Our Work Plan

We are working on this project to establish a model of cluster based collective farming system and creation of farm produce based start-up companies in hills of Uttarakhand. Doon University with the financial support of Rural India Support Trust and The HANS Foundation is aiming to establish entrepreneurship based program aiming to provide livelihood opportunities in village clusters and promote reverse migration trend in Uttarakhand, four major challenges need to be addressed seriously.

1. Human wildlife conflict in agriculture.

2. Conservation of natural water springs and rivulets to use in agriculture at minor level (sprinkler and drip irrigation systems).

3. Bridging gap between availability of fodder and fuel wood.

4. Creation of farm based business models.

Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood for the majority of the hill / rural population in Uttarakhand. Generally, two crops are taken from the land. Maize and Paddy is the main crop of the Kharif season and potato and peas are also sown, where the conditions so permit. Wheat and barley are the major Rabi crops. The period of sowing and harvesting of crops depends on the elevations. Millets and coarse cereals like Ogla, Kangni, Cheeney, Chauilai and Bathu constitute important crops of the cold region where maize is not sown during the Kharif. Amongst the vegetables grown during the Kharif season are tomato, peas, potato and cabbage. But due to crop raiding by Langoor, monkey, wild boar and porcupine all these crops are facing damage at various levels.

Due to altitude differences the variations in the climatic conditions in the state present immense possibilities for the development of medicinal and aromatic plants production which are hardly damaged by wild animals, the cultivation of such crops will surly increase the income and also help farmers to become self-sustainable. As we are aiming at large scale production of medicinal and aromatic plants this program will result in establishment of small and micro enterprises at village level and providing job opportunities for not only village youth but also for youth from surrounding villages.

Uttarakhand is a land of small peasants but every farmer is a proud owner of landed property and this is one such state of the Indian Union where very few persons are landless. But with increasing population pressure, there has been continuous increase in the number of holdings for same piece of agricultural land in all the districts. During few decades, the number as well as area operated under marginal and small holdings showed marked increase while the number as well as area operated by the medium and large holdings decreased clearly showing the perpetual sub-division and fragmentation of medium and large holdings into marginal and small holdings mainly because of population increase.

We are proposing cultivation of specific species of medicinal and aromatic plants in chosen village clusters which are affected of wild life damage to crop and where only one season of farming is option due to nonexistence of irrigation facilities or due to high altitude and cold climate, in a phase wise manner.

• We are aiming to promote species which have been tested in similar situations in western Himalayan regions and have been established as species which do not suffer attack from above mentioned wild animals. We also aim to cultivate species which have high demand in market but supply is not sufficient.

• We will be promoting cultivation of species for which companies are offering buy back agreement at the inception of project.

• We suggest constituting the farmers company in cluster of about ten villages. All the farmers which have given their consent for collective farming will be shareholders of the proposed company.

• This company of farmers will also work to improve Van Panchayat forest so that leaf litter for agriculture fields could be made available for organic farming. This company will own nurseries which will grow seedlings of medicinal and aromatic plants.

• Additionally these nurseries will also provide planting material for fodder and fuel wood species and shrub and tree species which are in food chain of wild animals which attack farmer’s crops.

Catchment treatment will have triple benefit (1) reduction in wildlife human conflict in agriculture (2) increase spring recharge process (3) provide forage for bees to promote Apiculture. As it has been proved that natural pollinators could increase productivity by 20 to 25%.

In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand rural communities living in villages are commonly involved in agriculture (mostly women) entire year and that too not as any income generating activity but for food grain production to support their family. Because agriculture is not an income generation activity, youth from these villages are forced to out migrate in search of livelihood. Preparation of agriculture field for sowing of seeds has become a difficult operation at present as in majority of high altitude villages as bulls are not available to plough agriculture fields and tilling operations have become too costly. This problem have encouraged the villages of high altitude areas to abandon there most of the productive agriculture land. This problem has further deepened the out migration problem many fold.

In the fields which are being cultivated facing the above mentioned problems by local verity of grains and vegetable is additionally suffering through a problem of crop damage by wild animals as already the plough area in villages has shrunken and any amount of damage to standing crops by wildlife turns into a serious setback for farmers. This problem has also affected the economy of the farmers’ community at household level in our state to such a great extent that it has posed an actual threat to food security and livelihood of many poor marginal families in the villages.

