ExperienceMy learnings in FacultyDevelopment Programme 25

Social SecurityMud Crab fattening

14ImpactLand development in Rainfed Farming 11

MattersDevelopment March 2008

Seed VillageFeature

MattersDevelopment Vol. II Issue 3 March 2008

Centre for Development CommunicationDHAN Foundation18, Pillaiyar Koil Street, S.S. Colony

Madurai - 625 016. Tamil Nadu, INDIA

Tel.: +91-452-4353983, 2610794, 2610805

Email: dhanfoundation_tn@airtelmail.in

Website: http://www.dhan.org

From the Editors’ Desk

Contents

1. Seed Village 1

2. Survival of the Commons: Tanks of South India 7

3. Land development in Rainfed Farming 11

4. Mud Crab fattening 14

5. Rural India Learning Journey and Indian Americans 17

th6. 10000 Water purifier 20

7. DHAN North Tribal Programme 23

8. DHAN bid for uplifting rural India getting boost 24

9. My learnings in Faculty Development Programme 25

10. Harvesting Goodwill 29

The process of involving majority of the farmers of a particular village to take up one particular crop, mainly for seed production purpose.

Dear Readers!

Greetings!

Sorry for the delayed issue of March. The March issue brings you an

innovative idea of the Pavagada team in building corpus for the

federation through seed village programme. M. Karthikeyan's write

up about the land development activities carried out in Nattarampalli

tells us the impact of focused interventions and various dimensions of

land development.

No doubt, you will enjoy reading the write up of Sangeetha, Tata-

Dhan Academy on her professional development training experience

she underwent in IIMA. She brings in-depth reflection on her training

experience and its relevance to her work. The rural journey experience

by a group of NRIs with DHAN and a few other development works in

India brings us the pride in what we are doing and their commitment to

contribute community initiatives.

As usual, we look forward for your feedback, contributions,

comments, critiques, feedback and encouragement to enrich the

quality of this magazine.

Happy reading!

1

Innovation

*K.T. Ramappa, Regional Coordinator, DHAN Foundation, Pavagada

Seed Village

K.T. Ramappa*

Pavagada is one of the mostbackward and drought prone

taluks of Tumakur district inKarnataka. The average rainfall of thistaluk is 415 mm. It is not evenlydistributed because of orographiceffect and proximal effect of the sea.Agriculture is the backbone of theeconomy of this block. Drylandagriculture surpasses the wet andHorticulture. The taluk consists of fourhoblis covering 33 Panchayats and145 villages. The total population ofthe taluk is 2.50 lakhs of which 43.6% belongs to SC/ST community. Asper the 2001 census the literacy rateof the taluk is 56.5% much lower thanthe state average of 67.5%. Totalcultivable area of the taluk is 77,709hectares, of which oil seeds occupy 85% of the cultivable area. Ground nutis the major crop which covers 92.1%of the total oil seeds and is the onlylife line for farmers. Most of thefarmers acclimatized to this crop andare hesitant to switch over to othercrops.

What is seed villageprogramme? The seed villageprogramme is one of the mainactivities of the NSP (National SeedProject), a project set up by the IndianCouncil of Agriculture Research(ICAR), New Delhi. It is the processof involving the majority of thefarmers of a particular village totake up one particular crop, mainlyfor seed production purpose. For theoperational viability of the activity, aminimum of 30-50 farmers of theparticular village has to cultivate a

particular crop for seed productionpurpose. The objectives of thisactivity are.• To increase the seed

replacement ratio: To look into the states average percentageof seed replacement of any crop,it is only 12%. Almost all thefarmers are using their own cropseeds repeatedly year after yearfor the crop cultivation. Thisresult in poor crop yield due tohigher susceptibility to pests anddiseases attack because ofreduced seed viability.

• To increase seeds production:Presently the oil seedsrequirement of the state is takencare by state agriculturedepartment and the KarnatakaOil Federation (KOF). But only10-15 percent of farmers needcan able to meet by both these

organizations. Both theseorganizations trying their best toproduce as much seeds aspossible.

• To ensure seeds requirementof the Farmers: The state’sAgriculture department is intremendous pressure to supplythe certified quality seeds to allfarmers during the monsoonseason. The condition will beeven worse if there is acontinuous drought for 2-3 years.Small and marginal farmers arefacing lot of problems to procuregood quality seeds in time.

Seed village programme in Pavagada

Being a drought prone area and thelargest producer of groundnut crop, thefarmers in the Pavagada taluk faced alot of problems in getting quality seedsduring the monsoon season. If the

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seeds are not available at the time offirst rain in the month of June, theywill be loosing precious time ofsowing and consequently the cropyield. Because of scanty rainfall andno other irrigation facilities, they usedto harvest always below the averageyield. The worst hits were the smalland marginal farmers. The big farmersused to keep aside seeds grown up intheir field, whereas the small andmarginal farmers cannot afford it as theharvest they get might not even meettheir own consumption. Usuallygovernment supplied the seeds duringthe season at subsidised rate but itcould meet only 10-15 % of theirdemand, that too not timely. They hadspent a lot of money in bringing goodseeds from long distance, most of thetime they were not sure of gettingquality seeds. For the DHANFoundation team, which is working inthis taluk since five years, it was oneof the main issues to tackle and theydecided to find a collective solutionfor this.

The team members discussed thiswith the farmers and introduced themthe National Seed Programme (NSP)for forging alliances to address theissues of quality seeds. Event thoughthe NSP is interested in broad basingtheir seed programme, due tomanpower shortage and theremoteness of the area they couldn’tconcentrate all over the state with thefarmers. The team along with thefarmers to approached NSP forexploring any possibility of joint work.They came out with a plan ofundertaking their seed programme.

Salient features of the programme:

• Seeds distribution at 50 %seed cost: In order to facilitatefarmers to take up this activity,NSP supplies seeds to the

farmers at 50% initial seed cost.The remaining 50% amountfarmers can repay at the time ofmarketing. This arrangement ismainly to build confidenceamong the farmers and alsofacilitate farmers to sell theproduce to NSP.

• Regular monitoring andtechnical support to farmersregarding package of practiceand post harvest handling ofcrops: At regular interval theNSP official would visit thefarmer ’s field for cropmonitoring. As per therequirement they will guidefarmers by giving suitablerecommendation to control pestand disease. If possible they willalso use this opportunity tosuggest farmers someintervention at critical stage forbetter crop yield.

• Buy back of produce at fairlygood price: Here the marketprice for the produce would befixed well in advance and theNSP is abiding for that pricewhatever may be the marketprice. In case of higher marketprice as compared to NSP price,there is a possibility of revisingthe agreed price so that farmerswill get at least 15% higher ratecompare to market price to meetthe purpose.

• Seed certificationarrangements: The one of themain purposes of the seed villageprogramme is to ensure seedrequirement of the state. In orderto bring authenticity and toensure quality of the farmer’sproduce, the NSP is makingarrangement for seedcertification. The farmer’s namewill be enrolled under district

certification agency to takeappropriate steps to look in to thequality aspects before certifyingthe seeds for future marketing.

Our approach ofimplementation: Though the NSPhasn’t insisted Dhan to go like this orthe other way, we have followed ourown way to implement theprogramme. As we have beeninvolved in the promotion of peopleinstitutions to tackle context specificdevelopment issues and alsonetworking them in to cascades andfederation, we felt it is appropriate toimplement the seed villageprogramme through people federation.So the federation was encouraged toinitiate this programme as an entrypoint activity as it brings identity tothe people institution and also bringconfidence to the people to take manymore programmes in the future. Theprocesses followed were:• All activities were undertaken

through the federation: ThePavagada Taluk KeregalaJalasamvardhane VayalagamOkkoota (PTKJSVO) is thenetwork of 41 TFAs that werepromoted to implement theJSYS project in Pavagada.Though this was first of its kind,response from the people wasoverwhelming as all the TFAmembers expressed the need ofsustainable institution anddecided to network themselvesin to federation. As an entry pointactivity of the federation, wediscussed with the federationleaders. The leaders accepted theidea and all the activity of theseed village programme aretaken through the federation. Theactivities like seeding theconcept, taking appropriate

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decisions, cash collection etc aredone through the federation.

• TFAs and Cascade meetingsact as bridge between farmersand federation: The networkingis of three tire systems whereTFA and Cascade are the othertwo to link under federation.There are two membersrepresentation from each cascadein the federation executivecommittee and the farmersselected for the seed villageprogramme are from thesevillages only. So for anyinformation dissemination thesepeople institutions act as bridgebetween farmers and federationto make life easy and also forsmooth functioning.

• Federation leaders wereinvolved fully: In principle, wehave placed the community at thecentre in all the stages ofimplementation. We encouragedthe farmers’ leaders to carryoutthe coordination activities, so asto instill in them the value ofcollective efforts. The leadersworked proactively andresponded positively at all stagesof implementation.

• Federation and cascademeetings were used forbuilding their capacities: Sincethe village representatives werefrom the cascade and TFAs, themeetings of these institutionswere utilised for informationcollection, dissemination and fortaking collective decision.

Process followed for theprogramme implementation:Though the NSP has been in thisbusiness for quite a long time, it wasthe first time NSP has taken up such alarge scale project with the community

in association with an NGO. It wasjust to demonstrate with the farmers,the concept of collective seedproduction. The processes followedduring the project was

Concept seeding/ orientation aboutthe programme

Advance seed amount collection(50% of seed cost in cash)

Continuous contact with NSPofficials for follow-up for good

seeds

Seed distribution to farmers

Monitoring the crop sowing withseed treatment

Regular crop monitoring andsuggesting recommendation for pest

and diseases

Field day celebration at the time ofharvest by inviting VC, UAS,

Bangalore

Orientation on post harvest handlingof crop (Stocking, Cleaning,

winnowing etc)

Procuring seeds from the farmers

Quality testing of the producePhysical observation for maturity of seed,pod colour, size etc, Grading of ground nutpod, Sample weight (75: 25 ratio of seeds

to shell and 80% SMK)

Payment through cheque

Benefits to the farmers

From the farmers point of view thebenefits from this programme weremany. Farmers were able to visualize

the benefits and felt very happy thatthey haven’t imagined such an impact.Some of the direct benefits peoplerecognized were.• Getting quality seeds in time:

Getting quality seeds in timeduring the monsoon season itselfwas a very big achievement.Earlier, they faced a lot ofproblems in acquiring qualityseeds in time. As there was a lotof demand for the seeds and thedepartment was unable to supplythe required quantity. Now thefarmers felt very happy that theygot good quality seeds in time,which is one of the mainprerequisites for better yield.

• Less investment on seeds (Only50% initial costs): As the NSPsupplied seeds at 50% initialseed cost, it gave an additionaladvantage for the people whowere struggling a lot for the initialinvestment. As the taluk is pronefor frequent drought and majorityof the farmers are small andmarginal, this option was reallya boon for them.

• Technical support on cropmanagement: Because of thisprogramme, the NSP officials aswell as DHAN professionalsgave continuous support to thefarmers on crop package ofpractice. There was a continuousfield visit from these officials atregular intervals of the croppingperiod to monitor the crop. Thefarmers have got timely advicein controlling the pest anddisease attack.

• Better yield because of qualityseeds: Quality of seeds is the oneof the most important parameterwhich has direct impact on cropyield. It may be from better

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germination or from resistance topests and diseases. By gettingquality seeds farmers definitelybenefited by better yields. As perthe farmers view there wasaround 0.5 to 2 quintal increasein the yield per acre because ofquality seeds, good rain andtechnical support.

