #LocalandNationalneeds #Unitedagainstchildlabour

UPL Global: UPL Promotes Solidarity Action together with the Agricultural Cooperatives

The challenging year of 2020 brought up several lessons and apprenticeship.  One of them was certainly “to share the good received”. For such reason, UPL, together with its partner agricultural cooperatives conducted a year-end joint solidarity action through Cooper UP, its relationship program with such cooperatives. By this action, UPL delivered 900 basic needs grocery packages to entities supporting children and elders on behalf of each participating cooperative. Part of such packages was acquired in the supermarkets held by the cooperatives themselves, thus increasing this virtuous circle and favoring even more people.

Cooper UP is a relationship program of UPL addressed to the partner agricultural cooperatives, aiming at bringing innovation and refitment to the whole cooperative – from the employees to the cooperates. Up to 2020, the program has already achieved significant business results, both for UPL and its cooperatives, in addition to having impacted around 40 cooperatives and over 400 people.

UPL Global: Building Economic and Climate Change Resilience of Women and Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania

Advanta partnered with UN Women and Farm Africa to empower women with hybrid sunflower seeds in a joint program titled “Realizing Gender Equality through Empowering Women and Adolescent Girls.” The objective is to empower economically and improve the social status of women and female youth farmers. Each farmer received agronomy training and one kilogram of hybrid sunflower seed. Over 300 farmers participated. 

In another initiative called  “Climate Smart Africa,”  we partnered with FAO and Farm Africa to introduce the farmers to sorghum crops more productive in drought and more resilient to heat than traditionally grown corn. We showcased the sorghum benefits in 180 field demos across 64 villages in Tanzania.

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#UPLGlobal #UPLTanzania #UPLCSR #UPLAgricultureDevelopment