Support poor farmers with free saplings by Haritika

With the support of Give-India; HARITIKA is implementing "Support poor farmers with free saplings" project in Bijawar & Buxwaha Block of Chhatarpur District Madhya-Pradesh. Bijawar & Buxwaha both the blocks are extremely disadvantaged blocks where there are various villages that are tribal dominated and very underdeveloped. So, under this project in the given reporting period from period of January - June 2022, total 6 families have been benefitted with Give-India support. All the benefitted farmers are from Chandanpura village of Bijawar Block. Under this support, fruit plant saplings of Guava, Aonla & Mango have been provided to the beneficiaries. In one acre of land 100 fruit plants have been planted. Plants have been given by HARITIKA while the entire labour contribution is of the beneficiary itself. Since the fruit plants are going to be alternative source of their income after 3 years so it will be benefitting all the members of beneficiary HHs thus total beneficiaries till date are 33 people. The expected impact of this project is increment of 30K-40K per annum after 3 years while other major impact is improvement in the soil quality & moisture.

Major hurdle while implementing these types of crop diversification initiatives in the Bundelkhand Region is scarcity of water as water is utmost needed for any plantation/agriculture project. Other than this, in this year monsoon season the monsoon was late therefore plantation was not become possible earlier and the team & farmers have to wait for the rain-fall. For coping with water scarcity problem with the convergence fund from other sources HARITIKA constructed Doha & installed solar water pumps on those beneficiaries' land where water was not available in nearby sources. It is HARITIKA's vision to benefit at least 50 farmers under this project.

Guddi bai w/o Tulaiya Goud, aged 42 years resident of Chandanpura Village is the beneficiary of this project. She has 2.5 acres of land but due to poor soil quality & lack of irrigation source she along with her 2 children & husband were compelled to do either agriculture labour or migrate during leap season. When HARITIKA staffs discussed about the plantation project in the village through FGD then she shown her interest in this project activity but shared the problem of lack of irrigation. Then after seeing her interest, we informed here that if her nearby land owners will be agreed to install solar irrigation pumps in group then it can be installed to Common Interest Groups (CIGs). She made understand others & installed solar pump in her land and also planted 100 plants on her land. Now she is also taking vegetables on her land & other crops as intercropping.

Due to frequent droughts, Buxwaha Block is categorized as a semi-critical block as per the CGWB Report of Chhatarpur District. It is the nearest to other blocks where HARITIKA is taking initiatives 'Support poor farmers with free saplings' with support of Give-India in Nowgong and Bijawar Block of Chhatarpur District and Hatta Block of Damoh District. Marginalized populations generate food grains through their meagre cultivation and agriculture-labour only for 3-4 months on an average in a year. So, a large number of labourers are forced to migrate to other regions of the country. Therefore, for ensuring the farmers have a viable source of income and livelihood to support their respective families, under the program, HARITIKA provided fruit saplings, vegetable seeds for multi-layer farming and kitchen garden, organic fertilizers & pesticides through ZBNF initiatives worth INR 3200 each to 30 farmers. Hence approximately 146 population of Nowgong & Bijawar Block of Chhatarpur & Hatta Block of Damoh District. With this kind of support, the beneficiary farmers have been able to create an orchard plantation as well as vegetable cultivation as intercropping. Through this, the farmers will be able to get benefits from fruit plants for a long while. In short term, the farmers are earning more than 1000 INR per week from vegetable cultivation.

As all the government-imposed restrictions were removed after July, no such hurdles have been faced by the team. We aim to make agriculture a sustainable source of livelihood through diversification of crops, the introduction of horticulture & vegetable cropping and overall management of the drought situation in a structured and planned manner with optimum utilisation of time and resources. So, for achieving this objective, for the next 6 months, we have planned for the promotion of fruit orchards, multi-layer farming, vegetable cultivation as intercrops in orchards and the promotion of Zero Budgeting Natural Farming with at least 100 disadvantaged and marginalised farmers.

Mrs Vimla Ahirwar, the wife of Mr Dines Ahirwar, Village Chandoura of Nowgong Block, Chhatarpur Madhya-Pradesh, is entirely dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Her husband, due to his age can't go outside of the region to earn more and the entire family depends on agriculture for their livelihood. But the status of agriculture is also very poor due to less water availability. Mrs Vimla was only able to extract Kharif crops and very few rabi crops. With the initiative of HARITIKA & Give-India, she planted fruit saplings of guava and also did intercropping of vegetables like Lady Finger, Brinjal, chilli and tomato. Now, the production of vegetables has started from which she is earning more than 800-1000 per week. She & her husband both are very happy as due to this initiative they are getting continuous income for their bread & butter.

Due to frequent drought, Buxwaha Block is categorized as a semi-critical block as per CGWB Report of Chhatarpur District that is nearest to other blocks where HARITIKA is taking initiatives 'Support poor farmers with free saplings' with support of Give-India in Nowgong and Bijawar Block of Chhatarpur District and Hatta Block of Damoh District. Marginalized populations generate food grains through their meagre cultivation and agriculture-labour only for 3-4 months on an average in a year. So a large number of labourers are forced to migrate to other regions of the country. Therefore for ensuring the farmers a viable source of income and livelihood to support their respective families, under the program HARITIKA provided Fruit saplings, Vegetable seeds for Multi-layer farming and kitchen Garden, Organic fertilizers & pesticides through ZBNF Initiatives worth INR 3200 each to 34 farmers and hence approximately 170 population of Nowgong & Bijawar Block of Chhatarpur & Hatta Block of Damoh District. With these supports, the beneficiary farmers have done orchard plantation as well as vegetable cultivation as intercropping through which the farmers will be able to get benefit from fruit plants in long-term while in short term from vegetable cultivation farmers are earning more than 1000 INR per week.