• Middle men were avoided inmarketing: Earlier, because offragmented land and independentfarming, people bound to dependon middlemen for the marketingof their produce. As majority ofthe farmers of the same villagewere involved in thisprogramme, there was everypossibility for collectivemarketing. This systemdefinitely helped farmers inavoiding middlemen and in turnincreased the profit.

• Less transportation cost due tocollective marketing: Again itwas a group activity under theassociation; the marketing wascollectively done. Thetransportation cost was shared byall the farm holdings which havereduced the cost considerablyand increased the profit.

• Getting precise weight for theproduce (Weighing by digitalbalance): Earlier the farmerswere easily deceived by thetraders through improperweighing practices. Again therewas a custom of deducting 1-3 kgper quintal of produce intraditional marketing system.Because of the collectivemarketing the farmers reaped allthese benefits by avoiding thismenace and got precise weightfor their produce by weighingwith digital balance.

• Loading and unloading by thefarmers: It was decidedcollectively by all the farmersthat, instead of employing coolie/ hamali, the farmers themselvesto provide their labour. They hadto face resistance from thelicensed coolies. The farmersultimately succeed in dealingwith this issue. By eliminatingthe cost of loading and unloading,the farmers could get theadditional benefit.

• Better price: During the initialperiod itself, the price for theproduce was offered fairly betterprice. Rs. 2800.00 per quintal

was fixed as purchase priceirrespective of market price.Accordingly farmers got anadditional benefit of Rs.750.00per quintal as the market priceduring the period was onlybetween Rs.1800-2300 / quintal.

• Timely payment: The NSPresponded very well and ensuredthe timely payment for thefarmers. By this way also farmersgot benefited.

• Additional benefits throughpromotional incentives: Inordered to motivate andencourage farmers to involve inthe seed village programme inthe future, the governmentwaived off the remaining 50% ofthe seed cost. Because of this,farmer could save Rs.1400 perquintal. Since they did notanticipate and the amount wascollected at the time ofmarketing, farmers havecollectively agreed to contributethis to the corpus of thefederation meeting.

Challenges of the programme:Fortunately we didn’t come across anymajor problems during the entireprogramme, but it is worth to discussthe anticipated challenges to foreseein the programme to minimize the riskas these bound to happen in the futureinitiatives. Some of the challenges ofthe programme are listed here under.

• Programme success dependson climate: Pavagada hasreceived good rain and there wasno major pest/ disease attack inthis season. Because of thiseverything went on as plannedand there was fairly good cropyield. At the same time themarket price for the ground nutat the time of harvest was

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between Rs.1800 to 2300 perquintal as against the price fixedearlier by the NSP as Rs.2800 perquintal. So people felt veryhappy to sell their produce at theNSP and the purpose of theprogramme was also the same.

• Timely supply of seeds: As theprogramme under taken was ona large scale spread over vastarea, the timely supply of qualityseeds to all the farmers ofdifferent villages is again a bigchallenge. There was no stock atthe NSP to supply the seeds atthe first monsoon, we struggleda lot to procure seeds and finallysucceeded to supply the seeds tothe farmers at right time.

• Repayment of balance 50%seed cost: This is again a very bigchallenge if there is a crop failure.We were very much fortunate tohave good crop as well as waivedoff the balance amount so that thefederation was able to gainconsiderable amount of corpus.

• Ensuring varietal purity(Avoiding adulteration): Thefarmers who did not participatein the programme in the samevillage have also grown the cropof their own variety. It was aHerculean task to prevent anyadulteration in the wake of goodprice offered by NSP. Because ofour rapport with the farmers andthe care taken at every stage inhandling this situation wesucceed in this aspect.

• Storage facilities for stocking:This is the first time NSP andDHAN have taken up this typeof activity on a large scale. As allthe farmers went for marketingat the same time, we have facedlot of difficulties in storing theprocured produce. But APMC(Agricultural ProducedMarketing Committee) officials

responded positively by givingfive godowns for storage.

• Security of stored productmainly against pest attack:The stored groundnut is highlysusceptible to pest attack.Utmost care is needed to ensurethat there is no damage for theseeds. So, safe storage of theproduce is again a majorchallenge.

• Timely payment to the farmers:Timely and transparent financialtransaction is one of the mainprerequisites for the success ofany collective activity. ThoughNSP has first time involved inthis type of major programme,the response we got in the timelypayment for the produce was verymuch appreciable.

Learnings of this programme:Learnings from the programme areimmense. Every day brought us newlearnings and they were so exciting.Some of the important learnings ofthis programme are as followed.• Proper planning must be there

through out the programme:There are so many processesthrough out the programme likecash collection, seed distribution,material procurement, qualitycontrol; storage etc., so theremust be proper planning for allthese activity for the smoothrunning of the programme.

• Grader facilities should beavailable well in advance: Thegroundnut grown under thisprogramme is mainly for seedproduction purpose. To ensuregood quality groundnut pod, thegrading of the produce is verymuch essential. In order toensure the quality of seeds,efficient grading machine facilityshould be made available well inadvance.

• Storage facilities to be ensured:Safe storage is very muchessential to maintain the qualityof the stored product. So, safeand hygienic storage facilitiesneed to be arranged well inadvance for smooth operation ofthe programme.

Impact on the Federation: Fromthe point of view of Federation, theseed village programme has createdvery good impact both at village aswell as at block level.• This is one of the unique events

undertaken in Pavagada talukfor the first time and around430 small and marginalfarmers from 34 villages haveparticipated in the programme.

• Very good identity to thefederation and to the DHANFoundation: The programmehas created very good identity tothe federation. It alsodemonstrated the strength of thepeople institution for doing thiskind of collective action. Theprogramme also gave very goodidentity to DHAN Foundation,which in turn created a lot ofscope for many suchpartnerships.

• Very good exposure to the linedepartments: The programmealso gave exposure for bothfederation leaders as well aspeople about various linedepartments. The variousfunctions conducted in betweenthe programme have helpedpeople and the departmentofficials to know each other andthe facilities available.

• Confidence for collectiveaction: The programme helpedthe people of Pavagada, to knowthe strengths of collective action.It has really brought confidenceamong the farmers to take upsimilar initiatives in the future.

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Statistics

Some of the important statistics of the seed village programme are stated asunder. Though the exact production of the groundnut was not known, but therewas crop yield of 5 – 7 quintal per acre of crop.

Service cost/corpus generated from the programme: As the programmewas undertaken as an entry point activity of the federation, the idea was togenerate some corpus for the federation for its self reliance. All the importantdecisions including corpus/service cost generation were taken in the federationmeetings. Though the balance 50% seed cost was waived by the governmentbut at the last moment, after the repayment the farmers agreed to contributethis as federation corpus.

Incremental benefits per acre: Asmentioned earlier, an attempt was made to knowthe incremental benefits received by the farmersper acre of crop cultivation. Additional yield peracre was around 0.5 to 2 quintal, on an average0.5 quintal/acre was taken in to consideration forcalculating the incremental benefits from thisseed village programme.

Area covered under groundnut crop : 720 acreGroundnut crop varieties selected : TMV-2, JL-24Groundnut seeds supplied : 331 quintalFarmers benefited from the programme : 430No.(47big,258

marginal, 125 small)Villages covered under the programme : 34Panchayat covered under the programme : 12Total crop production : 4320 quintalSeeds procured from farmers : 3050 quintal

Particulars Quantity Rate Amount

Seeds supplied 331 Qtl 2800.00 9,26,800.00

Seeds purchased 3050 Qtl 2800.00 85,40,000.00

Seed certification incentives 1400 Qtl 1000.00 14,00,000.00

Total 1,08,66,800.00

Particulars Quantity Rate Amount

Repayment of 50% balanceseed cost 331 Qtl 1400.00 4,63,400.00

Service cost as per resolution 3050 Qtl 50.00 1,52,500.00

Certification incentives 1400 Qtl 600.00 8,40,000.00

Total 14,55,900.00

Field day celebration:During the harvesting stage of thecrop, the field day was conductedin one village calledGundarlahalli. The main reasonfor selecting this particular villagewas easy mobility to all the othervillagers. The Vice Chancellor,Agriculture University, Bangalorewas the chief guest. The purposeof this programme was to sharethe learnings and to motivate thefarmers for further propagation ofseed village technology. Theresponse from the farmers for thisprogramme was overwhelming.The VC has promised to set up aKVK in Pavagada.

Groundnut sandy day: Inorder to motivate and facilitatefarmers for groundnut marketing,groundnut sandy day wasorganised. The farmers sold theleft out groundnut during theevent. The purpose of this eventwas to buy back the groundnut asmuch as possible to meet the seedrequirement. This programmealso gave very good result asaround 500 quintal of groundnutwas procured from the farmersduring the event.

Particulars Quantity Rate Amount

Additional yield 0.5 Qtl 2800.00 1375.00

Saving from hamali/coolie 2 kg/bags 22.00 200.00

Savings from weight loss 2 kg/bag 28.00 616.00

Additional price 5 Qtl 550.00 2750.00

Incremental benefit (Rs. Per acre) 4941.00

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Perspectives

*M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director, DHAN Foundation. Presented at “Survival of the Commons: Mounting Challenges and New Realities,” the Eleventh Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bali, Indonesia,

Survival of the Commons: Tanks of South India

M.P. Vasimalai*

Background

Tanks are traditional irrigationcommon situated in many parts ofIndian sub-continent to capturemonsoon runoff in arid and semi aridareas. As per Minor Irrigation Censusof 1986, tanks numbering around500,000 are one of important irrigationresources serving 33% of Net irrigatedarea in the country. They are found inall soil types except in sand, but foundin all socio ecological, agro-climaticand rainfall areas of the country. Theyare in existence for several centuriesserving the water needs ofunderprivileged communities namelysmall and marginal farmers. As one ofthe oldest man-made ecosystems, thetank systems consists of water spreadareas, physically constructedstructures namely bund, sluices,surplus weirs and water flowstructures like feeder canals andsurplus courses, wetlands, flora andfauna and inland fishes. Tanks havebeen serving both as flood moderatorsin times of heavy rainfall and asdrought mitigators in times of long dryspell.

Rationale for Stakeholders’

perspective on Tanks survival

Tanks being widely dispersed, ifrevived to their original capacity, thetanks would ensure direct irrigationand ground water recharge in waterstressed, rain ‘insufficient’ areas.Nonetheless, they are a basis life

supporting system in most parts of thestate. Being numerous, small in sizeand spread over thousands of villages,tanks lend themselves todecentralized local management,whose maintenance and managementare currently centralized with ‘State’government. The irrigation servicesare far superior in terms of conveyanceand water use efficiencies. Moreover,tanks are resource complexes formultifarious uses of the localcommunities. The most prominentuses include the following:• Set the agenda for all the primary

stakeholders, philanthropicorganizations and the community.

• Irrigation, drinking water forpeople & animals, domestic usefor people & animals andrecharging ground wateracquifers

• Space for animal to graze, togrow fuel wood and timber,fodder, avail silt for manure andsand for construction.

• Sanctuary for birds, animals andbio-diversity complex for floraand fauna and place to rear fish.

The Purpose

The centralized administrationintroduced by the British Colonial rulehad almost wiped out the role of thecommunity in conserving anddeveloping them. Even in free andindependent India it is continued tobe even more retrogressive in keeping

people and locals away in mattersrelated to the tanks. Presently thetanks have many stakeholders such asthe Irrigation department, the localPanchayats, the Revenue department,the Agricultural Department, Forestdepartment and the local people.These resources need revival andrehabilitation. The situation thereforecalls for major changes in governance,and management, activism of thelocals, research in engineering andtankfed agronomy, funding by thegovernments, and donors. The desiredchanges can be brought about onlywhen the various stakeholders arebrought to a common platform to sharetheir views on the need for sustainedmanagement. It is therefore decidedto consolidate the experience of theconstituents dependent on tanks.Some attempts for reforming thesystem and administration were madeby the various stakeholders like thefarming community, government andnon-government agencies, researchand academic institutions. Suchefforts were sporadic and did notculminate into any appreciable policychange. Therefore a series of thestakeholders’ meets, discussiongroups, future search meets andFarmers Conventions were organizedto sharpen the understanding on tanks.DHAN Foundation across the state,representing various agro-climatic andsociological setting selected five

8

basins to get a glimpse of transitionin tanks and tankfed agriculture. Theobjectives of this exercise was to

• Bring together the major actorsinvolved in the theme, to evolveand shape the future of tanks

• Set the agenda for all the primarystakeholders, philanthropicorganizations and thecommunity.

