IFAD Enabling poor rural people mÙkjk[k.M fgeky;h vkthfodk lq/q/kkj ifj;kstuk to overcome poverty AAJEEVIKA TODAY

Uttrakhand Livelihoods Improvement Project for the

Issue 8 August 2012 Z Fodder Unit: in the form of revolving funds to Mool Narayan Swayatta ULIPH is working with 06 self help groups in 18 villages of Sahakarita on 15 March 2012. An agreement was reached cluster Chetabagar of district that this sum shall be returned to ULIPH in two installments. Bageshwar. Mool Narayan Discussions were held to calculate the total cost of fodder unit. Swayatta Sahakarita Samiti Lathi ULIPH facilitated the machines to be used in fodder unit as Chetabagar was formed and well as the bags for packing having 25 and 50 Kg capacity. registered in the year 2008, under In February 2011-12 this unit was started and they started Self Reliant act 2003. manufacturing and marketing this fodder under the brand All the Cooperatives were engaged name of Sarayu Pure Pashu Ahaar. All the raw material was in business activities as well as procured from Chetabagar, Loharkhet, Kanda and social activities since its inception. Dharamdhar federations by Mool Narayan Swayatta A t t h e s a m e t i m e U L I P H Sahakarita. Wheat, mandua, maize, soyabean, salt, mustard demonstrated Sahiwal breed of cakes ( sarson ki khali) are the main ingredients of this fodder. cow and Murra breed of buffaloes A great deal of publicity was made about this fodder by Mool in villages Kalapair, Kabhadi and Narayan Sahakarita which helped increase the demand for Bhakuna of cluster Chetabagar and also gave demonstration this fodder in other clusters too. The manufacturing cost of on improved cowshed. Following this, beneficiaries started fodder is around Rs 1380 but it is being sold at Rs 1500/quital selling the milk in local market, which led to remarkable at manufacturing unit. After fulfilling the demand of other change in their lifestyle. Encouraged by this, other members clusters federation has made 15 quinal of it available to Saras and SHG members made 40 proposals for micro dairy and Bazaar Bageshwar. sent it to their respective federations which in turn forwarded Following this, federation has been able to return the first these proposals to DMU Bageshwar for approval. ULIPH installment of the revolving fund to ULIPH. Till date federation released a sum of Rs 16000 ( Rs 1600 x 40 proposals ) for has earned a total of Rs 12,000 as net profit. Federation has each proposal to Mool Narayan Swayatta Sahahkarita with plans to do business of fodder worth Rs 400,000 in coming the instruction that beneficiaries shall utilize Rs 12,000 for years. cow shed and Rs 4000 for fodder and medicines etc. In Marketing centre in Delhi Haat Peetampura mountains, cattle fodder is not available hence federation In order make market available for the project's products at members decided to start a fodder unit of their own using national level,. secretary Rural Development has facilitated a locally available grains. District Management Unit planned shop in Dilli Haat Peetampura on April 2012. In this shop the this activity with federation members in detail. In order to go products of project's federation and self help groups are being ahead with this activity ULIPH supported the beneficiaries displayed for sale. This shop is being managed by federation with the technical knowhow and released a sum of Rs 90,000 members only. Project initiatives ULIPH 2

