A lifeline for suicide zones

Multiplicity of authorities with almost no coordination,absence of a symbiotic relation among beneficiaries,NGOs and private market players,and poor or corrupt management generally plague all agricultural initiatives in the country.

This time around,however,the Maharashtra Government has sought to take care of all of these problems in its new major experiment.

To be implemented in concert with UN-affiliate International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the Ratan Tata Trust,the eight-year,$127 million (Rs 627 crore) “Convergence of Agricultural Interventions in Six Distress Districts of Maharashtra” (CAIM) project aims at ushering in the first integrated public-private-government initiative in the field of agriculture anywhere in India.

The project,cleared by IFAD in April,will soon be implemented in six suicide-prone cotton-producing Vidarbha districts — Buldana,Akola,Amravati,Washim,Yavatmal and Wardha — where the state and Centre packages are already being implemented for farmers.

The Planning Department of the state Government cleared it on Tuesday. “The project will now go to Finance Department and then to the state Cabinet for their assent. It’s a mere formality,” said a top official.

While IFAD will fund $41.31 million,the state Government will provide $41.15 million and the Ratan Tata Trust $ 18.25 million. Banks will fund about $14 million while the private sector contribution in the form of equity will be to the extent of about $6 million. Beneficiaries will contribute up to $6 million.

“It’s an end-to-end scheme wherein the scheme operators will be involved right from capacity-building of farmers to the marketing stage,and will themselves be one of the beneficiaries of the scheme. Till now,we only have Government as a one-off agency that could intervene. That would lead to problems of convergence of various departments concerned for implementation of the various schemes,” Principal Secretary (Co-operatives) Sudhir Kumar Goel,who had floated the idea,told The Indian Express.

The project envisages the creation of 4,800 Self Help Groups (SHGs) for farmers and 15,000 for women in 120 clusters. Each cluster will have ten villages,effectively covering 349,800 households in 1,200 villages.

Depending on the local conditions,plans will be made and operated for capacity-building,production increase and profitable marketing of the local produce like cotton,oranges,etc. They will include allied projects like animal husbandry,dairy and fishery.

The project envisages an increase in the average farm income of the households from Rs 12,610 to Rs 21,045 per annum mainly through

improved farm practices,better land management techniques and lowering the production cost. One of the major components of the project will be in-situ water conservation and about Rs 200 crore will be spent on that.

“The private sector and NGOs will ensure the project’s sustenance since they will be responsible not only for marketing but also capacity-building and production. It will be unlike the present scenario when the private traders or firms only buy on contract and are not concerned whether the farmer benefits,” Goel added.

The target group will be households belonging to Scheduled Castes and Tribes ,landless labourers,women,small and marginal farmers.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

• Bringing convergence of ongoing government-sponsored programmes and linking them with the project and partnering symbiotically with NGOs and private sector to develop viable subprojects

• Involving NGOs as key service providers for the implementation of programmes based on end-to-end approach

• Four major components: partnership building and capacity development,pro-poor market linkages and sustainable agriculture,women empowerment and resilience building and project management

• Poor-private sector partnership to address the problems of marketing agricultural produce

• Central role to the women SHGs to social and financial counselling of the distressed households

• Introducing contract farming for organic cotton and other crops

• Close monitoring and implementation of supervision support.