Stakeholders Meet

There are many stakeholders inthe tank and tank programs, of whichthe government agencies, farmers andresearch institutions are important.The government officials, institutionsand farmers were invited for the meetto listen to each one’s views on thetank systems. The meet focused on thestatus of tanks, tankfed agriculture,tank administration, encroachmentand the improvements needed onthese aspects.

Future Search Meet

The tank as a resource has gotmultiple uses and users. The FutureSearch Meet was to ascertain the

perspectives of all the users of thetank and village. Representatives ofthe various users have debated on thesubject of the tank. The agenda fordiscussion included. The past uses oftanks; Tank maintenance; Changes inTank Productivity, Crops, WellIrrigation and Water Managementbefore and after independence;Reforms proposed forAdministration, Usufructs and Watermanagement; Tank Rehabilitationand its need; present & future scopeof developing tankfed agriculture.

Farmers’ Convention

A Convention of Farmers from175 villages was organized to holddiscussions. Nine preparatorymeetings were also held with theparticipation of around 100 farmersfrom block towns and key villages.The discussions focused on the topicslike – the general status of tanks inthe blocks; rehabilitation programs inthe area; farmers’ participation in theprograms; tank encroachments andtank productivity. DHAN Foundationstaff organized such meetings.

Conservation: Need of the Hour

The frequent droughts witnessed bythe country makes us to think aboutopting for simple and robust solutionsfor solving the water problems for alluses and users in the country. Sincemany parts of the country are endowedwith tanks the need of the hour is tosafeguard these properties by way ofconservation measures. Also, it isimportant that the new foundenlightenment in water harvesting orcatch water is good to start with.However, ignoring what we have willbe unwise and we may have to regret.

Unfortunately, most of thewatershed projects or waterdevelopment projects across thecountry irrespective of its title andstated objectives are indulging increating new structures whether it isscientific or absurd. This newstructures in most cases are eithershort-lived or never bear fruit andbecome infructuous for want of somany reasons. Therefore, to strike abalance to stabilize the tank dependentcommunities we may need to thinkabout the conservation of tanks whichhave existed for such a long time.

The rise of ground water irrigationin the country is forcing the cost of farmproduction higher and higher leadingto bankruptcy of farm households in thecountryside. Even, in most acclaimedground water areas the phenomena ofground water drought is being faced.In most of these ground water irrigatedareas agriculture is becoming costlierand unsustainable due to the rapidlyfalling ground water tables. They arein need of a major recharge programme.To start any recharge programme wehave to think of larger surface water

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bodies to have an impact. The tanksand ponds spread across the villageoffers good scope of recharge and atleast stabilizing agriculture if notraising the productivity of the farms.

Also it is important that many ofthe cities and rural household dependon ground water. According to therecent figures around 75% of thedrinking water requirements in thecountry are met by the groundwaterrecharges. This is by any means is adangerous signal for the drinkingwater planners in the country. Thereasons are very simple that theextraction will never be made equalby the present recharges including thenew found enthusiastic harvestingmeasures. The geo-hydrology of mostparts of the country leaving a fewriverine sandy aquifers is hard rock orits variants. In all hard rock areasoccurrences and recharges of Groundwater is directly related to the storagesin the surface water bodies. Therefore,by all means it is wise and simplewithout wasting money we need to goahead for conservation of the existingtanks across the country.

Our studies and experiences inSouth India shows that the scope ofpreserving the tanks is enormous andonly political will and awareness ofthe situation is needed and nothingmore. The money being used invarious water programmes andartificial recharge programmes willbear immediate fruit if tanks andponds are saved simply from theextinction. The conserved tanks andponds will serve a long lastingmultiple uses and purposes for variouscommunities including the urbanareas.

Challenges facing Conservation of

Tanks

There are three kinds of situationsin small scale water sector whichinclude village tanks based on theirpotential and usage.

Based on situations, eitherconservation or development, or bothassume significance. The challengesto conservation and development are:

• Technological challenge forrestoration / conservation anddevelopment

• Institutional challenge for revival/ conservation and development

• Financial and human resourceschallenge for revival and

• Redefining the role of the state,research institutions, resourceinstitutions, NGOs and the localcommunity for conservation anddevelopment

Technological Challenges

What are the technologiesavailable in small scale water sector?Contribution of the local people withtheir indigenous wisdom only runs thevillage tanks. Scientists and engineersare mostly ‘attracted’ or ‘pulled’ tomajor and medium irrigation sector inthe country. Their contribution fortanks has been comparativelyinadequate. A new ‘ thrust’ should be

given to work on this sector on thefollowing lines:• Developing new technologies to

make tanks more relevant in agiven context by way ofidentifying techniques of

maximizing tankp r o d u c t i v i t y,ground waterrecharge andother tankservices.• D o c u -mentation ofi n d i g e n o u sk n o w l e d g esystem on smallscale water

technology: CSE, New Delhi hasshown the way by publishing‘Dying Wisdom’.

• Initiating R and D in this sectorby persuading researchinstitutions to come out withfield oriented research projectson the sector’s significantcontribution to poverty reductionand to tap the full potential of therural poor.

• Technological intermediationhas to be done because“Technology is not class neutralor even scale neutral”. What istechnological intermediation inSSW sector? Indigenousknowledge system could bevalidated scientifically for itsapplication and dissemination. Anew hybrid of technology couldbe developed by cross-fertilizingindigenous technology withmodern water technology fromresearch institutions. Otherwise,technology related to major andmedium irrigation sector couldbe ‘intermediated’ to suit to smallscale and for the local people’sadoption.

Region Focus

Andhra Pradesh,Karnataka & Maharashtra,Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat& Rajasthan

Conservation orrevival, modernizationor adaptation exceptin selected pockets

Bihar, Orissa, M.P, parts ofU.P. and W.B.

Scope forDevelopment (new)

Hilly regions of North East,Himalayas etc.

Both Conservationand Development

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Institutional Challenge

Many forms of local institutions,both formal and informal are inexistence managing village tanks. Yetso many small structures are withoutlocal institutions. Hence a range ofactions has to be initiated or evolved.• Regeneration of local institutions• Formation of new local

institutions• Development of nested

institutions on horizontal andvertical line to build the sector

• Integration of these localinstitutions with panchayat andother mainstreaminstitutions.

• Development of‘good governance’ atall levels of theseinstitutions bysystematic capacitybuilding programmes

• Creating a ‘newgeneration of localworkers’ for thevillage tanks bysystematic training.

Financial and Human

Resources Challenge

More and more fundsare flowing continuouslyto major and mediumIrrigation sector becauseof political compulsionsand lack of ‘pull’ from tanksector. A new way ofthinking (mindset) has tocome among policymakers, developmentplanners, implementers,resource allocators andusers. Repeated, strongmessage and advocacyhave to be given to the

above categories of people throughrigorous field interaction and‘Dialogue Workshops’. There is nodearth of money in this country. EachDRDA in the country on an averagespends at least Rs.10 crores annuallyfor various schemes of povertyalleviation in the villages and apexfinancial institutions like NABARD,and other Banks do have ‘loan ablefunds’. What is needed is an enablingpolicy and a strong, demand from localinstitutions and the civil society.

It is found that the local peopleoften ask for ‘rights’ to use the

usufructs, for the conservation and up-keep of tanks and ponds. Thereforeempowerment of local institutionswith ‘rights’ over tanks, inconsultation with the PanchayatInstitutions, and substantial allocationof financial resources (grants andloans) for ‘massive’ implementationof rehabilitation programme will helpto conserve and develop the villagetanks and ponds.

Redefining the Role of stakeholders

The institutions working on thetank fed agriculture have acquiredthose in the height of the colonial days

Institutions New Role Role to be dropped

1. State • Rigorous regulation & enabling policy and empowerment of people's institutions

• Encouraging market investments

• Technical and

• Managerial support

• Resource augmentation

• Implementation role & implementation staff

• Outdated legal framework

• Control perspective

2. Research& resourceinstitutions

• Study and documentation of existing practices

• Experimentation

• Opening new frontier

• Outreach & field oriented research and studies

• Conventional outlook

• Outdated curriculum & polices

• Exclusive reliance on

campus based activities

3. NGOs • Understanding people's needs and aspirations through committed work and pilot field works

• Enlarging into research and resource institutional areas

• Liaisoning with Government research & resource institutions & people's organisation

• Conventional social outlook

• Ordinary quality staff & programmes

• Conventional institutional view

4. People'sInstitutions /CommunityInstitutions

• Vibrant civil society-sharing governance

• Setting agenda for mainstream institutions & social auditing of those institutions

• Expectations of doles & subsides

• Divisive parochial views and tokenism

11

and most of them serve no purposeother than holding offices. Greaterchallenges are forcing them to be inthe race of development in ameaningful manner and our analysisindicates the following matrix of theroles to be dropped and acquired.

Revival of Tanks as measure of Tank

Conservation

A tank comprises the catchmentarea, feeder channels; water spreadarea, outlet structures (sluices), flooddisposal structures (surplus weir) andcommand area. It is reported that morethan 70 – 80 % of the minor irrigationtanks need renovation to restore them

*M. Karthikeyan, Programme Leader, Rainfed Farming Development Theme, DHAN Foundation, Nattarampalli

Impact

Land development in Rainfed Farming

M. Karthikeyan*

It is essential to understand the mindset of farmers and other

contextual features of the area tounderstand the activities undertakenby them in managing their naturalresources, particularly their land. Thefarmers in Nattarampalli block ofVellore District invest a lot inupgrading their land. In recent daysfarmers no longer see farming as worthenough for investment. In contrast,farmers in Nattarampalli are continuedto invest on their land. Even returnedmigrant farmers, after meetingimmediate family needs, go forinvesting on their land. More than80% of the farmers fall under smalland marginal category, that too withfragmented parcels of land.

Undulating terrain is common inupper part of the watersheds. Anothercontextual feature is that significantportion of the cultivated land cameinto private ownership, just beforethree to five decades. Earlier thoselands were part of the forest andvillage common property.

We have chosen land developmentapproach rather than soil and waterconservation approach. Here what wemean by ‘land development’ is allfixed investment interventions thatenhances the suitability of land forcultivation of crops. We followed thisapproach in alignment with theperspective of the farmers and theexperiences of the farmers in such

activities. The indigenous methodsused to develop lands had a numberof advantages. The examples were siltapplication, Prosophis and Cyanodandactylon clearance and conversion ofuncultivable land into cultivable land.The land development activities takenup by the farmers on their own wereland leveling, stone bunding and siltapplication. The other commonactivity was conversion ofuncultivable land into cultivable one.

Land leveling

Land leveling is nothing butremoving soil from the upper portionof the land and filling the lowerportion so that both of them come to

for normal functioning.Conventionally the followingterminologies are in practice relatedto tank works.

• Tank Rehabilitation/Restoration/ Renovation: Thetanks which are dysfunctional arebrought to normal functioning byway of undertaking works onbreach closing, tank bundstrengthening and repairs orreconstruction to the sluices andweirs.

