By Manita Raut and Fraser Sugden

Introduction:

Technical, social and economic constraints are limiting the effective use of groundwater and ponds for irrigation in many parts of the EGP. Large areas of land remain fallow during the dry months. Access to year-round water for irrigation would significantly improve the productivity of agriculture, improving incomes and food security.

Marginal and tenant farmers, youth and women are particularly vulnerable and could benefit from a new approach to irrigation provision. This project is researching and demonstrating improved collective farming systems for marginal farmers and improved water management and irrigation practices using efficient systems appropriate to the needs of the marginal farmer communities.

A project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is working with communities across Nepal (Saptari), India (Cooch Behar and Madhubani) and North West Bangladesh, to research and demonstrate sustainable social and biophysical interventions.

Village:

Koiladi is situated in Saptari district, Terai, Nepal. It is inhabited by Rajput, Mandal, Kamait and Dailit communities. In Koiladi, the majority of land is owned by 50 households who are mostly from the Singh community. Most of the family members of these landlords reside in urban centers of Nepal like Kathmandu or in India. Land rented or leased by them are farmed by marginal and tenant farmers. Koiladi is located near a small town Hanuman Nagar where farmers buy and sell agricultural produce.

The primary source of livelihood for people living in Koiladi is agriculture. The area is characterized by high male out migration. During the paddy and wheat season, Vice Canal from Koshi Paschimi is used to irrigate some farm plots. The area has more than 20 ponds, which are used for fishery as well as day to day domestic use. Diesel operated pumps are privately owned by water lords and are rented by marginal farmers at a rental charge of Rs 150 per hour.

A woman sitting near at Koiladi field

Community:

A few landlords own large plots of land, while there are many tenant and marginal farmers who have no or small land holdings. These marginal and tenant farmers lease (adhiya) or practice share cropping (batiya). “Batiya” is a system of share cropping under which cost for input as well as production are shared by the landlord and tenant throughout the year. Adhiya is the system of leasing land in which fixed rental charge or produce is given to landlord in paddy season.

Community mobilisation:

The land ownership pattern in Koiladi offers adequate grounds to carry out a project on dry season irrigation. A series of formal and informal discussions and meetings were held with tenant and marginal farmers for group formation. Ma Durga Krisak Samuha (site 2) was formed into a self-help group comprising of 3 women and 4 men. Landholding in the groups represents the landownership pattern in the village. 2 among 7 do not have their own land. Maximum land ownership is 6 khatta (0.2ha) and minimum is 1 khatta (0.04ha). All the farmers have leased land: maximum land leased is 30 khatta (1ha) and minimum land leased is 10 khatta (0.34ha). In the site selection phase a landlord was identified and a formal land agreement was made. Rental charge was fixed on the basis of kg rice per unit area per year.

Community and interventions:

Farmers from Mahila Utthan Krisak Samuha were initially reluctant to be part of the group. As the project team carried out group formation process, farmers came on board. Community mobilization work started in December/January 2015/16. During group mobilization, work was hampered by the 2015 political blockade that affected Terai region of Nepal. Meanwhile, existing tenants had already planted wheat and cropping in the intervention site. So, intervention crops could not be cultivated.

Despite this, nursery raising, group management, compost making training were organized for the capacity building of the group. The project team provided training on saving and credits. The farmers currently meet every month and have started saving of Rs. 100 per month. Assistance was provided to develop institutional capacity through regular meetings, record keeping, linkage and coordination. Farmers were assisted in crop calendar development. Training on nursery raising, IPM, compost making, record keeping were organized.

Water table depth at Koiladi is 3.5m. In March, a 4 inch boring was drilled in the plot. A 4hp pump is connected to the boring.

The project has had to face a number of challenges. As the group was planning to farm paddy collectively in Khariff season, the landlord demanded a share of crop for the entire year. Enthusiasm of the farmers subsided and the project team and farmers negotiated with the landlord a new agreement whereby a portion of land was decided on thekka (leasing) and another portion on adiya (share cropping). This resulted in a reduced intervention area and delays in implementation of planned activities.

After the installation of the boring in March 2016, there were also delays in connecting the 3 phase electric meter. Processing electricity application by the Electricity Corporation Office at Hanuman Nagar took around 1.5 months.

