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 Pragati - Catalyst for growth....... 