• Tank Modernisation: Normallyfunctioning tanks are selected tomodernize their structures so thattheir functional efficiency isincreased. Typically the

traditional sluices are dismantledand sophisticated semi-mechanical sluices and gates areconstructed. Also lining ofchannels and liberal cementworks are allowed to undertake.

• Tank Desilting: Over thecenturies of time, tank waterspread area has been filled withsilt, sand and earth by way of soilerosion. This huge volume of siltis being removed in few placeswhere liberal funds are available.However there cannot be anysingle way to resolve thismassive problem of desilting inall the tanks.

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the same level. The farmers haveshown more interest for land levelingin Nattarampalli. They leveled theirlands along with earthen or stonebunding. Having convinced on theutility of this work, in spite of heavyinvestment needed for this activity,the farmers have gone in for this workin many places. It was a commonpractice to cut surfaces ranging from0.75 to 3 m in the field area. Anotherrelated aspect was that they took upthis activity in the areas where the soildepth was very shallow. Farmers saidthat they will bring back the originalfertility level within two to three yearsby sheep/goat penning and / or byapplication of silt. One moreinteresting aspect of this activity wasthat only well to do farmers has gonefor one time investment. The otherfarmers did this over years step bystep. In situ rainfall conservationcould be an expected output. But theaspiration of the farmers was not justsoil and water conservation. Assetupgradation was their ultimate goal,with the aim of enhancing theproduction potential of limited parcelsof land they own, as much as possible.So far 284 acres of lands were leveledby farmers with 25% contribution.

The value of work done was Rs. 23.13lakhs; but in reality they went beyondthis and did works worth of 130 to200 % of their actual estimate. Thefollowing impact was observed in thefield.• Increase in yield due to better

rain water conservation• Increase in income due to

conversion of rainfed land toirrigated land as this makespossible assured yield of bothfood crops like paddy and fingermillet but also cash crops likevegetables and sugarcane

• Improvement in food security• Increase in the value of treated

land and so increase in asset base• Increase in employment due to

increase in cropping intensity

Stone bunding: This activity wascarried out exclusively or as part ofland levelling. We have observedthree kinds of stone bunding inNattarampalli.

Slope stabilizing StoneBunding is the most commonstructure, made of one column ofstones. It stabilizes the steep slopecreated during land leveling. When

the height was more than one meter,large boulders were used.

Gully Levelling Stone Bundinghelps reclaim the land lost throughgully formation. It is usually made withtwo columns of stone bunding, inbetween space filled with rough stonesand wet soil. The breadth depends onthe depth of gully and erosive capacityof the water course. This interventionis a classic example of“concentration” approach instead ofthe conventional “conservation”approach, where the soil is expectedto stay in the same field. Because ofthe stone bund, soil from far awayfields start accumulating(concentrating) in the gully and in amatter of 5 to 10 years the farmer getsa piece of land rich with surface soil,in the place of the gully.

Boundary marking StoneBunding resembles the slopestabilizing stone bunding but built formarking the field boundary and toensure that the nearby farmer do notpush the boundary.

The stone bunding activity seemedto be very suitable for this area since alot of stones are available in the localarea. Many times stone bunding androck removal were combined so thatthe farmer reveive double benefitsfrom a single activity. It is such an oldpractice in this location that we can seea large number of stone bunding whichare up to five decades old. There iseven a mini-dam like stone bundingwhich is more than 80 m length and2.5 m breadth. Because of ourintervention, stone bunding running fora length of 10554 metres was taken upin 10 watersheds with 25%contribution. The value of work donewas Rs. 7.70 lakhs. Because of stonebunding, we could observe increase inyield due to better rainfall and soil

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conservation and increase in the valueof treated land that resulted in increasein asset base.

Earthen bunding: The commontype of earthen bunding is done toretain soil brought during landleveling. Earthen bund is to retain runoff Soil from upper part of the field isless preferred because the farmersthink that they lose significant landarea. Even if the third type of bund iscreated, it is done by scooping soilfrom the down stream and / or bymoving the soil from upstream, andrarely by making trenches in theupstream. So this activity is more likean introduced activity. So far 12,081running metre of earthern bunding wastaken up in 10 watersheds with 25 %contribution. The value of work doneis Rs.1.68 lakhs.

Conversion of uncultivable land into

cultivable land

This is also a common activityundertaken under NRM componentby the farmers. This activity usuallyinvolves rock removal, jungleclearance and land leveling in landcloser to the cultivated land. Thestrategy of the farmers was to increasethe area under cultivation (i.e. assetbuilding), to the potential limit, asmost of them were small and marginalfarmers. Sometimes the expenditurewas so high to an extent equivalent tobuying the same area. Farmerswillingly have taken up this activitythough they had to contribute 50% ofthe estimated cost of work. So far 14acres were brought under cultivationby farmers. The value of work donewas Rs.3.23 lakhs; but the farmers didworks worth of 150 to 200 % of theestimate. This activity could result inincrease in income and employmentdue to increase in area cultivated,improvement in food security andincrease in asset base.

Tapping subsurface flow through

ponds

Farmers have tapped subsurfaceflow by constructing small ponds andshallow well, wherever there was apotential. Even if there was no surfacewater supply these pondsautomatically got supply from thesubsurface. It was everyone’s surprisethat how did these farmers identifysuch locations. They opine thatrestoring these structures is the mostcost effective activity, as the benefitsare immediate and significant. Thistype of intervention has helped themto increase their income andemployment due to increase in areacultivated. Improvement in foodsecurity by protecting crop yield wasthe other major impact as these pondsserve as life irrigation source and sometimes as sole irrigation source in wetand dry cultivation.

Soil amendment:

Soil amendment is a popularactivity in Nattarampalli. Farmers addsilt in red loamy field and add red soilin heavy clay and calcareous soils toimprove the soil structure. Besidesthat silt is commonly applied to wornout soils and freshly leveled lands tocompensate for lost fertility. Thoughthe state agencies do not recommendthis activity due very high possibilitiesof frauds. So far soil amendment wastaken up in 225 acres by farmers with25 % contribution. The value of workdone was Rs.10.79 lakhs; but most ofthe activities were taken up with aninvestment which is more thanestimated. About 30 percent increasein yield and income due to betterrainfall conservation and fertility wasthe impact realized by the farmers. Italso helped in desilting of tanks andponds.

Following the farmers’ way for NRM

in watershed scheme

Taking up indigenous/wellestablished activities under watershedscheme helps in,

1. Facilitates easy collection offarmer’s share / contribution

2. Implementation by the farmersthemselves ensures the highestlevel of quality

3. Triggers value of work which issignificantly more than allowedestimate, both in terms of size ofthe sanctioned activity and alsothe additional activities notincluded in the estimate, buttaken up by farmers. This resultsin increase in private investmentas a response to external support.

4. Results in high level ofownership and satisfaction.

5. Results in dispersed treatment ofthe watershed area, rather thanthe conventional ridge to valleyapproach conventionallyrecommended.

Conclusion

The farmers in Nattarampalli,being small/marginal farmers use assetupgradation and asset building as themain strategy for land development.Soil and water conservation is only apart of the implementation of thesestrategies. While benefit stream isdifficult to calculate for the abovementioned activities in the rainfedsituation, the increase in asset valuevery well compensates for investmentmade. Following their own strategiesfor implementation of watershedscheme though deviates fromconventional ridge to valley approach,has many operational and impactbenefits.

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Social Security

Mud Crab fattening

P. Lakshmanan*

*P. Lakshmanan, Regional Coordinator, DHAN Foundation, Karaikal

M ud crab fattening isundertaken in the states of

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Karnataka, Orissa and West Bengal asa livelihood alternative by the fisherfolk. The mud crabs inhabit marine aswell in brackish water environments.Two species of mud crabs, namelyScylla tanquebarica and Scyllaserrata are found in the inshore sea,estuaries, backwaters, coastal lakesand mangroove swamps of allmaritime states on the main land andthe creeks and bays of Andaman andNicobar Islands. Both the species co-exist in the inshore sea as well as inthe inland brackish waters preferringmuddy or sandy bottom.

Crab fattening is essentially aholding operation during which post-moult or water crabs are kept for ashort period of 20 days until they‘flesh out’ or immature female crabsare held until their gonads develop andfill the mantle cavity. This type ofactivity has become very popularthroughout the Asian countries due toincreasing demand for gravid femalesand large size hard shelled ones inseafood restaurants.

Technical Parameters

Mud crabs grow to a very large sizeof about 22 cm in carapace and about2 kg in weight. The crabs belongingto the species S. tranquebarica is freeliving and grows to a large size withcarapace width of 22 cm and those ofspecies S. serrata have borrowinghabit and grow to about 12.7 cm in

carapace width. Mud crabs areomnivorous and they feed on a widevariety of food items such as shrimps,crabs, bivalve molluscs and fish.

The females reach sexual maturityat a size of about 12 cm in S.tranquebarica and 8.5 cm inS.serrata in the brackish water. Boththe species are continuous breederswith peak breeding seasons whichvary from place to place. The peakseasons of seed abundance is May toOctober along the southwest coast,December to May in Madras coast andMarch to June in Chilka Lake. Eachcrab spawns once in two months. Thenumber of eggs carried byS. tranquebarica are about 1.1 to 7.0million and by S. serrata are 0.5 to0.9 million. The berried femalesmigrate from estuarine areas to theinshore sea. The eggs hatch out in thesea and undergo metamorphosis andthen they migrate to brackish water

areas and spread to different parts ofthe estuarine systems.

Mud Crab seeds: Seeds areavailable at all sizes. Juvenile crabscan be collected from estuaries, lakes,backwaters, creeks, mangrooves andsalt water lagoons by using bambootraps, lift nets or scissor nets. Ahatchery is being set up at the CentralMarine Fisheries Research Institute,Kochi for commercial production ofcrab seed.

Duration of Mud crabfattening:

Mud crab fattening is done bystocking soft shelled crabs or watercrabs that are held in smallerimpoundments for minimum 25 daysto 45 days, it is depending upon sizeof water crab to till the shells arehardened. The techno-economicparameters required for crab fatteningare briefly described.

15

Soil quality

The soil suitable for crab fatteningis sandy or sandy clay. A sand bottominhibits burrowing.

Suitable place:

Mud crab fattening Suitable placesare brackish water/ backwater channel,Near to mangroves plantation, Highclay content ponds are suitable andrecently we are tried in back waterwith gauge system to ensure desiredout put.

Water quality

There should be availability ofabundant and good quality water. Mudcrabs are highly tolerant to varyingsalinity conditions, so brackish waterwould be ideal for crab fatteningoperation.

Salinity - 10 to 34 ppt.

PH - 8.0 to 8.5.

Temperature - 23o C to 30o C.

Dissolved oxygen content - shouldbe more than 3 ppm.

Depth of the brackish water or

Backwater channel

The depth of backwater channel ismore than 2m is required, duringsummer, the water temperature mayincreased in result the mortality ratemay increase.

Water supply and drainage

Water exchange is through tidalwater is a height of 1.5 m to 2 m.

Suitable villages in the villageswhere we are working are inCoramental coasts likeKodiyampalayam, Palayar,

M a d a v a m e d u ,Madathukuppam,ThirumullaivasalKaraikal and Nagoor.In addition, Bay ofBengal coastal regionis very much suitablefor this activitymoreover; seedmaterials areavailable in largescale.

Number of mud crab per gauge

1. Soft-shelled crabs of size 8 cmcarapace width and above orcrabs of more than 550 gmrequired

2. FRP floating Cages :• Size: 1Mtr x 1Mtr x 35 cm• Compartments: 6 Nos• Finolux PVC’3" Floating

Pipes• Water flow holes 1" dia

Mtr.3. The 15 no. of Mud crab fattening

gauge is required per family toearn additional income ofRs.12,600 to 14000 per year.

