Activities within the grant and expected impact:
The three-year project is towards facilitating GVT to promote sustainable agriculture and livelihood enhancement initiatives amongst 5,000 tribal families in Kanker district, Chhattisgarh. The project would try to address the livelihood needs of the tribal farmers, through promotion of improved agriculture interventions, creation of water resources and their optimum utilisation. The overall project area covers 20 backward tribal villages, spread over an area of 10,055 hectares, which would be treated with various integrated soil and water conservation measures, with support from National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The land holding analysis indicates that 34 per cent of the population has land between 2-5 acres whilst 43 per cent has land holding of less than 2 acres. The monocropping system followed in the area focuses on paddy, followed by minor millets, pigeon-pea and gram. As far as productivity of paddy is concerned, it is only 10-12 quintal per hectare, which is far below the national average of 19 quintals per hectare. Seasonal migration is widespread in the villages; a family migrates for a period of 8 months in a year in search of wage labour. On an average, a person earns Rs50 to Rs150 per day depending on the type of labour. Farm income analysis indicates that a family consisting of five members earns about Rs9,000 from their farm and about Rs5,400 as wages through working as migrant labourers, whilst forest-based income is Rs3,600. Average income of tribal households is around Rs18,000 per annum. Household income analysis indicates that more than 70 per cent of the households are in debt, whereas 40 per cent of households take short-term credit every year. The proposed project would be implemented through support from various agencies, such as NABARD, state government under NREGS, Department for International Development under Research in Use Project, and GVT’s own resources. Integrated soil and water conservation measures would be carried out with support from NREGS. NABARD has supported GVT towards the Wadi programme under its Tribal Development Fund; wherein the agriculture interventions and community capacity building would be carried out under the Trusts' support. A third party review of the proposal submitted by GVT revealed that the organisation had a good quality team in Chhattisgarh. Villages selected for intervention were contiguous and tribal populations were concentrated. The organisation had a good rapport with the community, besides well-developed links with the government line departments. The organisation had also developed linkages with the agriculture university and the forest department, both of which were willing to contribute in the project area. The project activities were planned as per the need of the area and local community and had good scope for impacting the quality of life of the people.

The project, with its focused and sustainable livelihood development approach, would enable the families to come out of the below poverty line (BPL) level over the project period. The community-based organisations (CBOs) would be strengthened to manage the livelihood resources developed through the project. Further, income of households would increase from Rs18,000 to Rs28,000 at the end of the project period.