Ekta Cooperative shows great potential: Rural Mart Formed in the year 2008 by ULIPH, Ekta federation is one of Concept of Rural mart has emerged as a result of ULIPH's the earliest federations of Dhaula Devi to be registered under effort to improve the livelihood of people of rural areas. These the Uttarakhand Swayatta Sahkarita Act ,2003. As this marts are built at places which are nearer to markets and they federation is actively involved in many developmental are meant for small scale farmers to display their surplus activities, people of the area, therefore, hold it in high esteem. produces at one place for sale. DMU Chamoli discussed the In the absence of scope for getting higher education, the possibility of having Rural Marts with the federation members youth of the area is suffering a lot. Despite several as a result in the month of February 2012, members of representations made to the authorities to this effect in the Nandakini Federation made a proposal to this effect and sent past, nothing worthwhile was done in this direction. Local it to DMU Chamoli. Under this proposal it was decided that leaders along with parents of children of this area have even organic products like juice, jams, jellies, pulses, cosmetic launched campaigns in order to secure establishment of items and spices made by self help groups and federations institutions of higher learning but to no avail. The girls of this would be kept in these Rural marts. The objective of this region are lagging far behind in getting proper education. On initiative is to help those small scale farmers to have market learning about this problem, DMU apprised the federation links who are neither informed nor are capable of selling their about Uttarakhand Open University and subsequently a produces in showrooms. ULIPH facilitated a sum of Rs 4 lakh proposal was floated for setting up a University study centre to start this rural mart as well as the marketing techniques to with the help of DMU and Ekta Swayatta Sahakarita in April these federation members. Out of this amount of Rs 4 lakh, 2012 in Danya. The federation has so far received 50 50% would be returned to ULIPH while 20% of it would be applications for the admission till now. With the establishment utilized by the members. This rural mart has its own bank of this study center, local representatives have shown account now in Grameen Bank, the signatory authority of this gratitude and appreciated this effort made by federation mart is Mrs Veera Devi and co - signatory is Kapil Upadhyay, women. manager Enterprise promotion and Capacity building. Sangam Dairy Federation was able to earn the turnover of Rs 5.75 lakh in three month's time only. Right now the profit is not being Devprayag town in district Tehri is shared by the members instead it is being utilized as working located enroute Badrinath and capital for the upkeep of mart as well as for buying the Kedarnath. Seeing the potential of milk necessary commodities. Harikul federation of Kulsari and production in this area, ULIPH federation of Deval has replicated this activity. The discussed the possibility of this income of federation members has increased after starting enterprise with Sangam Swayatta this rural mart. Participation of small and marginal farmers has Sahakarita and decided to have a milk also increased after this activity and so has the possibility of developing rural enterprises. Hence these rural marts can dairy in this region. This fact was prove to be a milestone in improving the livelihood of poor. highlighted during the survey done for starting a dairy that people residing Convergence with Uttarakhand Bamboo and around Devprayag were selling their Fiber Board extra milk in Devprayag market whereas Uttarakhand Bamboo and Fiber Board is implementing people living in remote areas did not “Himalayan Plant Fiber Utilization and Value addition project” have a sound marketing system to funded by ULIPH in two clusters of district Uttarkashi and market their milk. Therefore it was Chamoli. This project was started in the year 2010 with a sum decided to link federation dairy with the milk producing of Rs 30,30,000. Under this project, project resource building families of remote areas. For this purpose, survey in four activities were done in 20 Hac. land of 10 villages of Deval villages was carried out. Finally a dairy was started on 13th block. Similar activities are also being carried out in 20 Hac. July 2012 in Devprayag with the objective of making milk land of 23 villages of Mori cluster. Under these activities, available to milk producers at their doorsteps at fair prices and training related to 3 primary steps of fiber processing were also to make quality milk available to consumers. One CRP organized: was appointed to manage the dairy and two CRPs were 1. To make farmers aware of Nettle fiber. appointed for milk collection. Price of milk was fixed as per the 2. To train farmers in the activities related to fiber processing standards of Anchal Dairy and it is being sold at Rs 22 to35 like Retting, Degumming, Beating, Cleaning and drying /liter. Milk samples are tested by milko tester. This dairy was etc. started with three liter milk of three villages and by 21 July this 3. After training, these trainees are making the people of their dairy sells 20 liter milk per day. On demand of consumers area aware of the potential of Nettle fiber. products of Paras Dairy and some other agricultural products Up till now 600 Kg of Nettle fiber have been collected through are also being marketed in this dairy. Karn Maharaja cooperative Mori and Pindari cooperative in Deval and farmers have been given the support price for this. Learning from the field ULIPH 3

Grocery shop: A boon for raise in income Kuroiler rearing has a promise for good Srimati Anandi Devi is resident of village Vaan in district income: Uttarkashi. ULIPH formed 05 SHGs in Village Dansada comes under Nyaya village Vaan and worked for capacity Panchayat Bhatkot in district Tehri. Sri building of these groups. Anandi Devi Ramswaroop is a member of Mahadev was elected as a member of Kshetra SHG which was formed by ULIPH in the Panchayat with the help of all the year 2006-7. ULIPH initiated a number SHGs. In view of her husband's of income generating activities for these unemployment, project helped them members and made all efforts to build their capacity. Under open a Grocery shop in their village. capacity building programe, Ramswaroop was sent to SNK Project facilitated a sum of Rs 25,000 for opening this shop. Smarak Pantnagar for 21 days training in Kuroiler rearing. With their hard work and perseverance this shop is running After completing his training Ramswaroop established a smoothly as a result they have been able to return all the mother unit of 500 DOCs in his village but initially he could not money to project in installments. Their turnover has gone up run this unit successfully and suffered losses. Gradually he to Rs 50,000 from Rs 25,000. In addition to this shop they are learnt to face such challenges and continued working with also selling milk and vegetables to earn extra money. Anandi sincerity. As a result he has reared about 9000 chicks so far. Devi has shown a path to the women of Vaan village and has He has also made a profit of Rs 34,920. Now he has become become a role model for these women. an expert in Kuroiler rearing. Recently he has replicated this Vegetables cultivation for business: activity and has established a unit of 2000 DOCs. Srimati Tulsi Devi of village Salla Bhatkot is associated with Ramswaroop and some other poultry rearers are supplying Jai Maa Kaali SHG. ULIPH birds for meat purpose to a recently opened meat shop in their formed groups of women in this village. This has also added to his income. He has now area and apprised them about applied for the loan of Rs 1.6 lakh through ULIPH for the some of the the activities of the expansion of his business. project like vegetable cultivation, Possibility of good income through Nursery Kuroiler rearing and growing cash Raising: crops. ULIPH gave them all the Village Saikot is situated at 35 Kms required information on vegetable distance form district Chamoli. ULIPH cultivation and also provided them tomato seeds of good formed the groups of women and built variety at concessional rates. When her crop was ready she their capacity for income raising found out that the she had a bumper crop of tomatoes this activities. Srimati Rukmani Devi is the time as she worked under the guidance of ULIPH experts. member of Indramati SHG and she She was able to earn a profit of Rs 2,000 by selling the established a nursery of 7000 mulbery saplings in the year tomatoes and also some seedlings of tomato. Encouraged by 2009-10. By selling 4000 saplings to Van Panchayat and 3000 this she grew tomatoes in a bigger area (10 Nali) land and saplings to Sericulture department, she earned a sum of Rs bought seeds from ULIPH as well as from line departments. 14,000. She also grew 6000 mulbery saplings, 2,000 bamboo This time also her crop was beyond her expectations, of saplings and 200 Reetha saplings in her nursery and on selling which she sold 25 quintals in Panuanaula and Nainital and these she further earned the profit of Rs 20,400. In 2011-12 earned about Rs 13,ooo as net profit. She thanks ULIPH for she has now planted 50,000 mulbery cuttings in her nursery. her achievements in this field. She has recently made an agreement for supplying 40,000 Copper craft: An alternative of livelihood mulbery saplings to Sericulture Borgaon is 22 Km away from Bageshwar and ULIPH formed a ten members SHG, Jai Vishnu Shiv Tamra Samooh in this village. Sri Shivlal was selected as a member of this group. All the members of this group are skilled copper craft artisans. One day ULIPH members came to visit his small unit and informed him about the support that ULIPH extends to such traditional enterprises. When their SHG was formed, ULIPH sent them to Dehradun for five days training in copper craft and later on to Kathmandu for a high level training in this craft. ULIPH also gave him a loan of Rs 49,300 for running his unit successfully. The member of this SHG make many copper items like Gagar, Kalash, filter, Copper bangles, Parat, Lota, insence stick holder, and Jug etc and earns quite a good sum on selling these items. He hired stalls to exhibit and sell his products in local markets and Melas where people appreciated his products a lot. As a result In 2012 alone he has booked the order for copper products Staff Desk ULIPH 4

