DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (DRR)

Disaster preparedness/management is a crucial component of the project and is aimed to increase the capacity of 750 households to cope with flood related stress through a participatory approach. Flood has been a perennial problem in the whole of the district severely affecting the lives of the poor communities especially of those residing in the target block. Hence, creating awareness, building institutions and infrastructure for disaster preparedness/management form a major objective of the project.

The communities in the target villages often lose substantial amount of agricultural produce due to submergence of storage areas during floods. Creating awareness on disaster preparedness and constructing facilities to prevent such loss of agricultural produce is another objective of the project.

The project, therefore, envisages to address some of the flood resulted distress at community level by:

• Promoting Disaster Management Committees (DMCs)
• Awareness generation
• Organizing PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) exercise and perspective plan training

·     Creating access to safe drinking water facilities by installing raised handpumps

·      Creating access to safe food storage structures like raised granaries

·       Creating access to raised platform for protecting livestocks

·       Distribution of Disaster tool kits 

This Project seeks co funding from non European donors to generate participation from other stakeholders.  Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has funded the construction of disaster infrastructures under the project. The disaster infrastructures are:

• Construction of 20 Raised Hand Pumps
• Construction of 5 Raised Granaries
• Construction of 1 Livestock Platform
• Transfer of 15 Disaster Tool Kits.

Completed Raised Granary at Morigaon

Each Raised Granary can store grains upto 14 tonnes

Completed Raised Hand Pump

Adoption of SRI practices by farmers in Morigaon

SUMMER PADDY 2017

 SRI training organized at the village level

Demonstration on seed treatment

 Distribution of paddy seeds to farmers. 750 farmer households targeted.

Seed bed prepared by farmers

Field mud ready for transplanting operation

Transplanting seedlings in straight line

Farmers transplanting single seedling along with trainer instead of  a bunch as practiced in conventional system.

Field ready after transplanting

Joyanti Kaliya is weeding her paddy field with the conno weeder provider under the project. This practice was not followed in conventional system.

SRI Demo Plot at Chutikhal village, Morigaon as on 21 March'17

Training for LSPs for Goat farming

Livestock is an integral part of the mixed-farming system that characterizes agriculture in Assam.For many poor households, livestock is a daily source of earning and is an insurance against adversity. As Assam is a state of limited benefits of green revolution technologies and climatic uncertainties, livestock has the potential to contribute to farm diversification and intensification.

Assam has a goat population of more than 60 lakh of which Assam hill goat is one of the prominent breeds. The Assam hill goat is of the dwarf variety but is an exceptionally good quality meat producer. Therefore, it is important to upgrade local goat population through artificial insemination. By learning about goat farming in a scientific way , farmers will be able to increase their earnings.

It is for this purpose that RGVN had conducted a 6 day training programme for Local Service Providers at the Goat Research Centre, Byrnihat and the College of Veterinary Science, Khanapara.

Read the full report here.

Fishery Exposure cum Training report

With an aim to empower the farmers through fish farming, a day-long training cum exposure visit programme on fish farming was organized at Shat Kotara village, Nankar Bhaira in Nalbari district of Assam on 21st of September, 2016. The programme was organized by the project staff of RGVN. 14 LSPs (Local Service Providers) and 9 farmers from producer groups participated in the event. Mr Debajit Barman, an experienced fish producer cum cultivator, was the main guide of the programme.

Read the full report here.

                                         Fish rearing farm of Mr. Debajit Barman

Introduction

RGVN is implementing an agriculture livelihood project named "Introduction of an Innovative Self Sustaining Service Provision System for Transfer of Agricultural Technology and Market Development of Farming Communities" in Morigaon district, Assam, which is one of the country's 250 most backward districts. Morigaon is also affected by flood every year.

This project is funded by Karl Kubel Stiftung (KKS) and Federal Ministry for Cooperation (BMZ), Germany. The total project cost is Rs 21, 341,056/- out of which foreign contribution is Rs 17,752,956/-.

The project also invites co funding from non European organizations, preferably an Indian organization. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd has agreed to co fund the disaster preparedness component of this project under their CSR initiatives.

The project aims to bring about positive change in the overall wellbeing of 750 BPL farming families in Bhurbanda Block of Morigaon district, Assam, India, with special focus given to better livelihood practices, building strong grass root institutions (like Farmers groups, Producer Organizations and Local Service Provider Association) and disaster preparedness. The project duration is four years (2016-2019).

Gender impact strategies form a core part of the programme. The project strives to increase opportunities for women in income-generating activities, learning, and participation in decision-making processes through inclusion of 100% (750) women as designated beneficiaries. The project will thus work to incorporate women beneficiaries as leaders and as active participants.

The main area of intervention of the project are:

1. Technology transfer
2. Marketing extension
3. Institution building
4. Disaster preparedness