Background & Concept

The most important issue was reduction and rainfall in last several decades due to climate change. Hence mitigation and conservation of natural water resources for agriculture was top priority pf farmers. Almost all of the villages selected for agribusiness promotion are having diversity in cropping patterns and are situated in different agro-climatic zones of Himalayas. We found that almost all the farmers are involved in solo agriculture practice with marginal and scattered landholdings. About ninety fife (N=95%) of farmlands were rain fed.

As almost entire agriculture is dependent on rainfall we analyzed the winter rainfall pattern of Uttarakhand of one hundred fifteen (N=115) years. We found that the total cumulative rainfall for the period 1966-2015 was 60.3 % less than the period 1901-1951. We can say that over all there has been reduction in winter precipitation if we compare first forty nine (N=49) years of the century to last forty (N=49) years starting from 1901 November till December 2015.

Hence to ensure water supply for irrigation from natural water springs  in all the villages we have collected GPS  location of all spring so that conservation of all water springs could also be ensured and judicious use of water resource could be managed for Irrigation. For this we will develop nurseries in clusters for production of fodder grass, tress and native shrubs of the cluster.

To select the villages, various meetings were arranged with women, marginal hill farmers in ninety eight (N=98) villages spread across six (N=6) districts of Uttarakhand. After our meetings in selected seventy eight (N=78) villages farmers were told to rearrange inter/ intra villages meetings at Gram panchayat level send us their approval letters for the consent of combining the farm land of different individual farmers within a village and following cluster approach in between villages. We received letters of Gram Panchayat duly signed by Panchayat Secretary at block office level from all the villages from December 2018 to March 2019. We also received list of all interested farmers duly signed by farmers who were interested in the project. After receiving the documents i.e., AADHAR card, land record and photographs of about 5000 farmers from four districts we initiated the process of formal registration of farmer producer companies. For this funding support was provided by Doon University & PHDCCI. All six companies have been registered in the month of March 2019.

Due to the predominance of hills, subsistence agriculture, practiced on small terraced fields in Uttarakhand, forms the primary source of livelihood for a majority of the state‘s population. Studies indicate that between 70% to 80% of the working population in remote hill villages is engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry.

The small and scattered landholdings form a primary feature of hill agriculture. In the case of Uttarakhand a little less than 50% of the landholdings are sub- marginal and an additional 21% are between 0.5 to 1.0 hectare. This effectively implies that nearly 70% of the landholdings are less than one hectare in size although they cover as much as 27% of the total cultivated area in Uttarakhand. 26% of landholdings fall between 1 ha to 4 ha area and constitute nearly 51% of the total cultivated area while only about 3% of the holdings are over 4 ha in size constituting 22% of the total cultivated area of the state. We have ensured in ever village and village clusters that land resources will be aggregated for the proposed work under farmer Producer companies. 

Soil health is a major concern for the state – both in the hills regions as well as in the plains. The soils of hill regions are mostly shallow and coarse textured. Regular landslides and runoff along with deforestation have led to massive soil erosion. Use of organic manure (mixed with oak and chir pine leaves) has also increased the acidity of the soils. The status of micro nutrients (N, P, Ca, Mg, S, Zn and Cu) is also very poor.

At times the high dose of active iron and aluminum makes phosphate fixation a problem. In the plains the heavy use of chemicals has led to decreasing the humus content in the soils. Without improvement in soil health crop productivity enhancement under the rain- fed farming systems in the hill regions of the state is a difficult task.

Thus, on all counts, the most appropriate agro-vision for the land resource under Farmer Producer Companies is to turn our selected clusters into the organic clusters in Uttarakhand. Strategically traditional practices in the state – in terms of the low intake of chemical fertilizers in nearly half the cultivated area of the state – already propel the state in the direction of organic.

Water resource management scenario is rather grim in Uttarakhand. There are seven departments/agencies responsible for the management of water resources. These agencies often compete with each other vying for the bigger share of both water as well as funds meant for water resource development. These are (i) Irrigation Department, (ii) Minor Irrigation Department, (iii) Jal Nigam (iv) Jal Sansthan, (v) Swajal (vi) Watershed Management Directorate and (vii) Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam. Besides, Agriculture departments NWDPRA, Forest departments watershed management Programme, Rural Development departments Hariyali and MNAREGA and Horticulture department‘s creation of water resources scheme are also aimed at developing water resources, all working in isolation.We have linked our Farmer Producer Companies with minor irrigation and Agriculture department as these two departments are responsible for irrigation related schemes in Uttarakhand.

• Training’s & Establishment of Nurseries
• soil sampling
• Cultivation of MAPs in Private Land
• Green Technology for Irrigation
• Post Harvesting and processing (Sorting Grading, Packaging)
• Trainings of Staff
• Buy Back Agreements
• Inland transport and Export Documentation and trade of produces/ products