PEA CULTIVATION THROUGH COLLECTIVE matter was discussed in the monthly meetings of DMU and EFFORT 2012: cooperative's board meetings and it was decided that :- Vegetable cultivation has good For starting the value chain in the year 2012, only certified scope of revenue generation for seed of pea of Arkil variety, purchased from NAFED, would be the communities residing in the used for cultivation. A small amount of money as community mountains of Uttarakhand, but contribution for seeds would be taken from the producers at due to marginal and small the time of marketing and deposited in the banks. For landholding, rain fed conditions managing value chain at cluster level, cooperatives will and low access to market, charge Rs 1/kg of pea produce as facilitation fee. All the producers struggle most of the negotiation with the Mandi time to achieve the economy of agents would be done by DMU scale. The collective marketing model was developed under representatives. In order to the aegis of ULIPH Uttarkashi in the year 2010-11. This include new producers from model, which started with 160 producers and 13 villages in outside project, they will take the 2011, has now expanded to 30 villages, and approximately cooperative shareholding and 700 producers and 3 cluster cooperatives of ULIPH in the membership to get associated year 2012. In the year 2011 Saptarshi Swayatta Sahkarita with the value chain approach. and some farmers of this cluster achieved a phenomenal Cooperative staff and DMU representatives will work in close success in cultivating pea in large quantities and with the coordination and support the cooperatives. They will update effort of ULIPH Uttarkashi these farmers enjoyed the fruit of day to day Mandi rates and communicate to each other and success for the first time and role of middlemen totally came producers through SMS. Apart from this the objective of to an end. These middlemen are known to procure the collective marketing is to increase the participation of farmer's produce at a very low womenfolk in the value chain. rate and sell the same at higher r a t e s i n D e h r a d u n a n d Message for Federation...... Chandigarh Mandis. In order to  Regular discussion with federation help line m i t i g a t e t h e i r m a r k e t i n g (9410102325). problems etc, ULIPH came up  Campaign for adding new members and with a plan of collective marketing shareholders. which included a face to face  To prepare the standard documents for interaction with farmers for their capacity building and solving submitting the annual returns and annual reports. their problems regarding marketing. The aim of the initiative  To forward the annual general meeting's proceedings to was to make the farmers understand the benefits of using related members. scientific methods for higher yields. As a result farmers had  Organisation of the health camps by members. bumper crops in the year 2011 and earned good money.  To update the market list and information. Learning of previous year has led the cooprerative board of  Special technical training on grading and packing. directors and ULIPH staff for managing the whole value chain  To ensure the marketing for members. as revenue generating model for the year 2012 too. The

Editorial team : Publisher: Miss Jyotsna Sitling, Project Director Uttarakhand Livelihoods Improvement Project for the Himalayas (ULIPH) & Managing Director Uttarakhand Parvatiya Aajeevika Sanvardhan Company (UPASaC) Editorial Team : Project Staff Address : 272 C/II, Vasant Vihar, Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Ph. : 0135-2762800, 2762798, Email : [email protected], Website : www.ajeevika.org.in, Blog : uliph.blogspot.com