Impact:

Intervention with Ma Durga Krisak Samuha has had a few challenges and benefits in terms of economic return have not been realized yet. Nonetheless, farmers have developed interest to work together. They participate in meetings and save Rs 100 per month. Scope for year round irrigation and perceived benefit has grown interest of the group. To learn about collective farming, the group participated in an exposure visit to Madhubani in May, 2016. Apart from rainfall and canal irrigation (which does not reach every farmer), they used to pay for Rs 150 per hour to rent diesel operated pumps. Members are happy that they will have to pay a relatively small charge for water extraction by electricity (i.e, Rs. 3.60 per unit). They also realize that power cuts can hamper irrigation.

Future:

In the Khariff season, collective paddy cultivation will be initiated. This will be expanded to dry season crops. Farmers continue to seek information on appropriate vegetables to be planted in the Rabi season. They have started planning which vegetable will fetch them higher income, associated cost and potential output.

To strengthen the agronomic and water management skills of the group, the project team will carry out follow up training in SRI, water management and irrigation scheduling in the upcoming season. Currently, farmers have been carrying out flood irrigation, for the forthcoming Rabi season, farmers’ capacity in furrow irrigation, mini- row basin irrigation (1,000 sq.m) and pipe irrigation will be developed.

Shallow tube well at Koiladi site 2

Koiladi Intervention Site 2 Cultivated by Mahila Utthan Krisak Samuha

By Manita Raut and Fraser Sugden

Introduction:

Technical, social and economic constraints are limiting the effective use of groundwater and ponds for irrigation in many parts of the EGP. Large areas of land remain fallow during the dry months. Access to year-round water for irrigation would significantly improve the productivity of agriculture, improving incomes and food security.

Marginal and tenant farmers, youth and women are particularly vulnerable and could benefit from a new approach to irrigation provision. This project is researching and demonstrating improved collective farming systems for marginal farmers and improved water management and irrigation practices using efficient systems appropriate to the needs of the marginal farmer communities.

A project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is working with communities across Nepal (Saptari), India (Cooch Behar and Madhubani) and North West Bangladesh, to research and demonstrate sustainable social and biophysical interventions.

Village:

Khoksar Parbaha lies in Eastern Terai belt of Saptari district, Nepal. It has recently been part of Sambhunath municipality. Towards the north of the village, lies Churiya range, and Mahendra Highway is in the Southern part. It is inhabited by Chaudary, Muslim and Dalit ethnic groups. Male out migration is very high and is one of the major sources of livelihood. Apart from remittance, agriculture and wage labour are other sources of income. Cropping is largely rain fed. Farmers have invested in limited irrigation infrastructure such as boring and water pumps for ground water extraction. After the construction of pond through GIZ’s support, a few farmers have used pond water for some months following the monsoon. There are two rivers near the village: Khado River and Khaduriya River, both approximately 1km away. Water from these rivers has not been utilised for irrigation.

Community and interventions:

Based on the scoping study in several Saptari villages, Khoksar Parbaha was chosen. After the intervention, among three Self-help groups, Rajja ji Krisak Samuha (group 1) was formed with all 8 women members. Before formation of the group, social mobilization activities were carried out through formal and informal meetings as well as discussions. Group formation and project initiation was delayed by the April 2015 earthquake and then the political blockade. Extensive community engagement activities were required in the initial phase. Members in the group reflect the ethnic composition of the village. All the members are from Chaudary community, indigenous to the region. The group has leased 21 khatta of land collectively from Mr. Yogendra pd Gupta, local landlord. Now the members are cultivating land in individual parcels. Six farmers have marginal land holding and two farmers do not have their own land.

Maximum land holding is 16 khatta (0.54ha) and most members have been leasing land up to 0.32ha.

In the intervention site 1(group 1 farm plot), two 80w sunflower pumps are connected to borings with a hose delivery pipe used to irrigate the plots. One shallow tubewell has been installed with an electric pump. There have been ongoing challenges with sustainable water supply from the groundwater that are being investigated.

Technical training workshops were organized to equip farmers with the necessary skills for high value vegetable and crop cultivation. Training covered nursery raising, compost manure preparation, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), micro irrigation technology and seed, fertilizer and pesticide management. Farmers are cultivating lady finder, bottle gourd, pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber in the pre Khariff season. Six farmers have installed simple Nepal drip irrigation systems. For Khariff season paddy cultivation, farmers carried out soil solarisation and seed preparation. Apart from agricultural management trainings, training on record keeping, group management and gender were also organized to strengthen the group and sensitize on gender issues.

