Management of Natural Resources

Land, water and forests are the three most important resources for the people living in rural areas. Intensive work is carried out by Gram Vikas in enhancing food security and improving environmental resistance to drought through effective land, water and forest management practices. Communities recognize the fact that sustainability of natural resources will also determine food security and sustainable livelihoods for themselves. Gram Vikas supports village communities in undertaking sustainable management of natural resources through a variety of interventions in promoting community forestry and horticulture, land and water conservation and development.

Integrated Watershed development

As PIA in Bongamunda, Gram Vikas is implementing watershed projects under four schemes of the Government of India. These include:

Four watersheds under Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) 7th batch

Four watersheds under Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) 8th batch

Two watersheds under the Additional Central Assistance-Revised Long Term Action Plan (ACA-RLTAP) of the special programme for Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) Districts

Ten watersheds under Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Programme (WORLP)

Community forestry

Gram Vikas motivates adivasi communities to collectively manage their forests and horticulture plantations. Communities have been motivated to regenerate common and private wastelands by growing trees for fuel, fruit, fodder and timber and also develop horticulture patches. These community forests and horticultural plots help to protect the local environment. The process of management and sharing benefits enhances cohesiveness of the communities and also yields substantial incomes.

The process got a fillip in the past year with the strategy to link the education programme with afforestation. Each village is encouraged to earmark 2 acres of community plantation towards ensuring sustainability of the education programme. Links are established with appropriate government departments for procurement of seeds and saplings.

Agriculture and horticulture development

Development of cultivable land through levelling, bunding and digging of farm ponds are promoted particularly in adivasi areas of Ganjam, Gajaapati and Kalahandi districts where villagers traditionally practise slash and burn cultivation.

Gram Vikas supports communities in agricultural activities including cultivation of paddy and vegetables, growing of fruit trees such as lemon, papaya and banana through field training, credit support and accessing appropriate seeds, etc.

In villages where settled agriculture and horticulture have been successful, there is reduced dependence on bogodo (slash and burn cultivation) for food requirements and improvement in the quality of the environment.

In the Tumba project area of Patrapur block in Ganjam, Gram Vikas aided the local adivasi people's organization to revive two local haats (weekly markets) in Puriasahi and Tadakasahi. These two markets are to be registered to enable them to enhance the scale of trading. For an area where all villages are located on hill-tops and none can be reached by motorable road, this has made a big difference in selling what they produce and for purchase of essential requirements.

Livestock care

Efforts are made to ensure effective care of livestock in adivasi regions where Gram Vikas works in Ganjam, Gajapati and Kalahandi districts. Immunisation and treatment of livestock is done through links with local government livestock inspectors.  12,606 cattle and 251 sheeps, 924 poultry were vaccinated, and 3,762 cattle, 14 sheeps and 82 poultry were de-wormed while 1,533 cattle, 52 sheeps and 69 poultry were treated for diseases.  Gram Vikas staff and local para-vets are also trained in livestock care to emergency needs.  One training programme in livestock vaccination and treatment were conducted in the year 2006-2007.

Livelihoods diversification

Livelihoods diversification linked with increased incomes and savings are critical to reducing vulnerability of rural communities, especially in times of disasters. In the non-farm livelihoods sector, Gram Vikas' efforts are focused on promotion of self-help groups, skill building, community enterprise in processing of agriculture and minor forest produce and technological applications for livelihood promotion.

Self Help Groups

In all villages, Gram Vikas supports the formation and strengthening of self help groups (SHG). The basic premise is to encourage thrift among the members who are mostly women and provide readily accessible funds at reasonable rates in times of need. These groups provide a platform for bringing women together to discuss issues of common concern. Over time women gain confidence to articulate and express themselves even in the larger village meetings.

Mature groups are able to leverage loans from banks. Loans are used for income generation activities including livestock rearing (poultry, goats and bullocks) and processing of minor forest produce (making leaf plates, binding brooms, processing tamarind, etc). Some groups have taken up trading in cashew, tamarind, paddy, etc, to ensure better returns. They make a fair profit in the process. Gram Vikas provides practical field level accompaniment and necessary training to support these activities.

Livelihoods in construction sector

Training men and women in masonry, stone cutting, wire bending, carpentry and plumbing. is integrated with the process of infrastructure development in all villages through on-the-job training.

Trained masons have since been able to find regular employment and are not dependent on Gram Vikas. We have started a process of monitoring progress of these masons to assess the efficacy of the intervention.

A "barefoot engineers" training programme was started by the Building Support Team (BST) of Gram Vikas in 2002 to develop a cadre of trained persons to support the construction works undertaken by Gram Vikas, capable of carrying out basic engineering tasks at the village level. This was found necessary, as it is difficult to motivate and retain qualified engineers to live and work in remote rural areas. Each training cycle involves a 150 day-course curriculum with 90 days theory-practical sessions and 60 days on-site training.