Activities within the grant and expected impact:
The three-year project would focus on promotion of livelihoods across 1,188 tribal households in 13 villages of Dhalbhumghar block of East Singhbum. The villages have 77 per cent tribal population, with land holdings of less than two acres. Paddy is the main crop, monocropping of which yields 8 quintals / acre. The families depend on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood, which accounts for 70 per cent of their total income. Non-timber forest produce (NTFP) collection (8 per cent), wage labour and migration (18 per cent), and brewing of local beer (4 per cent) are their other sources of livelihood. The key focus of the project will be to promote year-round food security through ‘kharif paddy stabilisation’ strategy. Water resource development interventions (such as farm pond excavation) will be carried out in farms. Agriculture inputs will be provided to the households on credit, through a revolving fund made available to the cluster development committee (CDC). Promotion of horticulture and forestry in wastelands would be carried out for enhancing income. Existing SHGs in the project villages, which are implementing saving and credit activities, would be strengthened through capacity building provided by the CDC. RDA will facilitate livelihood planning with all the SHGs, followed by credit planning and bank linkages. The CDC will thus assume the mantle of an apex institution over the 118 SHGs and 8 clusters. A cadre of trained village extension workers, like paravets, agriculture service providers and SHG workers, will provide day-to-day support to the households and SHGs.

The components of the project would be:

	Promotion and strengthening of community based organisations
	Promotion of land based interventions
	Promotion of allied livelihood interventions
	Capacity building of community

The project aims to increase the annual income of the land holding households from Rs14,000 to Rs20,000 and for landless households from Rs8,000 to Rs15,000 (assumptions based on an impact study of another project in a similar area in Dumka district). The key outcomes expected from the project will be:

The key areas of focus are:

	Strengthening of 118 SHGs, 8 SHG clusters and the cluster development committee
	Mobilising incremental savings of Rs3 million and leveraging Rs3.5 million through SHG-bank linkages
	Creating irrigation infrastructure for 210 households
	Increasing the yields under kharif paddy stabilisation by 1 tonne / hectare (ha), leading to food security for all 800 families
	Incremental income of Rs8,000 to Rs10,000 per year for 500 families under vegetable and oilseed interventions
	100 families taking up goat rearing and poultry activity leading to an incremental income of Rs8,000 per year.

These impact projections have been based on similar work done by the organization through promotion of Self Help Group and linking them with micro-enterprises such as tomato cultivation, poultry, etc.