Participatory Intervention Series
Paper 2

In 1990-91 The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) approved Rs.150,000/- to provide critical inputs to 150 farming families through MYRADA Talavadi Project under the Lab-to-Land (LLP) Programme. The concept was to provide each of the selected families with inputs worth Rs.1,000/- over a period of two years at the rate of Rs.500/- per family per year.

This could be invested in any farming/livestock related activity involving the use of improved technology and management practices, with extension assistance provided by the implementing Voluntary Agency, in this case, MYRADA.

MYRADA Talavadi Project chose the Bargur area - which had not received any development assistance so far - for this programme. At the same time, the Project staff took a few policy decisions with regard to the manner of implementing the programme :

1. To involve the people themselves in selecting the families to participate in the programme through their Credit Management Groups (CMGs, also known as Self Help Groups [SHGs] or sanghas).

2. To plan and implement the programme in conjunction with the people, which would give them the opportunity to make choices rather than accept a choice imposed by the Project, and also let them manage the fund in a way they deemed appropriate instead of sticking to the ICAR allocation of Rs.1,000/- per family.

3. To see to what extent the programme could be managed as a credit system of loans and recoveries. Thus, the participating families would identify themselves as ‘borrowers’ rather than ‘beneficiaries’; the MYRADA Office would also not come to be regarded as a grant-giving or grant-channelling agency.

MYRADA Extension Staff in Bargur introduced the LLP to the Sanghas in their meetings, giving them the option of submitting a proposal stating their interest in fund utilisation, their expectations, and how they would implement the programme. Their preference of programme was, unanimously, sheep and goat rearing. In consideration of the objective of promoting improved technology MYRADA recommended the purchase of Mecheri breed of sheep and Tellicheri breed of goat.

Between MYRADA and the Sanghas it was decided that the LLP money should go through the Sanghas as loans to the participating families. This would ensure better programme management by the families; the recoveries would also result in increasing the sangha common fund through which more loans to members could be advanced. Thus, a programme intended for 150 families would actually reach out to more.

15 Sanghas chose 150 persons from among their members to be covered under the LLP in September 1990. In 2 of the 15 sanghas migration of members led to the dissolution of the sanghas themselves: a clear case of an avoidable mistake made by MYRADA. The participating families belonging to these sanghas had already purchased sheep under the LLP, but no recoveries could be made. In the remaining 13 sanghas, 11 made modifications in the programme such that a greater number could benefit. This took several forms:

- Deciding that each member would buy only two animals instead of four at the rate of approximately Rs.250/- (the prevailing price then) per animal. Thus, instead of allocating Rs.1,000/- per family, they decided on Rs.500/- per family; the remaining Rs.500/- could then become available to another family.

- Deciding that since the money received as grant from ICAR would actually be treated as a loan from the sangha to the member, the recoveries would be advanced to other members to enable them to make similar sheep and goat purchases.

- Deciding that participating families would have to additionally put in some money of their own to make the animal purchases, thereby stretching the ICAR funds to cover more families. 

These modifications were variously applied by the different sanghas. In the first year of the LLP in Bargur 300 sheep and goats were purchased. In each case, the family supplemented the animal cost with his or her own contribution ranging from Rs.10/- to Rs.200/- depending on the quality of the animal desired. Insurance was purchased by the families out of their own resources, by remitting the premium of 4% to the sangha account. The Sangha then filled out one insurance form to cover all its members’ animals, paying the amount  to the insurance company in one lump sum. 

The table that follows shows the current stat us of the LLP in Bargur. Each Sangha keeps a separate LLP notebook with dated entries recording loan and recovery transactions. This notebook is updated at the time of the weekly CMG meetings. 

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