At present the agricultural activities in the high altitude villages are suffering from crop raiding by langoor, porcupine and wild boar this has forced many farmers leaving agriculture fields especially near the forest areas and which are gradually degraded over the years.

• To supplement the household income many people are now forcefully shifted permanently to the collection of medicinal and aromatic plants from wild of the species being collected some also come under I.U.C.N threatened and endangered species.

• In many remote locations in Uttarakhand collection of medicinal plants from wild is now coming up as one of the source of income for many village communities in Uttarakhand. This poses threat to many rare and endangered herb species in alpine areas, near timberline and temperate forest in Uttarakhand. As a result of intensive extraction, many species of medicinal plants are now seriously depleted.

• The cultivation of medicinal plants is seen to have potential as an important source of farm income. Since there has been a huge demand of medicinal and aromatic plants in international and national markets these plants with medicinal and aromatic properties are being extracted in an unsustainable manner and almost in all cases illegally from the forest areas.

In, Uttarakhand wildlife human conflicts in villages have also increased many folds as a consequence has forced many farmers leaving their land barren especially near the forest areas which and now these potential income generating farm lands are gradually degraded over the years. There are many villages in this proposed project area where this problem is very serious. As in these villages economies are primarily based on agriculture any amount of damage by wildlife is a serious setback for farmers. This problem has affected the economy of the farmers’ household in entire Uttarakhand to great extent and also posed a threat to food security and livelihood of many poor families in the villages lying in our proposed project area.

As agriculture is subsistence in nature, and only providing the food security for little more than half year, the farmers are finding it unprofitable and have low cash earning opportunities with them. Making the problem more complex the geographical terrain is such that villages and there agricultural fields are spread out sparsely over the larger area in steep slopes, contributing to the low income economy agriculture at income and production scale and any livelihood activity based on agriculture or livestock have low returns on investments.

WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

A watershed is an area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. The importance of healthy watersheds is that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community.

Therefore, the animals, the plants, the trees, the insects, the humans and all other living creatures that live on a common watershed are in a symbiotic relationship and depend on each other to ensure that all have access to a healthy environment, including water. What we do on the land affects water quality for all communities living downstream. Our activities under the proposed program will encompass a range of interventions, in sectors that, if poorly managed, could affect negatively watershed development. These activities include forestry, fodder, soil and water conservation, agriculture, drinking water supply and support to livelihoods.

CATCHMENT TREATMENT/ SPRING RECHARGE

Our target is to supply planting material to all targeted villages for plantation in there Van-Panchayats, common land areas and soyam forest. The afforestation plan will be solution of three main issues:

As the trees of wild fruits, native shrub species fodder species, fuel wood species will be planted on large scale every year during monsoon in Van- Panchayats, common land areas and soyam forest.

• Gap filling will be done continuously during the tenure of project.
• These native shrub species, and wild fruit trees once established will increase the forest cover and stratification which will help in increased percolation of water into ground.
• Along with the tree plantation trenches one-meter-deep and three-meter-long will also be introduced in slopes for increasing the water holding capacity of a particular slope area.
• This treatment will increase the water table within the time limits of project which will be tangible each year.

Success has been reported in many areas in Uttarakhand in spring rejuvenation by multiple agencies following catchment treatment plan. As we are targeting 10 Van Panchayats and adjoining area this kind of large scale plantation will have a positive cascading effect on increased water discharge from spring in at least 6 to 10 springs.

Once the planted shrubs and trees are gradually established over the time frame of this project they will also serve as food base to troupes of monkeys and languor’s and wild boars living in this Van – Panchayats forest areas. We will take care that broad leaf species are chosen for the plantation work which are natural food base of problematic species. The projected target of planting 2,000,000 trees of wild fruit plants in the entire tenure of project will provide a very large food base for wild animals and this will surely be big leap in mitigation of human wildlife conflict issues due to crop raiding by wild animals.

We are targeting to plant 200,000 trees and shrubs of selected broad leaf species each year in each targeted Van- Panchayats. And we are aiming to cover at least 10 Van-Panchayats during the entire tenure of this program.

We will be planting at least 50,000 trees in each Van- Panchayat area each year, and conduct gap filling operations, in this program and even at survival rate of 80% we will be able to plant 2,000,000 trees of wild fruit plants, fodder species and fuel wood species and shrubs. These many trees can surely sequent millions of tons of atmospheric carbon each year. As farmers collect leaf litter and mix it with available cow dung to introduce it in agriculture field as fertilization. But due to degraded condition of Van Panchayat forest leaf litter is non-available in many villages of targeted area resulting very low productivity due to low manuring.