Feeding

Crabs are fed with bivalve meator trash fish. Feeding is done daily atthe rate of 5 to 10% of body weight.The duration of fattening is minimum25 to 45 days, depending upon size ofwater crab to till the shells arehardened. Normally the fishermenused to feed the waste fishes orchicken waste. No special feed isavailable in the market for mud crab.They could save Rs.2800 per year forseven harvests by using fish wastes asfeed for mud crab fattening.Therefore, each family can get Rs.15000 per year as additional incomethrough this activity.

Harvesting

The crabs are harvested after theshell becomes sufficiently hardenedand before next molting. Theharvesting is done by removal ofgauge from backwater by using ropeand the door will be opened usingscoop nets and ring nets with baits.Harvesting should be done in the earlymorning hours or evening to preventmortality of crabs due to overheatingof water during midday. In a year, fourto five cycles of fattening can be takenthrough this gauge system.

Marketing

In India, the importance of livemud crabs as an export commodity hasopened up great opportunities for crabfarming / fattening. At present, crabhas good market and in the future crabis poised to be the next potential seafood in the world market among theedible marine crustaceans after shrimpand lobster.

Financial outlay

The items and cost indicated underthe model are indicative and notexhaustive. We prepared this projectafter assessed and taking into accountactual field conditions during last oneyear under pilot at Thirumullaivasalvillage in Sirkali block ofNagapatinam District. The capital cost

16

for I unit has been estimated Rs.45000/ and operational cost for one crop harvestapproximately Rs.2000 per harvest of 15 to 20 mud crab per harvest.

The financial viability of the activity

Recurring cost/Operational Cost for one cycle ( 20 days)

Production & Income

Financial Analysis

Particulars Units Quantum Rate (Rs.) Total

1. Cost of soft crab 15 to 20 nos of 350to 500 gm each 5.5 to 10 kg Rs 125 to

150/kg 1500

2. Feed 2 kg/day 45 kg Rs 10/kg 400-450

3. Labour charges (travel/additional income) half an hours spent per day.

one Rs 20/day 400-450

Total 2300-2400

Survival 95%

Average weight at harvest (gms) 750

Total production (kg) 13 kgs

Market price- Average (Rs) 250

Number of crops per annum 7

Income per crop (Rs.) 1800 to 2000

Income during 1 st year (7 crops) 12,600 to 14000

Market rate Index: (Marketing

through local Agent at Cuddalore)

Learnings for further improvement:

1. Need to maintain duration (twofull moon days) for attaining 1kgper crab, so that more profit canbe earned.

2. Cost per seed crab is high that hasto be reduced through fishermentie-up for raw material supplythrough out the year.

3. Need to maintain 60 crabs perharvest; boxes are available torear this much. So scale is moreimportant to get more profit.

4. Cost for feed is to be reduced(i.e.) fish and poultry wastes canbe used rather than buying feeds

5. Maintaining 60 units will helptie-up with Chennai basedexporter, so that Rs. 50 per kg canbe earned as an additionalincome.

Items Year

1

Capital cost/Investment cost 4500*10 boxes=45000

Recurring cost/Operational cost 2000*7=14000

Total cost 59000

Cross Benefits 3600*7=25200

Net Benefit 12,600 to 14000

Grade

Weightrequired to

attaingrade

Rateper kg(in Rs)

Remarks

1. A- Excel > 800 gram 360 to430

Cashpayment

2. B- Big Size

500 to 780gram 230 Cash

payment

3. C- Medium Size

< 500 gram 120 Cashpayment

Culture Period 45 days

Stocking density (100 nosof 350 gm each) 6 crab / box

Survival 80%

Weight at harvest >500 gm.

Expected production 12 to 15 kg / per harvest

Procurement (Market) rate Rs.125 to 150 per kg.

Cross profit Rs. 3600

Net profit Rs. 1800

Risk and Mitigation

1. Water temperature to be monitored, hot water willincrease the mortality

2. Water flow is to be ensured always

3. Daily two times feeding to be ensured

4. Maintenance for a minimum duration of 20 to 22days should be ensured

5. Wash and dry FRP floating Cages for two to threedays to avoid the disease spread or disease out break.

17

Report

Rural India Learning Journey and

Indian Americans

Dear Friends

In December 2007, twenty-fourIndian Americans including me,accompanied by a couple of Indians,took time off for a week’s visit to ruralareas in southern Tamil Nadu. Wecalled it a “learning journey”. Mostof the areas visited fell within what isgeographically known as a rainshadow region, i.e they get very littlerainfall. The livelihood of the farmersin these areas is heavily dependent onscanty rainfall. They all suffer fromacute shortage of drinking water andwater for growing crops.

Three of us then branched off tospend an additional week in Karnataka(in the Mysore region) andMaharashtra (in the Pune region),again, mainly in the rain shadow areas.In the last leg we were joined by afourth colleague.

Before proceeding further, itwould be appropriate to quote fromAlan Greenspan’s book, “THE AGEOF TURBULENCE”, which wasreleased just a few months ago. Thisis what Greenspan has to say aboutrural India (pages 320-1):

Rural India is mired in a level ofpoverty as bleak as anywhere in theworld outside of sub-SaharanAfrica. Here is where a highconcentration of India’s illiterate(two-fifths of the adult population)and most of the more than 250million Indians who live on less than$1 a day reside. Half of India’s

homes have no electricity.Productivity on farms is only one-fourth of what it is in non-farm areas.Rice yields are half of what they arein Vietnam, and a third of what theyare in China. India’s cotton’scomparative yields are even worse.Wheat yields, which so benefitedfrom the enhanced seed of the greenrevolution of the 1970s, are still onlythree-fourths of China’s. Only in teais India more productive than itsAsian competitors. Moreover, Indianroad transport linking farms andcities is so inadequate that output ofperishable crops is largely retrictedto on-farm consumption; a third ofcrops is reported to rot en route tomarket.

All that Greenspan says issubstantially true. However, whatimpressed me most from our trip isthat things are changing.

Some of India’s dynamic socialentrepreneurs, otherwise known asNGOs, are in action lending a helpinghand to transform rural India. What wesaw and experienced gave us renewedhope that rural India is NOT a basketcase — that many villagers in areas ofscanty rainfall are pulling themselvesup, making heroic efforts to conserverain water resources, and therebymarkedly improving their livelihood.But a lot, lot more needs to be done.

The following despatch will be thefirst of a series on my impressions(and the impressions of mycolleagues) of what’s happening in

rural India and what the IndianAmerican community can do to lenda helping hand to make sure that ruralIndia catches up with the rest of thecountry in economic progress over thenext decade or two. In preparing this,I have drawn freely from the notes onour trip written by my colleagues,Uma Balakrishnan, Vedanth Kadambiand Ram Krishnan

In southern Tamil Nadu, we metand were taken round by some ofIndia’s outstanding socialentrepreneurs — who haveremarkable achievements to theircredit in reducing rural poverty —including the following:

The Gandhigram Rural Universityat Dindigul We heard an eloquentspeech by Prof Palanithurai on whatthis deemed university is doing totrain and extend handholding supportto rural India’s panchayat leaders inthe areas of governance anddevelopment from below. Anencouraging fact mentioned by him isthat 50 percent of Bihar’s panchayatleaders work with the university. Theuniversity has its focus onemployment generation in around 40villages in nine panchayats.

We divided ourselves into twogroups to visit a couple of villages.One of them, with 300 families,subsists on flower growing on accountof water scarcity. Lack of public toiletsis the first anomaly that strikes us, theurbans, as we listen to the trials andtribulations of the women who have

18

to defecate in the fields nearby. Thereis an elementary school, i.e. classesup to the V std, and after this childrenhave to walk or cycle their way to ahigh school 4 km away in the nextvillage. The nearest primary healthcentre is again 4 km away and medicalemergencies have to be taken there.

In stark contrast to the lack ofamenities is the overflowing love intheir hearts as we congregate in thefirst village to partake of the breakfastthat the village women served us. Thisis followed by a group interaction aswe sit in a circle and talk to them. Oneof our group members remarked,‘these people don’t need anythingfrom us. See the women are so wellgroomed and their faces radiatehappiness.” It must be the typicallyIndian attitude of accepting their lotstoically and smiling in spite of alladversities!

Our journey has the right balanceof theory and practice! I refer to thevarious talks that we listen to fromvarious volunteer officials who gaveus an insight into the work that is goingon toward the economic and socialdevelopment of the villages. Anoteworthy feature here is the groupof undergraduate students at theGandhigram Rural University who arecalled Samaaj Shilpis (communityworkers) and who act as a bridgebetween the rural university and thevillages.

We visited a school — SowbhagyaIllam (Children’s Home) — run by theGandhigram Trust for indigent andabandoned children which has astrength of 170 — 120 girls and 50boys. We had a taste of the nutritiousfood being served to the children. Theschool depends wholly on donations.

DHAN Foundation (Development of Humane Action) of Madurai — which

“has been working on identifying various development needs [ofvillagers] and enabling the local community to take charge of thechallenge to find solutions for it...The development needs brought tofocus so far are, creating safe drinking water sources through revivingthe life saving ponds, bringing light to the remote households byproviding access to electricity, stabilizing the livelihoods of the dry landfarmers through construction of farm ponds, support to set up multipurpose community resource centres, life saving surgical and healthcare support to the poor, opening new avenues to the under privilegedchildren through education program and bringing back the lost gloryto the green fields of rural areas through rehabilitation of tanks.”

DHAN has set up the Kalanjiam Foundation which works with 3.5 lakhpoor families organized into 22,300 kalanjiams (self-help communitybanking groups) spread across 6000 villages in 11 Indian States. This hasbeen a highly successful program in organizing women into mutuality groupswhich has facilitated poor women to take control of their own developmentby partnering with banks, government departments, insurance companies,markets, to break the shackles of poverty and improve their lives.

We visited some of the Kalanjiams. Each of the women we met looked soordinary, and yet each one has a tale of extraordinary grit and success asthey overcame the trampling of a male dominated, poverty ridden existence.We visited the Vaigai Vattara Kalanjiam Women’s Self Help Group andlearnt how microfinance is changing their lives. One amazing woman wemet was Chinna Pillai Amma —the president of a federation of Kalanjiamsconsisting of 40,000 women — an “untouchable”, supposed to be practicallyilliterate. She spoke to us and answered questions on what the womenwere doing to transform their lives. We came back convinced that this so-called illiterate woman had leadership qualities of an unusual order.

The next day at Ramanathapuram we added two new Tamil words to ourrepertoire, Oorani and Eri. Ooranis, we learn, are natural ponds in existencefor centuries where rain water collects during a very brief monsoon. Erisare large water bodies similar to lakes. It’s an ongoing task to desilt theseooranis and maintain them so that the village preserves its only storehouseof drinking water for the whole year! Yes, we never can see a single tap orplastic pipe that carries water as there is no running water in these villages.Women walk a distance of 2 -3 kms daily to fetch water for their dailyneeds! We visit the underdeveloped villages to understand the tank fedagriculture development. A highlight of this day is an impromptusponsorship of the deepening and development of an oorani in Sengottaipattivillage by the visiting group members. All the families in this village of320 families (1400 persons) belong to scheduled castes (“untouchables”).The existing oorani requires deepening, a draw well and fencing. CostRs.4 lakhs — the villagers will contribute 1 lakh by way of labor, DHANFoundation will contribute Rs.80,000 and the remaining 320, 000 thevisiting group agreed to donate.

