Activities within the grant and expected impact:
The project focuses on showcasing simple, low-cost, appropriate technologies to improve the system of shifting cultivation for sustainable agricultural development and improving rural livelihood of people. Four demonstration sites would be established in Aizawl, Kolasib, Lunglei and Serchhip to demonstrate and disseminate appropriate cultivation practices.

Farmers from a cluster of five villages in each of the four districts will have an opportunity to adopt and avail of relevant technologies for their needs from such technology sites. Four ‘lead farmers’ from each village would be selected through a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) exercise and training will be imparted to these selected farmers at the outset in each village. Ten other farmers would be selected after participation with the ‘lead farmers’ in each village, who would train them.

To improve soil health, technologies such as bio-composting, contour hedgerow farming system, rain water harvesting and legume inter cropping would be emphasised. Contour hedgerow farming system (CHFS) aims to warrant soil water conservation and thereby improve soil fertility and agriculture productivity. It is expected that each farmer will be able to earn an additional amount of Rs6,000-8,000 by adopting this technology, which is based on planting nitrogen fixing plant species such as lentil, cow pea, etc along the contours and desired crops such as rice, maize, colocasia, pumpkin, etc. in the alleys. It can be introduced in gentle, as well as steep slopes and does not aim at replacing the traditional way of farming, but targets at supplementing the prevailing system.

Farmers will be sensitised to form ‘farmer clubs’ to help themselves through mobilising savings. The farmer clubs will also arrange inputs and sell products in the market collectively to minimise cost of transportation, whilst also motivating farmers towards adopting technologies and helping CEP in training the rest of the farmers in the subsequent years. Farmers would contribute Re1 per sapling to generate financial resources to run the demonstration sites in the subsequent year.

The key activities entail:

	Technology demonstration site
	Contour hedgerow farming system (CHFS)
	Bio-composting
	Rainwater harvesting structure
	Poly film seedbed
	Formation of farmer clubs