 Preparation for soil solarisation at Khoksar Parbaha, site 1

Bitter gourd cultivated in Site 1 Khoksar Parbaha

Impacts:

The project has generated an awareness of new opportunities with farmers having interest in collective farming and dry season vegetable production. Farmers are contributing Rs.100 every month to a group fund which is fostering self-sufficiency and sustainability will be used for future repair and maintenance of equipment. Farmers are selling vegetables such as lady finger and cucumber for the first tiemat the local market, Traffic Chowk, 1.5 km from the village.

Economic return and access to water has encouraged farmers, and boosted their confidence. Water schedules are being used to coordinate equal time slots for irrigating land.

Future:

The project team are starting to focus on post-production handling and improved irrigation systems. Strong focus will be given to building and strengthening market channels.

To understand soil quality, soil testing is being undertaken. Farmers will continue to be trained in crop agronomy, soil moisture monitoring and cost effective and efficient moisture management such as mulching.

With an aim to start collective farming in Khoksar Parbaha sites, an exposure visit was organized to Madhubani, India on May, 2016. In the upcoming season, farmers are planning to go ahead with collective mode of farming with support from project team.

Zucchini cultivated in Khoksar Parbaha Site 1

Landlord from Khoksar Parbaha, Dr, Surendra Prasad Gupta visiting intervention site 1

Intervention Site 1 Farmed by Rajaji Krisak Samuha, Khoksar Parbaha,Saptari

Sun flower pump installed at Site 1, Khoksar Parbaha

By Raj Kumar and Rabindra Karki

Introduction:

Technical, social and economic constraints are limiting the effective use of groundwater and ponds for irrigation in many parts of the EGP due to which large areas of land remain fallow during the dry months. Therefore, access to year-round water for irrigation would significantly improve the productivity of agriculture, improving incomes and food security.

Marginal and tenant farmers, youth and women are particularly vulnerable and could benefit from a new approach to irrigation provision. This project aims to research and demonstrate improved collective farming systems for marginal farmers and improved water management and irrigation practices using efficient systems appropriate to the needs of the marginal farmer communities.

A project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is working with communities across Nepal (Saptari), India (Cooch Behar and Madhubani) and North West Bangladesh, to research and demonstrate sustainable social and biophysical interventions.

Village:

Koiladi is a village in Koiladi VDC located at the southern part of Saptari District. The village is located at a distance of 13 kilometres from Rajbiraj, the district headquarters. People from various ethnicities such as mandal, singh, dalit, muslim reside in the village. Majority of the land in the community belongs to landlords who are from Singh caste while others hold very limited land many of whom are tenants.

There are two Koshi branch canals which flow from east and west sides of the village. These seasonal canals provide suffice water for paddy during monsoon but run dry rest of the year except during winter when it is opened once for cultivation of wheat crop.

Despite the good ground water potential (2. 5m to 3m average water table depth), the farmers in the community have not been able to utilise it mainly because of marginal status. These people have not been able to invest in any irrigation technologies and infrastructures such as shallow tube well, irrigation pumps because of poverty, lack of land ownership.

Community and interventions:

In Koiladi, households from different ethnic groups from the community integrated into a farmer group named “Shiva Parbati Farmer Group”. The project has facilitated and coordinated the seven-member group and also helped them lease 1 Ha of land for two years from Rajesh Prasad Singh, a local landlord through a formal written agreement with the landlord.  The major crops grown by the farmers are rice, corn, ladies finger, legumes and other vegetables.  For use of the leased lands, the farmers in return pay 560kgs of paddy for 6,772sqm of land per year or this can also be paid in monetary value equivalent to the amount of paddy.

The Project has also supported the group with a 2 HP electric pump installed in four-inch diameter shallow tube well. The pump has been safely housed in a brick masonry pump house. The pump has a capacity of 8 lps field discharge. In addition to this, the project also provides training on nursery raising, use of micro irrigation technology, soil solarisation, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and record keeping. The project also hosted a visit of the farmer group to Madhubani, India where the farmers had an opportunity to learn about the project and also interact with the Madhubani farmers to better understand the process of collective farming model. Subsequently, we found that Koiladi farmers were encouraged to grow rice collectively following this session. Prior to the visit, the farmers were unwilling to farm collectively because of the difficulty in equal labour contributions, collective working and lack of trust regarding collective working.