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19th December sees us reachTuticorin, one of Tamil Nadu’s driestregions. We visit the village ofKurlayampatti, in Vilathikulampanchayat. The members of the SHG(Self Help Group) at the Bharathiyar(a Tamil poet and freedom fighter)Community Centre greet us. This is athatched, temporary building and thiscentre focuses on water, agricultureand renewable energy. In the villageof Veludupatti the locals enthrall uswith their native folklore dance calledoyil kummi. And so it goes on, endlessvillage roads and dirt tracks, endlessagendas that need to be done to bringabout self sustainability to theseclusters of hamlets.

Vivekananda Kendra in KanyaKumari — India’s lands-end. TheKendra is run by dedicated volunteerswho look into sustainabledevelopment in the fields of watermanagement, cost- effectiveconstruction technologies, sustainableagriculture, holistic health andrenewable sources of energy. Welearnt that sustainable architecture canbuild you a house that can benefit theentire planet! The Gramodaya Park forRight Living educates us on the needto have an environmental, social andspiritual consciousness.

We found every village visited tobe different. Some are in a really badsituation. Some have made modestprogress. Basically the villages allrequire water, education, health andlivelihood. One of the members of ourteam, Vedanth Kadambi, had thefollowing observations to make:

“I have learned something that Idid not know before - the Indianvillages, in spite of all the difficultiesthey experience (lack of water, lackof power, education, etc.), consist of

people who are joyful and trying todo their best under extremelydifficult circumstances. They are notlooking for a dole out from others.They are trying to lift themselves withtheir own efforts for the most partand need some assistance anddirection at times. It was a pleasureto see them and talk to them. Let usdo our best to help them in every waywe can. We will have discharged ourduty to ourselves and to the rest ofworld through the support weprovide them.

“I believe that many of us(including me), would not haveknown how to begin the process ofstarting the process ofunderstanding the problems thevillagers face, even though we hadall heard of some of their difficulties.I had expected to see grindingpoverty in the villages with starvingchildren and gloomy faces lookingfor help from the government andothers for everything. Whatsurprised me more than anythingelse was the cheerfulness that I saw- something that is not seen in theurbanized communities of the world(India and USA included). It shows

that affluence is not by itself theanswer to a happy life. I had readearlier in a newspaper that Indianswere by and large, the happiestpeople in the world. I had assumedthat the results of the survey that thenewspaper cited were completelywrong! It may be that the survey isright and the reason is probably thestate of mind of the people. They arehappy with what they have and willtry to improve themselves. However,they are hopeful of the future andwill do their best. That is the spirit -that which will lead to success fastif their energy is channelizedproperly. The old woman at the firstvillage to whom I spoke nearDindigul is right. She has got herchildren educated even though shehas next to no money. One of themwho is about to earn a bachelor’sdegree and told me that she wantsto go on for a Master’s degreethereafter. These are the types ofpeople who will become the leadersof India in the next few years”.

A colleague who was instrumentalin making a success of out Tamil Nadurural learning journey program, RamKrishnan of Minnesota who is himself

20

involved personally in thedevelopment of the villages in andaround Vilathikulam, is connectedwith some 60 overseas pioneers ofIndian origin working in differentparts of India. It’s our fervent hope thatwe will be able to find at least 2500pioneers of Indian origin soon —three for each district of India.

The best thing to have happenedin India’s rural transformation is thecreation of Self-Help Groups (SHG).Practically all the SHGs in South India

consist of women. They are still notthat common in the North of India. Atypical SHG has 20 women who saveRs 50 every month and place it in asavings account. The SHG performsfour key functions:• First, by saving money they

extricate themselves from theclutches of the money lender.

• Second, they start loaning moneyamongst themselves at a monthlyinterest rate of 1.5 percent permonth (money lenders charge an

annual rate of 70 percent ormore).

• Third, after saving over a periodof two years or so, they startengaging in revenue producingeconomic activities useful to theSHG and the village community.

• In the fourth stage, they becomea key part of the Grama Sabhaand participate in thedevelopment of the village.

A majority of the SHGs in SouthIndia are somewhere between stages2 and 3. There are, of course, a verylarge number of villages still to becovered in the South as also in the restof India.

Cheers,

Ram NarayananUS-India Friendship

The author was one of theorganisers of the LearningJourney and this article appearedin the website at http://www.usindiafriendship.net/rural-india/LearningJourneyReport.htm.

D uring the Dream Action,launched by DSM in 2002 on

the occasion of its 100th birthday,DSM employees were challenged touse their knowledge to create a betterworld. The price winning idea was astraw that removes harmful bacteriafrom water. That dream became realityin the Water4Life project in which thestraw has finally evolved into a waterpurifier for the poor family.

10000th

water purifier!

Events

Thanks to this smart invention,the Water4Life project could be setup. In the wake of the tsunamidisaster, additional funds were madeavailable by DSM and the provinceof Limburg, each donating 250,000euro and by DSM employees, giving68,000 euro. By the end of 2007, the10,000th water filter was producedand distributed in one of the 92tsunami affected villages. It is

expected that 20,000th water purifierwill be placed before the end of 2008.

Purifying household drinking water

The first idea of the inventors AlexVrinzen and Paul Vergossen,‘membrane specialists’ at DSM, wasa straw functioning as a filter. This ideanot only appeared to be veryexpensive, the production costs

21

amount to 500 euro per cubic meterof water, but also full of risks duringusage. The straw could accidentally beturned the wrong way, thus stillinfecting the user. To really make adifference for third world countries,the idea needed to be adapted tohousehold level. Simple, cheap, safeto use, sustainable and easy tomaintain. The water purifier evolved:a metal bucket with two ceramic filtercandles inside providing 2 litres ofsafe drinking water per hour with thehelp of gravity. The safe drinkingwater is collected in a separatereservoir mounted underneath the topbucket. In addition, due to the filtercandles impregnated with silver, anyunwanted micro-organisms whichhave not been retained by the ceramicfilter almost have no chance ofcontaminating the water. The waterpurifier removes 99.99 percent of allundesired micro-organisms.

Acceptance and education

As so many good ideas, thisinvention is brilliant because of itssimplicity. However, in order to makethe inhabitants accept this clevertechnique, more was needed. Theprogram was carefully organized withthe help of the DHAN foundation.Alex Vrinzen: “We first conducted a‘satisfaction survey’ amongst the localpopulation of India, in a region that isnot only very poor but was also hit bythe tsunami in 2004. These peoplehave tested several models of waterpurifiers as critical consumers. Theresults were carefully analyzed andmonitored. One of the purifier typeswas a ‘pressure model’, equipped withmanual pumps assuring more litters ofsafe drinking water in a shorter periodof time. This model turned out to betoo complex to use and maintain for

the users. If part of the filter broke,the purifier was no longer used. The‘gravity model’ was much moreappreciated by the community. Fromthe field tests it also became clear thatmetal was preferred over plastic, ofwhich the first prototypes were made.In poor Indian households, sand isused as a cleaning agent in stead ofsafe but scarce clean water. Thus, awater purifier made out of plastic willnot have a long life. Harry van Lier,expert in waste water technology atDSM, has a wide network in India.The project accelerated when he wasasked to joint the Water4Lifefoundation.

Effective use

Education and good training is anessential part of the Water4Lifeactivities. Uneducated people mustlearn to understand why they have todo or use certain things. Explanationin their own language, visuallysupported by pictures about thetechnical functioning of the appliance,but also about the basic principles ofhygiene and toilet use, is necessary to

make a program such as Water4Lifesuccessful. Therefore, it is fantasticthat Water4Life was able to get thehelp of two volunteers, Kasper Jansenand Agnes Benedictus, who are locallyactive since mid 2007 for Water4Lifein Madurai, India. Kasper and Agnesquit their jobs in the Netherlands tobe able to help the poorest of the poorto get access to safe drinking water andthereby drastically reducing thechildhood mortality. They instructselected people from over ninetyIndian villages about the use of thewater purifier. The acquiredknowledge is transferred by thetrainees to their fellow villagers. Thisway, more than 90% of the waterpurifiers is actually used.

Knowledge transfer

The use of the water purifiers alsohas a positive economical effect in theregions where they are installed. Theyare locally produced with localmaterials, thus creating employment.The DHAN foundation guides thepoor steel workshops in Madurai indeveloping their own water purifier

22

while the Water4Life foundationassures the quality level. This way, aformula is created which eventuallyenables the local entrepreneurs toproduce (and sell) their own waterpurifiers. Alex Vrinzen regularly flewto India to guide the project. “We wantthe Water4Life project to succeed.And then I mean succeed down to thesmallest detail”, he says. “Ourcolleagues of the DSM site at Toansa,India are also involved in this activity.The help and dedication of our Indiancolleagues Vikram Sharma and BabitaNanchahal have contributed to the factthat the tsunami project could berealized in a very short period oftime.”

Expanding activities

The Water4Life foundation iswillingly available to shareexperiences and knowledge gainedduring the project with otherinterested parties. The localemployees are recording all processesin logbooks and on film for aneventual follow up by or with other(aid) organizations. With a view tonew projects, contacts have alreadybeen established with organizations

Water4Life distributes 10 thousandth water purifier in Tsunami area

On January 29th 2008 a delegation of Water4Life and DSM anti infectivesIndia has handed over the 10 thousandth water purifier to one of the victimsof the tsunami disaster in December 2004. In the wake of the tsunamidisaster, additional funds were made available by DSM and the provinceof Limburg, each donating 250,000 euro and by DSM employees, giving68,000 euro. All donated to provide the victims with safe drinking water.

Still now, 3 years after the disaster, there is great need for safe drinkingwater. The water sources are often still contaminated and some watersources revealed to be permanently not usable.

We made use of the gravity water purifier concept in the tsunami affectedarea. After several tests this concept appeared to be the best technology forthe inhabitants of the affected areas.

The purifiers have been distributed amongst members of the self help groupsof Dhan Foundation, throughout the tsunami affected areas. These membersof SHG’s have an income below approximately 2 euros per day.

Preceding the hand over, several training sessions were executed in variousvillages. In these training sessions the importance of using the water purifierwas explained and also attention was given to simple but effective hygienicalmeasures like washing hands and use of toilets. By means of these trainingsand tests a minimum of 70% of the purifiers will be used on the long run.The final goal is to reduce the child death below the age of 5 because ofdiahroea.

The 10 thousandth filter was handed over by the regional governmentalofficer of fisheries in the presence of Water4Life volunteers, VikramSharma, Agnes Benedictus, Kasper Jansen and DHAN team leader Bharathi.By handing over this 10 thousandth purifier and end has come to the tsunamiproject of Water4Life. Water4Life will continue to be active in south Indianregion to place more water purifiers with the local population, in closecooperation with DHAN Foundation.

active in China, Indonesia andEthiopia. In the past few years, greatwork has been achieved and a goodfoundation has been created for asustainable program that really helpspeople. The Water4Life team willnow focus on expanding its activities.Alex: “We would be honoured ifother companies or foundationswould adopt our work and wouldsurprise us with good results in thefuture!”

23

Le projet

Oxfam Novib has been supportingDHAN’s community bankingprogramme since 1997. Thisprogramme has become successful,and is registered under a separatefoundation: the KalanjiamFoundation. Per December 2006 thecommunity banking model coveredaround 350,000 people. It was animportant achievement linking groupmembers with the mainstreamcommercial banks. The groups havebeen organised again into 50autonomous federations. Twenty-fiveof them are involved with Apexfinancing institutions for housing andsmall industries promotion. In thisproject DHAN is expanding its workarea to the more Northern parts ofIndia, where it will work with tribalcommunities, a group whose social-economic conditions are typically theworst in India. DHAN is confidentthat it can replicate the successfulformula in the Northern tribal areas,based on its experience in tribal areasin Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh and inTamil Nadu, through directinvolvement as well as through the‘Kalanjiam affiliates’ or organisationsthat are willing and able to adoptDHAN’s community banking modelcompletely.

