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As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will assist the cluster committees in taking ownership of the agriculture service centers.
Initially, you will spend time with cluster committees and at the service center. You should learn how the existing sangathan and committee structure(s) function and what kind of support it provides to the farmers. Spending time with the farmers, organizing home visits, and attending meetings might be useful at this stage. You can also hold informal meetings with the farmers to understand local agricultural practices, the challenges they face, and additional initiatives that could help them. Through this process, you will also want to identify farmers in the cluster committees who show strong motivation and leadership and can be possible contenders for running the service centers.
Once you have identified potential leaders for the service centers, you should convene workshops to rally them and provide necessary training. You should consider providing sessions on managerial skills, accounting, leadership development, and decision making. You should consider (1) how to incentivize ownership and (2) how to make the goals of the center more concrete for the committee. For example, exposure trips to other community-managed rural farming centers could be a powerful motivator. As these farmers already have important farming and family duties, you should be both patient and creative in your approach to building their leadership and buy-in for the service centers.
Along with transitioning these service centers to the cluster committees, you will implement two center-based initiatives. First, you will organize trainings to improve agricultural practices. These trainings should focus on integrating traditional Kutchi techniques that sustain the land and its resources into modern farming practices. You will identify key resource people and host them in a cluster-wide training. Second, you will start forming economic collectives based at the centers. Currently, many farmers’ crops reach the mass market through numerous middlemen; as the crops exchange more hands, the money that returns to the farmer is diminished. Through the economic collective, farmers will gain bargaining and selling power, allowing them to sell their products more directly to the market. Ideally, the collective will support the farmers as they explore how they can add additional value to their products. Throughout your year with KNNA-Setu, you should keep careful notes and documentation in order to be able to replicate your efforts in other communities.
Target Community:
You will be active in a cluster of 15-20 villages. The Bhachau block lies in the eastern part of Kutch. It was one of the most adversely affected regions during the 2001 earthquake. The majority of the population farms, and belongs to socio-economically disadvantaged classes. Most farmers own an average of five acres of land. Education levels are low and a majority of the population is illiterate. Due to harsh climate in recent years, a number of farmers have given up farming and migrated to the coast as salt pan workers.
Objectives:
• To transition leadership of the SADA centers to the cluster committees
• To revive traditional farming methods through trainings
• To develop more direct linkages between the farmers and the market
Challenges:
• Motivating farmers to take ownership of the service center, especially in light of other demands on their time
• Addressing the needs of a large community of stakeholders (each cluster committee consists of many farmers) who will likely have different opinions
• Managing multiple projects that will require you to have technical knowledge of markets and farming as well as soft skills in people’s management and leadership training
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case the duo of organizations – KNNA-Setu and KHAMIR – will be hosting 3 Fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 Fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps Fellows, your focus is to make traditional crafts and farming practices of Kutch profitable and sustainable in today’s globalizing environment. Team members will focus on different areas including integrating traditional farming methods with modern knowledge; supporting growing, spinning and weaving of organic cotton; and creating a support network for artisans to help improve their living standards.
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