Even fodder is not available in adequate amount to feed the live stocks in villages this results in a cycle of decreasing yield and productivity due to which farmers are forced to leave farming in Hills of Uttarakhand.

We are targeting to increase the spring discharge and use of this water in agriculture through introducing sprinkler and drip irrigation systems in village clusters.

Drip irrigation techniques will be introduced in clusters where the water resource is a big constraint for any economic activity in the cluster.

Drip irrigation (sometimes called trickle irrigation) works by applying water slowly, directly to the soil. The high efficiency of drip irrigation results from two primary factors. The first is that the water soaks into the soil before it can evaporate or run off. The second is that the water is only applied where it is needed, (at the plant’s roots) rather than sprayed everywhere. If properly designed, installed, and managed, drip irrigation may help achieve water conservation by reducing evaporation and deep drainage when compared to other types of irrigation such as flood or overhead sprinklers since water can be more precisely applied to the plant roots.

In addition, drip can eliminate many diseases that are spread through water contact with the foliage. Finally, in regions where water supplies are severely limited, there may be no actual water savings, but rather simply an increase in production while using the same amount of water as before. In very arid regions or on sandy soils, the trick is to apply the irrigation water as slowly as possible.

Project aims will be achieved through achieving economic freedom for hill communities we will try to revive Gharat based enterprises link it with water conservation, management of Van panchayats, ex situ conservation of various N.T.F.P and M.A.Ps will be kept in center of any planning. And these all activates will also be linked with livelihood generation in various clusters in Uttarakhand.

Our Farmer Producer Companies are aiming to resolve the issues involved in agriculture sector through a holistic approach which is aimed on conserving the natural resources and to generate livelihood through developing natural resource based enterprise in Uttarakhand to support the rural communities for agribusiness, M.A.P and N.T.F.P based livelihood options.

The decentralized watershed development approach will be challenging enough focusing on organizing the rural community or farmer groups and their federations, to conduct farm demonstrations based on a complete cycle of optimum use to available resources.

• The main aim will be to conserve water resources and watershed management is to build capacity of the farming community in adopting high value M.A.P and N.T.F.P crops as well as assist the community in adapting modern irrigation techniques.

• We are also aiming on value addition and processing of farm produce and rural market development in Uttarakhand through green technology. (Gharat water mills/ Solar Pumps/ Small Water Turbines).

• In this project, capacity building Initiatives for the members of the farmer Interest groups will be undertaken on group strengthening, book-keeping, record keeping, leadership development, conflict resolution, pest control management, improved technologies, post-harvest management like grading, packaging, etc., agribusiness workshops and exposures to other similar agribusiness initiatives in other areas in Uttarakhand.

Need based low-cost improved technologies like poly-tunnel, hail nets, plastic sheets, mulching techniques, water lifting pumps, polythene tanks, power tiller etc. will be demonstrated/ established and promoted at the group level.

The capacity of members has been further strengthened by disseminating information on improved technologies and management of problems related to their crops. They have been introduced to crop rotation and systematic farming techniques and use of high value seeds for farming.

Pre and post harvesting techniques are being shared with the members as well as best practices in agribusiness.

Our strategy is to reduce mitigate the vicious cycle ecological imbalance created in Uttarakhand due to over exploitation of forest areas excluding reserve forest/wildlife sanctuaries/national parks and biosphere reserves. We are aiming to mitigate main cause of human wildlife conflict which is crop raiding by selective wild animals and simultaneously working on spring catchments recharge by large scale plantation of trees, shrub species which serve as food base to wild animals responsible for crop damage.

Our strategy is to reduce the trend of illegal collection of medicinal plants from wild and extent of cultivation of non- timber forest products (NTFPs) and medicinal and aromatic plants (M.A.Ps).

We shall also focus on existing practices of harvest of N.T.F.P and M.A.P at present and promotion of ex-situ conservation plans.

For wild species which are permissible for collection micro plans will be developed to train local people to harvest N.T.F.P and M.A.P in an environmentally sustainable manner.

We will also address the problem related to conservation of natural springs of villages and helping people to understand the concept and idea of rain water harvesting. We shall also help the communities to develop small low cost water holding ponds at village level so that people may reconnect to their traditional water resources based technologies such as Gharats.