DHAN Foundation follows fourstrategies in implementing itsKalanjiam model of microfinance.The first strategy is to ‘enablecommunities through nestedinstitutions’. Microfinance is seen asan effective tool and a powerfulinstrument to organise people andbuild their institutions. The primacyis on building their capacities andenabling them to manage the financial

Donor’s Note

services and build strong, sustainablepeople’s organisations to address theirown development and growth. Thisapproach builds the ownership ofmembers, through substantialmembers’ savings, own funds andinvolvement. These peoples’institutions are built on the principlesof self-help and mutual aid. Theemphasis is on developing suitableinstitutions and financial servicescontrolled by the users, mainlywomen. The second strategy is toreach out to the poorest people inremote areas. It is often claimed thata sustainable micro-credit programmecannot focus on the poorest and covercosts. The Kalanjiam programme hasbroken this myth and demonstratedthat reaching the poorest of poor is nohindrance to microfinance operationsbecoming financially sustainable.

The Kalanjiam programme hasdeveloped a systematic process ofidentifying the poorest, and through agradual process of saturation reach outto all the poorest in a givengeographical area. The third strategyis poverty reduction throughconservation, which is about endingincome ‘leakages’, i.e. theexploitation by the local moneylenders for credit, traders for supplyof inputs and marketing, local quacksfor health services. The approach is toaddress variables people living inpoverty have under their control.Coupled with appropriate savings andcredit products, this helps the poor toescape the poverty trap. The fourth andfinal strategy is to go beyondmicrofinance and address socialdevelopment. The Kalanjiamprogramme has demonstrated thatsavings, credit and insurance servicesare interconnected in efforts to address

poverty. It has also demonstrated thatin order to address the ‘complexity ofpoverty’ microfinance interventionneed to be linked with other socialdevelopmental programmes likedrinking water, sanitation, health,education, linking with Panchayatsand banks. Such a process demandsthe mobilisation of people living inpoverty and the building of theirinstitutions. In order to sustain themicrofinance intervention andenhance income, businessdevelopment support services werealso found to be essential. In the threeyears to come DHAN plans to reachout to some 27,600 women in tribalareas in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Orissa and Maharasthra.

Le partnenaire

The Development of HumaneAction Foundation (DHAN) wasestablished in 1997 as a spin-off inSouth India of the programme ofPRADAN (Professional Assistancefor Development Action) in NewDelhi. Since the early 1990s theorganisation has focussed on two mainareas of intervention: communitybanking for poor women and tank-fedagriculture for small and marginalfarmers. As of March 2004, theDHAN’s programmes covered about250,000 families in Tamil Nadu,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh andPondicherry. Especially in the field ofcommunity banking, propagating thesuccessful self-help groups to banklinkage model, DHAN is recognisedas one of the main players in SouthIndia and beyond and has been ableto influence the policies and practicesof government and the banking sector.

Excerpts from: http://www.oxfamnovib.nl/id.html

DHAN North Tribal Programme

24

CHICAGO: DHAN Foundation,an NGO with headquarters in

Madurai, (India) has been working forover a decade and a half, with poorcommunities to improve their qualityof life and reduce poverty. It haschalked out an ambitious plan forfurther strengthening its roots andactivities in South India as also makeincreased inroads in rural side in NorthIndia.

DHAN, which stands forDevelopment of Humane Action is aprofessionally managed developmentinstitution and currently works with700,000 poor families in 10 states ofIndia on different developmentthemes, viz., microfinance, small scaleirrigation, dry land agriculture,working with panchayats. One ofDHAN’s important initiatives isreviving Ooranis. Oorani is a dug-outpond that traps rain water run-off andstores it for drinking water purposesin rural areas where ground water iseither inadequate or unfit for use.

Ram Narayanan, a well knowncommunity activist and Editor-Coordinator US-India Friendship.net,was visiting India recently and he shedlight on new the new DHAN themesin progress. The new initiativesinclude the Tata-Dhan Academy forgrooming development professionals,rain fed farming development toimprove the livelihood of farmers,enabling the poor through informationtechnology, and working withpanchayats. DHAN has an integratedmodel of livelihood restoration andrehabilitation program in Tsunami

affected coastal regions for fishermenand coastal farming families. DhanPeople Academy and DHAN Instituteof Vocational Education cater totraining and capacity building needsfor the leaders and peoplefunctionaries.

The Foundation, he said, is alsopromoting development tourism toshowcase art, culture, heritage anddevelopment work. DHAN isinvolved in developing rural tourismmodel in collaboration with UNDPand Government of India.Presently,according to Ram Narayanan, DHANworks in 10 States of India in the rural,tribal, coastal and urban contexts-Andhra Pradesh in six districts, Assamin one district, Jharkand in one district,Karnataka in five districts, Kerala inone district, Madhya Pradesh in onedistrict, Maharashtra in one district,Pondicherry in two districts, Orissa intwo districts and Tamil Nadu in 19districts.

It has over 750 development staff,including 350 professionals. Itcurrently operates two major themesin Tamil Nadu, namely, KalanjiamCommunity Banking Program withpoor women and Vayalagam Tank fedAgriculture Program with small andmarginal farmers dependent on tanksfor their livelihood. The KalanjiamCommunity Banking Program hasdeveloped the federation model ofpeople’s organization.

The model places emphasis onestablishing appropriate institutionsand services owned and managed bypoor women and building sustainable

linkages with mainstream banking andgovernment institutions. The womenare now going beyond microfinanceand are addressing other developmentneeds such as health, education etc.Village tanks and ponds occupy asignificant position in irrigation andlocal ecosystem in South India.

They sustained farming activities.Neglect of these precious waterresources led to a decline in theirperformance as assets and badlyaffected the livelihood of thecommunity. DHAN Foundation,through the Vayalagam AgricultureProgram, has sought to conserve thesetreasures by organizing the farmersdependent on them and regeneratinglocal management by building theirstakes.

He said that the people withinIndia as well as people of Indian originliving abroad, including IndianAmericans, have contributedfinancially to the development ofspecific projects sponsored by DHAN.

DHAN also has a volunteerprogram where socially concerned andcommitted individuals from withinIndia and abroad can offer theirexpertise in the area of health,education, water, communication,web design, content creation in locallanguage for meeting local needs, forperiods ranging from three months toa year. Volunteering could also bevirtual for tasks such as web design,editorial support, writing for the webetc. There are also opportunities fordonation in kind such as computers,cameras etc.

DHAN bid for uplifting rural India getting boost

Surendra Ullal*

Donor’s Note

*Courtesy: http://indiapost.com/article/communitypost/2130/

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This report is an attempt toconsolidate my learnings from

the Faculty Development Programme(FDP) in Indian Institute ofManagement, Ahmedabad (IIMA)between 29th Oct 2007 and 15th Feb2008. Primarily these are myexperiences from the programme,through interaction with the staffs ofthe institution and my peer group etc.Also, I would like to discuss on theapplication of these learnings in ourwork at the Tata - Dhan Academy.

FDP design

The FDP is a fifteen weekprogramme meant for the teachers ofManagement discipline from all overthe country. IIMA aims to build theacademic capacity of the managementteaching fraternity by giving exposureto various pedagogical tools andtechniques. It also aims to inculcatethe research interest among theparticipants and hence impartsknowledge and skills that are relevantto research methodology. Casemethod of teaching is one of theunique strengths of the institution andit is committed to pass on this strengthto other Management institutionsthrough FDP.

I attended the 29th FDP organizedby the IIMA, in which there were 32participants from 29 institutionsrepresenting various states. Theprogramme design includes 20courses. There were five foundationalcourses, wherein foundations ofmanagement, organizational behavior,

Experience

*R. Sangeetha, Team Leader, Tata-Dhan Academy, DHAN Foundation, Madurai

My learnings in Faculty Development Programme

R. Sangeetha

economic environment policy,management accounting and legalenvironment handled. There wereseven functional courses includinghuman resource management,marketing management, financialmanagement, operationsmanagement, project management,business policy, internationalbusiness. In addition to the twoemerging areas such as revenuemanagement and entrepreneurshipand innovation there were sixacademic skill oriented coursesincluding academic writing formanagement teachers, communicationfor management teachers, casemethod of teaching, researchmethodology, qualitative researchmethods and information technologyfor management.

Apart from these courses,Institution visit to IRMA, EDI,SEWA and industrial visit to Aravindand Amul were organized as part ofthe training. The last week of theprogramme was allocated to practiceteaching segment followed by lastthree days for integrated case analysis.The practice teaching segment offeredopportunity for the participants todesign a session using variouspedagogical tools and then to handle60 minutes session.

Expectations I had….

Before registering for the FDP, Ihad few expectations to acquirerequired academic skills, learndifferent pedagogy of teaching to

make the students learn theoriesthrough practice, how to do academicresearch and to equip myself in thecase method of teaching.

Also I hoped that the FDP wouldcertainly enable me as an individualin terms of contributing to theAcademy through improvement inquality of teaching and betterunderstanding on how to fostersupportive learning environment forthe students. The immediate need wasto design new courses and offerelectives. I believed that by attendingFDP in the premier institute likeIIMA certainly I would raise mystandards in these areas. As researchis a part of my work it would help meto conduct academic research andenable me with needed knowledgeand skills to theorize from practicewhich is one of the core purposes ofthe Academy. Over these above I wasmuch curious to understand theinstitution building aspects of such anoutstanding academic institution in thecountry.

What I gained…

Writing Skills

I used to write a lot, but more ofgeneral things. But I gained exposureto academic style of writing withproper referencing and following APAstyle. For the first time, I attemptedwriting book review and felt confidentabout it. The course gave a lot of scopefor building our writing skills through

26

various assignments and of differenttypes. One best learning I gained is tothe importance of writing with ourvoices being heard very strongly andimpacting others. I also discovered theareas of concern in my writingsthrough the feedback I received fromthe faculty. Those are

• To be careful enough in use ofwords appropriately

• To avoid ornamental words,complex sentences

• To be aware of right use ofpunctuations, capital letters etc

• To be short and simple insentence construction.

Moreover, I had an opportunity toexperience different types of writingslike reflective reports, book review,research proposal and report, casestudy writing etc. The best part Iobserved was faculty encouragingmore to come out with our ownthoughts and ideas rather thandepending on other sources. Also,understood very well, how readingcompliments the writings.

Communication

There were opportunities forimproving our communication skillstoo. The session on Presentation skillswas useful to know our lacuna. Thefeedback from the peers and thefaculty were of great help. As thesessions were all interactive,participating in class discussions,group discussions etc has providedenough space for learning. Iconsciously pay attention to the facultyand my co-participants whenever theyspeak. Watching others speak andobserving different styles of

communication also helped me toconstantly work on improving mycommunication skills.

Writing case study

Right from idea generation for caseleads to final stage of developing casestudies was one of the best learningthat I carry to my institution. We gotexcellent facilitation from the courseteacher to move stage by stage andachieve the final result. In fact, thishas inspired me to critically look atthe qualities a teacher need to possessand am also contented with thisintangible learning. Moreover,another learning I got is how todevelop a research proposal/ paper outof the case study.

Teaching skills

The practice teaching segment isyet another significant learningopportunity we had. I got exposed todifferent pedagogy of teaching such asgames, role play, simulation, casemethod of teaching, using video etc.The following are the key learnings Igained through this

• Importance of planning thesession – minute by minute,anticipating the queries,confusions etc and to have prioridea of how to overcome andavoid such situations.

