With the strengthening of relationships between the farmers and MYRADA, periodic appeals started being made by the affected farmers to our Office to intervene and assist in redeeming the trees. MYRADA shared their concerns but had no strategy to solve the problem. The staff encouraged the farmers to discuss the issue at their Self Help Group meetings to see if they could come up with some ideas of their own. 

In 1992, as a result of NABARD’s pilot project with MYRADA to assist Self Help Groups with working capital support for their credit management activities it became possible for MYRADA to provide working capital assistance (as an interest free loan) to some of the Bargur groups.

By early 1993, two groups in Bargur came up with the solution to the tamarind tree problem(Basaveswara Sangha and Veerabhadraswamy Sangha) :

They would use the NABARD seed money to give loans to the affected members to redeem their tamarind trees. The trees would then be pledged to the respective Self Help Groups. The members could clear their loans with the groups in monthly instalments, with extra payments being made during the agricultural seasons when incomes were higher. Until such time, the groups would auction the trees each year, with the group members themselves being encouraged to bid. For this too, the member bidding the highest could take a loan from the group to pay the bid amount. Thus, both the group and the member making the highest bid would derive an income from the tree until the tree owners cleared their loans with the group. There were instances where the tree owners themselves sometimes won the auction, thus enabling faster loan repayment out of the profits from the tree. In general, the group loans have been cleared over a period of 2 seasons.

The pattern set by Veerabhadraswamy Sangha and Basaveshwara Sangha is gradually being emulated by other groups also, with money available in their own common funds (built up with members’ savings, interest on loans advanced to members, money collected by way of fines, donations, group income generating programmes, etc.) The recent linkage programme with banks has also helped the groups to augment their working capital to be used for this purpose. Meanwhile, the initial seed money made available to the Bargur groups out of NABARD funds has been more or less fully recovered.

The table that follows shows the number of trees that were redeemed by the close of June 1996:

And what of the moneylenders from the plains? Their initial reaction was one of shocked disbelief. Now they are approaching the farmers to lease the trees on an annual basis for a mutually agreed sum of money payable to the farmers in advance.

But the most surprised are the farmers themselves, not because they have got back their trees but because they have demonstrated their `Buddhi Balan’ (intellectual power) in joining together and finding their own solution to a long pending problem.

July 199
MKVK

EDITOR’S NOTE: The MYRADA Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Talamalai started functioning from October 1, 1992 with the support of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The Kendra is committed to the concept of facilitating participatory processes andpromoting innovations. Through the MKVK Participatory Intervention Series we attempt to share our experiences from time to time withother field functionaries. We welcome your views and suggestions on how we can add more value to our work. MYRADA’s address at Bangalore is: No.2, Service Road, Domlur Layout, BANGALORE 560 071.