Strom Center Blog

A Holistic Approach for Rural Development through Partnership and Trainings of Rural Communities

Senior Scientist (Agriculture Extension) and

Head, Agriculture Science Centre and Dairy Training Centre

National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal 132001 India

In India, various rural development programmes have been developed and implemented in the past four decades to eradicate rural poverty and to improve the socio-economic conditions of the millions of people. Community Development programme implemented on October 2, 1952, was a landmark from which many lessons were learnt and different developmental programmes emerged out. In the past couple of decades Ministry of Rural Development in India implemented different programmes, which aimed at poverty alleviation, employment generation, infrastructure development and social security to rural people.

With the experiences gained through the implemented programmes and in response to the felt needs of the poor, several programmes had been modified and new programmes have been introduced. Self employment programmes have been revamped by merging the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), the Million Wells Scheme (MWS) the Supply of Improved Tool-Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA) and the Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM) into a holistic self-employment scheme called Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY).

The SGSY is a single self employment programme for the rural poor that came in to effect from April 1999, that has been conceived as a holistic programme covering all aspects of self employment like organization of rural poor into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their capacity building, training, planning of activity clusters, infrastructure development, financial assistance through bank credit and subsidy and marketing support etc.

In most rural development programmes organized in the past two decades in the Northern States of India it was found that effective partnership of rural communities in the rural programme as stake holders and their trainings in different areas could bring faster rural prosperity and development. “Rural development implies both the economic betterment of people as well as greater social transformation.  In order to provide the rural people with better prospects for economic development, increased participation of people in the rural development programmes, decentralization of planning, better enforcement of land reforms and greater access to credit are envisaged. Initially, main thrust for development was laid on agriculture industry, communication, education, health and allied sectors but later on it was realized that accelerated development can be provided only if governmental efforts are adequately supplemented by direct and indirect involvement of people at the grass root level”. In the present paper the approaches used for rural development through partnership and trainings of rural communities have been presented and discussed.

In each district of the Northern Indian States the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) executes various developmental plans in a particular district of a state so to ameliorate the socio-economic development in the rural areas. Since, trainings and partnership of rural communities have been recognized by the policy makers and planner as effective means to bring faster rural development therefore, a large number of Non Government Organsiations (NGOs) have come up and have formed thousands of self help groups (SHGs) in the three states of India. In a World Bank funded watershed development project in Himachal Pradesh Village Development Committees (VDCs) were constituted, similarly in the Intensive Dairy Development Prgramme (IDDP) operational in Kangra Distrct of hill state 1,000 groups have been constituted to promote dairy farming. Under National Agricultural Technology Project, Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) have been constituted in 262 selected districts of India which have farmer organizations like farmers groups, SHGs, farmers interest groups. In all these programems the partnership of rural communities in rural development have shown marked differences as compared to the earlier programmes and the successful approaches of these programmes could be replicated in other developing countries having similar agro-climatic conditions.

Other than these recent rural development programmes and approaches an extension out reach holistic model termed as Agriculture Science Centres (A.S.Cs.), in Hindi language known in India as Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) were established in 1976 in a few selected districts. Seeing the impact of these A.S.Cs in the past two decades, now there is one A.S.C in 541 districts in different states of the country and it is proposed that in near future all the 578 rural districts of the country will soon have ASCs for rural transformation to bring rural prosperity. In each district of Himachal Prdaesh, Punjab and Haryana states these A.S.Cs. have contributed significantly in bringing holistic rural development through trainings and partnership of rural communities.

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In the rural areas of these districts of three states the rural people are directly or indirectly dependent upon mixed farming of crop and dairy husbandry and to increase the income and employment through improved crop and dairy production the A.S.Cs. have involved the rural people for their partnership in planning and execution of the training programmes. The various training programmes and the peoples’ participation in one of the A.S.C. of National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) located in district Karnal in Haryana state is discussed here as “model centre” for rural development.

The Agriculture Science Centre of NDRI has been functioning since 1976. The main aim of the A.S.C. is to develop entrepreneurship amongst the rural people especially the farmers, farm women rural youth and entrepreneurs in different areas of agriculture, dairying, fisheries, bee-keeping and home science. This A.S.C. conducts various need-based and skill-oriented training programmes for different target groups to enhance production in their mixed farming system, organizes front line demonstrations for introduction of newer crop varieties, conduct on farm trials both in agriculture and dairy farming and also organize training programmes for extension functionaries.

Since 1976 till December 2006 this A.S.C. has organized a total of 3,138 training programes in which 61,116 trainees participated from different states of the country. In the year 2006 the analyzed data indicated that 90 on campus and 36 off-campus training programmes were organized in which 2,254 and 907 trainees participated respectively. In 2006 ASC organized a total of 126 training programmes in which 3,161 trainees participated from 17 states of the country. Out of all these trainees 1,554 were Practicing farmers and 275 were farm-women, amongst rural youth and Scholl dropouts 857 were male and 225 were female whereas, 106 male and 144  extension functionaries participated. Gender wise analysis indicated that out of total trainees 2517 were male and 644 were female.

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In the area of crop production 14 training programmes were organised in 2006 in which 245 farmers and farm women participated. In the past five years this A.S.C has contributed significantly in organsing training programmes of the integrated and multipurpose use of natural resources and development of organic farming. The tangible results have been observed in the 434 villages of this district having net cultivated geographical area of 1, 94,900 hectares with cropping intensity of 180 per cent and in a cluster of villages people now are adopting organic farming.