• Reflecting back on the sessionswe teach is very important. Itneeds to be reviewed for itscontent reach, pedagogyefficiency and the effectivenessof the session in terms offulfilling the session objective.

• Experimentation on pedagogywill help in improvising theteaching effectiveness.

• Pre-testing the pedagogical toolsbefore using it for class roomsessions will help in fine-tuningit.

• The role of facilitator and thechallenges to him is very wellunderstood and also the more wepractice and experience, theskills will also grow.

Another important learning is tounderstand the effectiveness ofteaching methods, styles from thestudent’s perspective as we now areplaying the role of student. To me, itwas a very good learning ofunderstanding the Do’s and Don’ts ofa teacher for teaching effectiveness.

Research Knowledge and skills

Through the courses of Researchmethodology, Qualitative researchmethods and Data Analysis, I learntcertain things very concretely, butrealize, it has a long way to go further.The learnings I gained in research are

• Framing Hypothesis andunderstanding of independentand dependent variables.

• Different types of methods inboth quantitative and Qualitativeresearch methods.

• How to write a qualitativeresearch proposal

• How to do review of literature

• Learnt use of SPSS for dataanalysis.

• Orientation to AMOS packagefor structural equation andmodeling

The assignment of developing aquantitative research proposal by

27

framing hypothesis, developingresearch tool like structuredquestionnaire, data collection, dataentry in SPSS package and finallydoing data analysis has enabled us togain not only the knowledge and skillsbut also the confidence and interestto pursue research in future.

My interest for research has grownvery well and a thirst has been createdfor furthering my knowledge and skill.In fact, it was a new insight thatresearch was something more thanwhat I was thinking all about priorcoming to this programme.

Use of Excel and IT

This is a revealing thing for me thatExcel too could be taught in aninteresting manner. I learnt veryclearly the use of excel to simplify ourwork. Use of sensitivity analysis forconference budgeting, designing webpage, etc are of very helpful to me asit has direct application value.

Pedagogy of teaching

a. Case method of teaching.

I learnt this mainly by observinghow different faculty handles casestudies in the class room. All areunique in their own styles but ensuredlearning happens out of discussion.Some of the insights I gained on casemethod of teaching are

• To use the case facts to themaximum

• To ensure proper folding of thekey learnings from the case.

• How to direct the discussion forconstructive learning and avoiddigression from the case

• How to force the students to getinto the shoe of problem solverand think for decision making.

• Linking case with the theory orconcept.

I also observed some facultyrestrict themselves within the caseboundary and some going beyond andclarifying the subject. I learnt fromoperations management, aninteresting way of clarifying thestudents on the case using singleanalogy of cheetah and elephant storyfor almost all the sessions. Frombusiness policy course too,understood, how effective use ofanalogies to describe the case findings.I also realized the use of quoting epicsin the class for clarifying the subject.

b. Exercises for teaching

Lot of games and simulationexercises were used to bring out theunderstanding of the participants.Most of them were of revealing ‘self’.I should admit that I found the coursemore useful in terms of its content andfor the strong life message I got fromthe instructor for shaping myself as aperson. Moreover, I was trying to takewith me lot of tips for enhancing myteaching so that I make my studentsenjoy the joy of learning as I did inthis course.

c. Simulation

One of the simulation exercisesused for Communications forManagement Teachers (CMAT)session was highly relevant to be usedfor development management coursesfor teaching social inequalities,relationship between developed anddeveloping countries etc. I found itvery interesting as it helped us to bringout the concept.

d. Video documentary

I found here use of video for classroom teaching. Having goodcollection of documentaries and usingit for classroom purpose enhanceslearning very well. One documentaryon “Inconvenient Truth” which wasscreened for Post GraduateProgramme (PGP) students was verymuch useful for me to handle climatechange session for disastermanagement course.

Teaching theories

a. Interesting way of handlingtheories

I learnt from foundationmanagement course that making theparticipants to assume the role ofparticular theorist and making them tounderstand the theory, the context etcand then asking them to present in theclass created great interest. I learntTaylor and scientific managementvery well and it will definitely lastlonger in my memory.

b. Assignments can stimulate selflearning

I liked the assignments ofFoundation Of Management (FOM)course as it induced me to read theoriginal writings of Weber and hisbureaucracy. I enjoyed reading thebook and was able to understandWeber as a person, his work,happenings of his period, his theoryetc very well. I felt that the assignmentmade lot of sense and was wellthought.

Similarly the second assignment ofFOM made me to select social auditas a management practice. This alsorequired lot of efforts from me to traceout the history and how it is relevantin today’s context. I gained goodlearning in that too.

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Third assignment helped me to seehow others have built over thefoundational contributor. Assignmentsof this sought will help students toseek for knowledge and will pushthem to library. I remember the daywhen I sat in library for hours togetherand got engrossed with Weber. It wasa joyous reading I ever had.

Similarly, another assignment,which I could recollect is theassignment in Resource Methodology(RM) course where the five differenttypes of research papers were givento us and were asked to discuss onresearch problem, hypothesis andmethodology used in each of the type.This also has enabled me to gain goodclarity.

Hence I learnt, giving thoughtfulassignments is one best way of makingstudents learn by themselves.

Impact in my teaching andresearch activities

The following are some of theimportant aspects I learnt fromdifferent faculty and which I wantedto improve in me.

• In-depth subject knowledge andgood hold on what is going oncurrently by updating theknowledge and skill is non-negotiable for a teacher.

• Also, I found most of themdevelop themselves in particularfield as their specialization andtake up consultancy or anyassignments around it.

• Here, faculty values industrialconsultancy very much as theyfeel only that could update themand makes them closer to the

reality of their teaching. Thisstrongly reinforces the belief ofTata-Dhan Academy too in thefield of development sector.

• Research is the must andpublishing papers widens theknowledge and skill.

• Academic ethics is somethingwhich I found very strong hereand I value that. Citation, properreferencing is something whichwe will never forget even in oursleep.

• Writing cases and developingresearch out of case studies ordoing research and identifyingcase leads, then developing intocase studies etc will build ourknowledge and skill.

• Showing a passion for thesubject, sincerity in ensuringgood learning to the participantswill definitely place an indeliblemark in the participants mind.

• Reading habits is must and Ishould at any cost develop thehabit of reading as manyacademic books as I could.

• Giving feedback to students ontime and helping them to learnmore is very critical for theteacher.

• Being supportive and willingnessto spare time with participants foracademic discussion by thefaculty members are veryappreciable.

• Coming to the class 5 minutesearlier by almost all teachers issomething very unique and thesense of punctuality as a value ineverybody inspires me.

• Being time conscious and timemanagement in class andwinding up the class on time aresomething which I need to learnfrom these faculties.

Other than the programme

Apart from FDP, learnings I gainedby attending “confluence”,“amaethon”, seminars, researchpresentations etc are also invaluable.Visit to IRMA, EDI, Aravind mills,SEWA, Blind People’s Associationwere very insightful.

Something I learnt from Institution

There are certain aspects which Iadmired in this institution during mystay over here.

• First thing, which I liked is thesensitivity with which thebuilding construction is made. Ifound the building friendlier forthe physically challenged people.I also want to carry this messageto my institution.

• Secondly, I found the institutionis friendlier even for the birds. Ihad a feeling of co-existence withnature.

• Thirdly, the cooperative andsupportive nature of theadministrative and othersupportive departments such aslibrary, mess, computer centre,publication division etc. We havealways received immediateresponse.

• The system of having commongroup email id and maintaininggood communication throughmail. E-mail is very effectivelyused across students, faculty etc.

• As we have put up for stay in thenew campus, it helped as to

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For farmers in Vizhunthamavadivillage along the Nagappattinam

coast of Tamil Nadu, the deadlytsunami wreaked havoc—it claimed23 lives and destroyed 248 hectaresof the total 939 hectares of cultivableland.

Tidal waves damaged cash cropslike paddy, ground nut and cashew nut,and inundated arable land, leavingbehind heavy salt deposits andrendering it infertile. Even thewarehouses where the farmers storedfoodgrain were destroyed.

Moved by the plight of thesehapless farmers, Care Today with thehelp of a local partner, DhanFoundation, a Madurai-based NGO,constructed a warehouse in the village.

The villagers of Vizhunthamavadiand neighbouring Pudhupalliextended their help in the constructionof the 250 sq m warehouse which wasbuilt at a cost of Rs 13.27 lakh.

The warehouse seemed the perfectanswer to the problems of the farmerswho needed a place to store their grain.In the absence of a storage place, they

had to depend on middlemen tosell their foodgrain.

Taking advantage of thesituation, middlemen reaped richprofits—they bought foodgrainfrom the farmers at abysmallylow prices and sold them at highrates in the market.

Dedicating the warehouse tothe people of Vizhunthamavadi,Care Today Secretary PrabhuChawla said, “Farmers are theannadatas (providers of food) of thenation and in their growth lies theprosperity of the country. We at CareToday are ready to help them.”

Touched by this kind gesture, avillager said, “The warehouse willhelp us store our foodgrain safelywhen the prices are low and sell whenthey are high. Care Today’s timelyintervention has helped us a lot.”

T. Ambigapathi, a local farmer, wasrelieved because the warehouse meantless dependence on middlemen. “Wethank Care Today for their valuable

Harvesting Goodwill*

*Article appeared in India Today

contribution. The middlemen’s gameis over.”

Care Today, which acts as a linkbetween India Today Group’s readers,viewers and listeners on the one sideand disaster-hit communities on theother, received Rs 2.79 crore incontribution to make life better forpeople in tsunami-hit areas in India.

Of this, it has so far released grantsof Rs 2.23 crore. The organisation hasprovided relief and rehabilitation topeople in tsunami-hit Nagappattinam,Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts inTamil Nadu, Kachal in LittleAndaman and the southern parts of theNicobar islands.

Newly-constructed warehouse inVizhunthamavadi village

interact with participants of otherprogramme like Armed forceprogramme and with some of thePGP students.

• Friendliness and easilyapproachable nature of thefaculty members are encouragingaspects.

Conclusion

Overall, I found the programmevery useful and found an excellentlearning environment in IIMA. Also,I wish to be instrumental inestablishing a long term institutionalrelationship between IIMA andTata-Dhan Academy. Regarding the

same, I interacted with Prof. RajeevSharma and he too expressed hiswillingness and possibility to startwith the joint projects. I wish toconclude this report with a due regardand gratitude to my Institution for thesupport and encouragement byproviding this opportunity to me.

Centre for Development CommunicationDHAN Foundation

18, Pillaiyar Koil Street, S.S. Colony, Madurai - 625 016. Tamil Nadu, INDIA

Tel.: +91 - 452 - 4353983, 2610794, 2610805 Fax: +91 - 452 - 2602247

Email: dhanfoundation_tn@airtelmail.in Website: http://www.dhan.org

Heritage Water bodies Building on

of

Tank is a vital resource, having, economic, ecological, social

and spiritual functions. Due to its fundamental role in village

life, they have a strong cultural dimension. Without

understanding and considering the cultural aspects of tanks, no

sustainable solutions can be found.

reat Civilizations show that their Gdevelopment was directly related to the

extent to which they could control and manage

water r e sour ces. T he hydr o log ica l

characteristics of the Indian monsoon

necessitated the creation of storage facilities to

hold the rainwater of the monsoon.

Behind these existing indigenous

systems of irrigation, there are thousands of

years of tradition. DHAN Foundation’s

Vayalagam Tankfed Agriculture Development

programme is involved in renovation and

upkeep of these tanks in the peninsular india

through the farmers’ organisations and their

federations promoted by it.

With

extraordinary engineering, managerial and

social skills, an extensive system of rainwater

harvesting structures like tanks and ponds had

been build and maintained by the people for

centuries.

Tanks are the living heritages