In the project period from April 2021 to 15th June, 2021 Corona 2nd Wave was at its peak but our staffs were still working for the benefit of beneficiaries as at that time they were in acute need of livelihood support but meanwhile, our more than 60% staff got Covid infected. Other than this government also imposed restrictions on movement as locked-down but still, we had taken special permission in May and again started working by following all the government guidelines. We aim to make agriculture a sustainable source of livelihood through diversification of crops, the introduction of Horticulture & vegetable cropping and overall management of the drought situation in a structured and planned manner with optimum utilisation of time and resources. So for achieving this objective, for the next 6 months, we have planned for promotion of fruit orchard, multi-layer farming, vegetable cultivation as intercrops in orchards and promotion of Zero Budgeting Natural Farming with at least 100 disadvantaged and marginalised farmers.

Mrs Laxmi Ahirwar wife of Mr Chandu Ahirwar, Village Chandoura of Nowgong Block, Chhatarpur Madhya-Pradesh is entirely dependent on agriculture for livelihood. Her husband migrates along with his sons and daughters-in-law for earning more but due to Covid all of her family members returned. Due to less water availability, they were able to take just Kharif crops while a very few rabi crops. With the initiative of HARITIKA & Give-India, she planted fruit saplings of guava and also done intercropping of vegetables like Lady Finger, Brinjal, chilli and tomato. Now production of vegetables has been started from which she is earning more than 1000 per week. She takes proper care of her orchards and is very happy with this initiative as she has tried this 1st time in life, before this, she didn't even think of crop diversification.

HARITIKA is working on Sustainable Livelihood Promotion through Horticulture Promotion (Wadi Development) with tribes, marginalized & most disadvantaged farmers and communities. Besides Agriculture, these farmers don’t have any option other than daily activities like: labour work, collection of tendu patta etc. for their livelihood so no one is being interested in a long term project like Horticulture Promotion as it will not give them any short term benefits. That's why HARITIKA has proposed a Vegetable cropping project to these farmers. We provide them vegetable saplings of vegetables like: Bitter gourd, bottle gourd, tomato and lady fingers to be sown on the field in the spaces between wadis of worth 3200 INR each for acre. Some farmers also adopt multi layer vegetable cropping either through machan or mandav system. After first support from HARITIKA ,farmers’ start to buy seeds from their own money as from vegetable cultivation in such a remote area where vegetables are not available and easily they are able to earn 1000-2000 INR weekly by selling their vegetable in daily/weekly bazaar. Along with the vegetables they also take care of their Horticulture wadis with interest. So with this support for " Poor farmers with free saplings" HARTIKA and our donors have definitely bring positive change in life of these disadvantaged communities.

Trees for future

The 'Horticulture Wadi Development Program' initiated by Hartika, works with farmers living in extreme conditions of poverty, illiteracy, and disease in the Bijawar and Bakswaha districts in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
The emphasis of the intervention will be towards minimizing the limiting factors having adverse impact on livelihood options for the OBC community by providing appropriate technical inputs for transforming unproductive farming practices into economically viable venture in form of WADI Development.
The program provides seeds, saplings, fertilizers, pesticides and other such agricultural products to assist the farmers in the farming process. By doing so, Hartika ensures the farmers have a viable source of income and livelihood to support their respective families. The seeds, saplings and other supplies are bought in bulk by the organization and are handed out to the said farmers. We have planted Fruit Trees on the beneficiaries land

Content receiving the free saplings

Program Update

Our Project villages are tribal dominated villages and we are already implementing Wadi development project in these villages with the support of NABARD but and it will take long time to provide benefit. For motivating tribes to be involved in any activity there is need of selecting activities that can provide them immediate monetary benefit. Therefore under the donation support from Give India, we have provided vegetable saplings like Bottle gourd, Brinjal, tomato, Bitter gourd etc. for 1 acre of land worth INR 3200 to each beneficiary family. In this year with the donation support of Give India Foundation, we have supported farmers for vegetable and fruit cultivation. These farmers were from Kupiya, Pipariya and Patna village of Buxwaha Block of Chhatarpur District.
We have planned to extend our this initiative with other farmers so that this vulnerable group can be supported.

Story from the field

Mr. Kamlesh Saur is 49 years old. He lives at Pipariya Kala village which is a tribal dominated village in Buxwaha Block of Chattarpur district. Mr. Kamlesh Saur, head of the family along with his wife Gumna and 17 year old son Hakke studying in XII std and his 14 year old daughter Ajna in IX std. He was married at the age of 18 years. To support his living he has two goats and to meet every day expense and family needs, he and his wife work on lands to bring in income. Mr. Kamlesh was somehow able to acquire 1 acre of land and started sowing seeds under our Wadi development program. After seeing his dedication and poor financial condition we have decided to help him out in inter cropping too, Thus with donor support we have provided vegetable and fruit saplings like Bottle-gourd, Brinjal, Tomato, Bitter-gourd, Mango, Guava etc. for 1 acre of land worth INR 3200 to Kamlesh Saur s/o Dammu Saur of Pipariya Kala village. Now he is devoting his full time to protect fields from attack of wild animals and taking proper care of his fields. In the early days, Kamlesh survived their daily life as bonded labourer working inland or as a construction worker. During his early-childhood days, he was unable to go to school but now he makes sure that none of his child should be deprived of education. He felt proud to be part of this project and happy with the output and cultivation practices and also decided to help out in preparing organic manure to sell at low cost among the community people. He seems very happy and contented.