The organised training programmes were to introduce crop diversification in the most prevalent system of paddy-wheat cultivation in the district. Diversification in cereal based farming systems with introduction of oilseeds, pulses, horticultural crops, fisheries and bee-keeping increased nutritional level, production and income per unit area that had brought rural prosperity in the district.

Since 2003, vast majority of the farm families in the district have adopted making vermi-compost using earth worms and dung obtained from their dairy animals. The use of vermin-compost has reduced the utilization of the synthetic fertilizers. Among all farming systems, organic farming is gaining wide attention among farmers of different categories in the district.

In the area of dairy production ASC organized 28 training programmes in 2006 in which 659 trainees participated. Likewise 6 different training programmes were organised in dairy processing in which 96 entrepreneurs were trained.

After attending various training programmes in the area of scientific dairy farming a visible impact have been observed in the operational area as a large number of dairy farmers in various villages of Karnal district have been benefited through the organised trainings. It was found in the district that a large number of dairy farmers have elite herds of cross-bred dairy cattle yielded up to 45 litres of milk per day. They not only sell the milk in the town but the superior germ plasm of cross-bred cattle have gone to various  states of the country through some of these dairy farmers who have adopted cross breeding in dairy animals. A survey conducted in the Ropar district of Punjab and Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh states revealed that a large number of the trainees trained at the ASC, NDRI of Haryana state have adopted scientific dairy farming. There are enormous case studies and success stories those have been produced as a result of effective trainings organized in scientific dairy farming. The trainees have reduced their herd size by removing the unproductive and low producing dairy animals which remained a burden on the scarce feeding resources of watershed areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

The analysed data from various beneficiaries selected from different villages of district Karnal indicated that the knowledge level of the respondents in areas of dairying, viz., breeding, feeding health care, management and fodder production was 35.42, 48.56, 51.28, 53.43 and 56.04 per cent, respectively. The extent of adoption of recommended dairy farming practices was 73.76, 68.32, 61.56, 63.60 and 37.53 per cent in the areas of breeding, feeding health care, management and fodder production, respectively, whereas, overall adoption level was 58.26 per cent.

Practical applications of natural techniques in animal husbandry prevalent in this district and being practiced by the farm families have been documented and a few have been taken up by some organistaions for scientific validation.

In the area of dairy processing methodologies for separation of cream from milk, preparation of indigenous dairy products like ‘ghee’, ‘channa’, ‘khoa’, ‘paneer’, ‘burfi’,  ‘kalakand’, ‘gulabjamun’, ‘rasogolla’,  etc. were demonstrated in different training programmes organsied by the A.S.C. A large number of small-scale dairy owners and the trainees have adopted these technologies. There are nearly 70 small-scale dairies in Karnal district and each dairy handles 2-16 quintals of milk each day depending upon the infrastructure and the availability of milk. Most dairy owners have adopted the dairy processing technologies. The experts of the A.S.C. have helped the trainees in formulating the projects and the required equipments to start this venture.

For increasing additional income and employment in the rural areas the farm families and especially the rural youth were encouraged to adopt fish farming and bee keeping. In the year 2006, eight training programmes were organised in the area of fish farming participated by 126 beneficiaries

In the area of fish farming, in the past two decades 542 rural un-employed youth have started fish farming by having the village ponds in different villages of district Karnal. The fish seeds were provided to these entrepreneurs from the ASC fisheries demonstration unit. In village Butana of district Karnal at the fish farm of a trainee, induced fish farming technology was standardised. The fish farmer has adopted the technology.  In this fish farm, this progressive fish farmer has employed 11 persons.

In district Karnal, 28 fish farmers are earning between 1 to 4 lakh annually and have been adjusted top producer of fish. Fish farming has become such a remunerative and lucrative activity that 32 farmers of Karnal district have excavated new ponds in their 28.2 ha agriculture land.

Regarding fish farming with in past 20 years the scenario has changed in the district.  All ponds with dependable source of water have been leased by villagers for fish culture.  Every year 20-30 new ponds are leased out for fish farming in different villages of district. The lease amount of ponds is comparable with good agriculture land.  In certain cases it is more than good agriculture land.

In the area of bee-keeping eight training programmes were organised in 2006 at the ASC in which 201 trainees participated. A perceptible impact of the training programme imparted in the area of bee-keeping has been observed in district Karnal.  Particularly, rural unemployed youth of a nearby village Balari and around after attending training at this centre have taken up this enterprise to earn their livelihood.  Sixteen such entrepreneurs have established their sale counter of honey at the National Highway, Karnal.  In addition, some of the rural women in the district are doing exceptionally well.  They are not selling only honey but also selling Bee colonies and Bees-wax, etc.

Based on the review, analysed data and the impact studies of the rural developmental programmes and approaches used, it was found that after attending the various training Prograames there was gain in knowledge and skill of the farming communities. After adoption of the newer technologies learnt by the entrepreneurs they experienced significant gain in income and employment. It was observed that in the programmes where participation of people was more the effective of those rural development programme was higher. It is recommended that the discussed rural development programmes and approaches could be replicated in other developing countries having similar agro-climatic conditions for bringing faster rural development.

Source: ArticlesBase.com