Indigenous Community Monitoring Report Project Number: 40534-013 Semestral Report December 2015 2649-BAN(SF): Second Crop Diversification Project Prepared by Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) for the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Asian Development Bank. This indigenous community monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Second Crop Diversification Project –SCDP Project Intervention on Indigenous Community Monitoring Report, December 2015 Department Of Agricultural Extension Middle Building (6th Floor), Khamarbari Farmgate, Dhaka-1215 February, 2016 Contents Acronym ............................................................................................................................................. ii 1. Project Background ..................................................................................................................... 1 2. Indigenous People in Project Area (population) ........................................................................... 1 3. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 4. Organizing IPs under SFGs (Group formation) .............................................................................. 3 5. Credit accessibility ....................................................................................................................... 3 6. Utilization of Credit ..................................................................................................................... 4 7. Accessibility in production technology ......................................................................................... 5 7.1 Technology Training ........................................................................................................................... 5 7.2 Demonstration ................................................................................................................................... 6 8. Planned Technology Transfer Support for IP Population in 2015‐16 ............................................. 8 8.1 Technology Training ........................................................................................................................... 8 8.2 Crop Demonstration .......................................................................................................................... 8 9. Adverse Impact of Project Intervention in Livelihoods of IPs ........................................................ 9 10. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 9 i Acronym ADB Asian Development Bank BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee HVC High Value Crop MFI Microfinance Institute NGO Non Government Organization OFSSI On Farm Small Scale Infrastructure SFG Small Farmers Group ii Second Crop Diversification Project (SCDP) Project Intervention in Indigenous Community Monitoring Report Dec 2015 1. Project Background The project officially launched in June 2010 but field operations commenced in Feb 2012 after recruiting of MFI/BRAC and BRAC started SFG formation in July 2012 when full swing field activities was under operation after completing the recruitment of necessary manpower and consultant. The project is being operated in 43 Upazilas of 18 districts of south and south‐west and 9 Upazilas of 9 districts in the northwest since June 2010 with the aim to reduce poverty by improving farmers’ incomes. The project is fostering commercialization of agriculture through interventions to promote diversification into high value crops (HVC) and value addition. The prime objective of the project is to raise farm incomes, alleviate poverty and stimulate the economy of both southwest and northwest through high value crop production among the small and medium farm households. 2. Indigenous People in Project Area (population) As per census report 2011, total indigenous households in the country are 3,56,175 with 15,86,141 (7,97,477 male and 7,88,664 female) population. As reported by the Project’s Administrative Manual (PAM) of ADB some population of indigenous people are living in Godagari and Chapai Sadar Upazilas of Rajshahi districts and Birampur Upazila of Dinajpur district. With assistance from Upazila Statistics Offices the Upazila Agriculture Offices reported that in Godagari Upazila there are 5,155 households with 26,490 indigenous People (IP), in Chapai sadar 376 households with 1578 people and in Birampur 2,593 households with 12,107 people, who living in the remote areas of the Upazilas. The indigenous people living in the project area are mostly belongs to Santal, Orao, Saren, Kisku, Mardi, Tudu, Hamron, Rajbangshi, Hasda, Kesku etc. Generally development initiative does not benefit the IPs equally and particularly at times they are adversely affected and marginalized by development processes. In some instances IPs face eviction, loss of resources for livelihoods etc. During project design it has been clearly mentioned that the IPs should have to be treated equally as of local population. Following the ADB’s new safeguard policy the project included the IPs as project target population and started to form SFGs in the locality even though the area is comparatively remote and difficult to operate credit programs. The following table 2.1 shows the numbers of IP families as per ethnic groups available in the areas. Majority of them are belongs to the ethnic group Santal (42%). Of the IP families 67% are concentrated in the Godagari Upazila of Rajshahi districts. 1 Table 2.1: IP families in the project Upazilas by their ethnic groups Number of IP family in the project area with ethnic group Sl # Location Santal Orao Saren Mardi Tudu Hamron Kesku Hasda Baskee Rajbongshi Ekka Toppo Other Total 1 Godagari 2488 1246 78 130 91 120 80 70 300 80 90 382 5155 Chapai 2 Sadar 8 125 112 81 12 12 15 11 376 3 Birampur 1009 426 125 205 150 120 90 150 100 218 2593 Total 3270 1579 321 441 322 241 177 227 100 300 80 82 611 7751 The following table 2.2 shows the population of the Indigenous People (IP) by their ethnic identities. As reported there are more than 40 thousands IPs are living in the project areas and of them majorities (66%) belongs to the Godagari of Rajshahi. Of the ethnic groups Santals are more (43%) followed by Orao (22%) and Mardi (5%). There are numbers of ethnic groups with little population showed in the table 2.2. Table 2.2: IP population in the project Upazilas by their ethnic groups IP Population in the project area with ethnic group Sl # Location Santal Orao Saren Mardi Tudu Hamron Kesku Hasda Baskee Rajbongshi Ekka Toppo Other Total 1 Godagari 12440 6852 390 680 500 600 450 340 1500 380 450 1908 26490 2 Chapai Sadar 44 512 454 274 65 69 76 84 1578 3 Birampur 4746 1968 595 895 687 600 360 600 400 1256 12107 Total 17186 8864 1497 2029 1461 1265 879 1016 400 1500 380 450 3248 40175 The following table 2.3 shows the distribution IPs by male and female population. It has been observed that male female ratio in the IP population is more or less 50:50. In both Godagari and Chapai Sadar the female populations are more than the males but in Birampur the male are more than the females, needs further clarification. Table 2.3: IP population in the project Upazilas by male and female population Population (#) Sl # Location Number of family Male Female Total 1 Godagari 4782 12878 13612 26490 2 Chapai Sadar 376 754 824 1578 3 Birampur 2593 6659 5448 12107 Total 7751 20291 19884 40175 3. Introduction The report is prepared as part of regular project activity and reporting systems. Following the design of the project, monitoring report on IP (Indigenous People) is being published biannually since 2013‐14. This progress report is compiled based on the data collected through field officials of the project (Program Associates) in January 2016. The report covers the activities completed by December 2015. The report is mainly focused on Credit and Technical support of the project towards IP population. As reported earlier the need assessment of training and 2 demonstrations had been done through special drive by organizing campaigns of IPs one in Godagari, Rajshahi and another in Chapai sadar of Chapai Nawabganj district during January to June 2014. Another awareness campaign among the IP population is organized by the project in the month of November 2015 in Birampur, Dinajpur with 125 participants. 4. Organizing IPs under SFGs (Group formation) The project started formation of SFG in the IP areas of Godagari, Chapai Sadar and Birampur in July 2013 and till December 2015, 36 indigenous groups have been formed by the partner MFI with 522 members. Out of 36 SFGs (Indigenous People) 18 formed in Godagari Upazila, 6 in Chapai Sadar Upazilas of Rajshahi district and 12 in Birampur Upazila of Dinajpur district. Of 36 groups 14 are male with 225 members and rest 22 female groups with 297 members. In Godagari (18) and Chapai Sadar (6) number of IP groups not increased but in Birampur it increased from 5 to 12.