The group has been facilitated with the conjunctive use of groundwater developed by the project and surface water developed by the Department of Irrigation (DoI). This is the most economical option since it optimises the water demand/supply balance. This irrigation method also controls water- logging and salinisation and improves crop health and productivity.

The results obtained from soil testing conducted on the group’s land (soil testing being done in the government’s soil laboratory) showed that the soil was suitable for all types of crops cultivated in the fields. This has further encouraged the farmers to focus on improving agricultural production. Additionally, the group has also developed a crop calendar with the support of project agricultural experts. The group has developed its capacity to maintain the records of their saving and credits, agricultural input and income, expenses and crop yield records. It is up to the village based project social mobiliser to train the group in record keeping.

With facilitates obtained from project intervention, the farmers have also approached the District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) for further agricultural trainings and support.

Impact:

The major impact of the project intervention is the availability of water all year-round. Water from Koshi branch canal alone would be suffice for paddy and one-time irrigation of wheat in winter season but now the shallow tube with electric pump has been providing sufficient water for irrigation for all of the leased land. The group has been encouraged to mix the ground water and surface water for irrigating the land whenever possible. After the project intervention, farmers have grown bitter gourds, sponge gourd, bottle gourd, pumpkin, maize and mug in their lands. The farmers have developed a year-round cultivation plan including cultivation during the dry season. Currently, the farmers are preparing their lands for paddy and plan to grow cauliflower, cabbage and potato followed by cucumber, sponge gourd, bitter gourd, pumpkin and bottle gourd. With this cropping pattern, the whole leased plots of lands will remain cultivated all year round.

Prior to the project majority of the group members, especially women, were hesitant to speak up freely with anyone outside the village and were never a part of any decision making neither at home nor at their farm interventions. One of the key impacts is that the farmers are gradually developing their leadership capacity and beginning to understand the project approach.

Future:

• The group will be empowered for a common goal of collective farming for year-round agriculture to maximise the production and income.
• The farmer’s leadership capacity will be strengthened by providing sufficient training so that they can fully own the irrigation infrastructures, and also manage and maintain them.
• The project will facilitate irrigation scheduling and crop water management trainings as a priority and farmers will be enabled to make decisions to apply optimum irrigation for each of the crops they are growing.
• The farmers will be well linked to the Agro-Vets for purchasing quality inputs, seeds and fertilisers and the markets for selling their produce in a good price.
• The groups will be encouraged to participate in the agriculture trade farers with their production and be facilitated by the local social mobiliser.
• The groups will be trained to measure agriculture data such as water flow from the pump, measure amount of water applied in the farm and so on.

By Raj Kumar and Rabindra Karki

Introduction:

Technical, social and economic constraints are limiting the effective use of groundwater and ponds for irrigation in many parts of the EGP as a result large areas of land remain fallow during the dry months. Therefore, access to year-round water for irrigation would significantly improve the agricultural productivity, improving incomes and food security.

Marginal and tenant farmers, youth and women are particularly vulnerable and could benefit from a new approach to delivery water for irrigation. The presented project aims to research and demonstrate improved collective farming systems for marginal farmers along with improved water management and irrigation practices using efficient systems which is well suited to the needs of the marginal farmer communities.

A project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is working with communities across Nepal (Saptari), India (Cooch Behar and Madhubani) and North West Bangladesh to research and demonstrate sustainable social and biophysical interventions.

Village:

Kanakpatti is a village in Khoksarparbaha Village Development Committee (VDC), a part of Shambhunath Municipality sitting at the centre-northern part of Saptari District. It is located about one Kilometre from the main highway (Mahindra Highway). The community has different ethnic groups such Tharu, Muslim, Dalit etc. The main sources of income for these communities are remittance and agriculture except for the Dalit community whose livelihoods depend on labour wages and firewood collection from the Churiya hill. These Dalits are found to take loans from local micro-finances and co-operatives during special occasions such as festivals and weddings of their family members. They do not have their own agricultural land and have very little knowledge of agriculture. Most of the lands in Khoksar Prabaha are rain fed and as a result they remain barren in dry season owing to the lack of irrigation cannels and limited ground water potential. There are two community ponds and a private pond in the village which are filled with rain water and runoff water during monsoon (June- August). However, these ponds fed with monsoon runoff can only supply water for a limited period of 1-2 months to irrigate at most 2-3 ha of land after which the ponds dry out and the land remains fallow for the rest of the year. Only few people in areas with potential groundwater use small electric pumps (0.5 -1.5 hp) for drawing ground water for agricultural purposes.

Dalit Community and the Project Interventions:

A farmer group has been formed within the Dalit community under the project called “Gadhi Mai farmer group”. This group has 8 members – 5 males and 3 females. None of these farmers hold their own land. The group has leased 12.5 Kathha (0.42 ha) of land from Mr. Surendra Prasad Gupta for agriculture. The project facilitated the leasing agreement between the landlord and the Dalit group. The lease agreement is for two years with annual pay back of 14 maan/biagaha (560kg of paddy/ 0.67 ha).  Since the land was barren for a decade it was dry, hard and tough to plough. Bullock ploughing was difficult due to high draft required to till the soil.  Therefore, the project supported on land preparation/ land development efforts such as primary ploughing, land levelling and preparation. Unnecessary bunds/boarder were removed and levelled, weed were removed using manual labour and the land was prepared for crop cultivation.  Furthermore, the project constantly supported the group through trainings related to agriculture and crop production, water management and capacity/leadership development. The group also observed a project site in Madhubani, India where they learned how the farmers coordinated and worked collectively (the farmers shared irrigation system, procure agriculture inputs together and work together in the farm) among themselves. Following the visit, Saptari farmers showed deep interest in adopting similar model. They showed deep concerns and reported the importance of right diversion of labour and mutual trust among the farmers for the model to be successful, which was the case in Madhubani.

Access of reliable irrigation system was the key need of the Dalit farmers. Therefore, a single phase operated 1.5 Hp electric pump was installed in the site. The pump has a discharge of 2.4 lps which provides sufficient water to irrigate 12.5 Kattha (0.42 Ha) of land all year round. Currently, the farmers have built furrows to improve the efficiency of water for irrigation and flat hose pipe is being used to deliver water from the pump to each of the farming plots.

Additionally, a sunflower solar pump has also been installed in the site. The pump irrigates lands up 0.15 Ha and also provides complement to the electric pump. The solar pump is the most beneficial option to irrigate the fields because of the erratic behaviour of electricity and frequent power cuts. The project has also established a saving and credit system as a result each farmer has started saving NPR. 100 per month.

Impact:

After having access to irrigation, and receiving relevant training, farmers have been able to grow different vegetable and corns in different seasons. The agricultural production following barren lands for several years due to lack of irrigation has proven to be a great success. As of date, the famers are harvesting vegetables and selling them in the local market. Corns too will soon be ready to be harvested in a few weeks. In our meeting with the groups, we were informed that they were consuming more vegetables than in the past.  The irrigation pump is being used collectively and they have developed a routine for sharing water.

The group is slowly understanding the project approach because of the continuous engagement of group in the project activities and capacity development trainings. These trainings have focused on leadership development and capacity building for working collectively.

However, there are three key challenges observed so far which are:

1. The group farmers are not willing to abandon their traditional occupations which include wage labour and fire wood collection as it provides a quick return to meet their daily needs,
2. The farmers have very limited understanding and interest in farming, and
3. The lands are very firm and not as fertile mainly due to remaining fallow/uncultivated for many years. A recent laboratory test revealed that the soil fertility is poor due to deficiency of micro nutrients and high acidity.

Future:

The project will develop action plans to address the challenges outlined above and implement the scheduled activities for the group.

• The project will mobilise the farmer group to improve each farmer’s interest on agriculture in order to keep them fixated on agriculture by providing an opportunity to realise agriculture return and benefits.
• As a regular program, the project will:

1. Provide training on improved agriculture practices, water management and capacity development,
2. Set up collective farming system and
3. Mobilise farmers to establish pump the repair and maintenance funds and develop local capacity for the pumps repairs.

• With support from agricultural experts and soil scientists, a set of measures are planned and implemented to improve the soil fertility.
• The project aims to increase the area of leased land. It also aims to train and encourage farmers to grow high value crops that could maximise their income reducing their dependency on traditional occupations.

Introduction:

Technical, social and economic constraints are limiting the effective use of groundwater and ponds for irrigation in many parts of the EGP. Large areas of land remain fallow during the dry months. Access to year-round water for irrigation would significantly improve the productivity of agriculture, improving incomes and food security.

Marginal and tenant farmers, youth and women are particularly vulnerable and could benefit from a new approach to irrigation provision. This project is researching and demonstrating improved collective farming systems for marginal farmers and improved water management and irrigation practices using efficient systems appropriate to the needs of the marginal farmer communities.

A project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) is working with communities across Nepal (Saptari), India (Cooch Behar and Madhubani) and North West Bangladesh, to research and demonstrate sustainable social and biophysical interventions.

Village:

Uttar Chakowakheti (UC) village is a forest fringe village which is now slowly developing into an agriculture based village though farmers developing knowledge in agricultural practices and irrigation. Farmers are still seeking support from agricultural scientists to develop strategies to repel wild elephants which are destroying their crops. There are just 11 shallow tube wells of 30 feet to 80 feet depth and 10 ponds of 7 feet to 15 feet depth among the 243 households though ponds are not used for any irrigation purpose.

The tribal based Uttar Chakowakheti village of Alipurduar district and land boundary of Coochbehar district is surrounded by the River Kaljani which flows from the mountains toward Bangladesh. The village is also divided in two parts – one habitation at the east embankment and one habitation at the west embankment of Kaljani River. The larger area of the west embankment of Kaljan River was selected as a project location for the DSI4MTF research project. There are around 243 households in the project village with caste composition of 30% Scheduled Caste (SC), 63% Scheduled Tribe (ST), 4% minority and 3% general.  The households are mainly dependent on agriculture and other activities including sand mining/lifting, livestock, vegetable business and daily labour etc. for their livelihoods.

Figure 1 – Uncropped land / fallow at Uttar Chakowakheti during dry season (4^th June 2016)

Community and interventions:

The Majority of households of Uttar Chakowakheti (UC) belong to schedule tribe (ST) community and were traditionally involved in selling their labour to local tea estates and the forest department. . Despite limited knowledge and skill in agricultural production, some villagers have shifted to agriculture as a means of income production. The average landholding of the households is 1.5 acre which is higher than other farmers living in West Bengal. But still they are facing extreme vulnerability and struggling very hard to manage three meals a day. The DSI4MTF project has been working with the farming community of UC for the past two years selling their labour.

Like Dhaloguri village, initially the farmers were confused about the aims and objectives about this action research project. It has taken time but slowly CDHI has mobilised the farmers through walk around, personnel interview, FGDs, formal and informal meeting / training, exposure etc and still creating ownership towards project. Now the project participants are aware about the project. Farmers are involved in collective actions by forming and strengthening the Collective Farming Group CFG consisting of 8 to 11 members of landless, tenant, marginal, rich and women farmers). Traditionally they were mainly cultivating monsoon paddy, leafy vegetables during rainy and winter season. 90% of the agriculture land at UC remained uncropped during the dry period and 65% during winter. After a series of community engagement programmes and technical interventions including installation of irrigation tube wells, the CFGs are cultivating jute and new crops including chili and other vegetable during this pre-kharif season. The physical interventions through the project started with the installation of one shallow tube well and commissioning of one 4 HP diesel pump at the site. With assured irrigation water the farmers started growing crops even during the dry seasons. After due consideration of soil health and land situation, the project scientists proposed a wide variety of feasible crops to the farmers. They were provided technical trainings and practical demonstrations on different aspects of crop production technologies like sowing/planting, crop management, water management, and disease and pest management.

Figure 2 – New crop cultivation by the collective farming group at Bholaghat, UC.

Impact:

The farmers from different economic background are working together without any conflicts. The rich and tenant farmers are equally contributing their time and labour. They are now slowly getting confidence to work together in the agriculture land for collective actions. The growth of crops is encouraging during this season and actual financial benefit will be calculated after harvesting within one month.

Future:

The project is working on training modules for collective farming system, water management, improve crop management. The project will also be emphasising on empowering the CFGs through manual / guide book of different crops, development of IEC materials, farmers skill development, farmers fair, community research by the farmers, exposure, meeting with market chain participants, linkage building etc. CDHI is also planning to access support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) through Vivekananda Institute of Technology, West Bengal to promote tuber crops.