PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD April 2002 to March 2003

Background

MYRADA entered into the area in 1993 on invitation from the Indo-German Bilateral Project to take up the community organization component on a pilot basis under the Hill Area Development Programme implemented by the Government of Tamilnadu. This programme focused mainly on drainage line treatment. On completion of this project in 2000, MYRADA approached HOPE with a request to support initiatives in 3 micro-watersheds with the aims of soil conservation, water conservation and improving soil fertility on privately owned lands belonging to small and marginal farmers.

The 'Watershed Management and Development : Sustaining Productivity' Project was approved by HOPE Canada covering 3 MYRADA projects namely Talavadi, Kadiri and Kattery. The programme started in October 2000 and is for a period of 3 years, which will end in September 2003. The programme in Kattery covers 3 micro-watersheds with an area of around 1,070 hectares.

Staffing

There are 3 fulltime staff on the project, and 2 promoters support the programmes.

Project Activities

The Project’s main activities are the promotion of self help affinity groups of the poor and watershed development (including the promotion of community based institutions for watershed management). At present the project is implementing the following programmes :

Watershed Development

The Kattery Watershed Programme is funded by Hope International Development Agency, Canada, and covers 20 villages. Three micro-watersheds have been taken up for coverage, namely Muthinadu, Thambatty and Kattery. Self help affinity groups and micro-catchment associations have been formed in all three watersheds. During the year treatment works were taken up in the Thambatty and Kattery micro- watersheds on around 500 hectares. Activities such as bunding, land levelling, terracing, farm ponds, new tea plantations and re-plantations in existing small holders’ gardens, and irrigation wells were taken up on privately owned lands. All these activities are taken up through the micro-catchment associations and are on a loan basis. Some treatment measures like checkdams and gabion dams, stream lining and tree plantations were taken up on common lands with grants from the project and community contributions.

Members from SAGs were supported to establish a green house for floriculture, which is running well as an income generation programme for several families.

The Shillahalla and Neeralipallam Watershed Project is funded by the Ministry of Planning and Development, Government of India, through the Hill Area Development Programme, Nilgiris. This programme covers 23 micro-watersheds, of which Myrada partners the Government in 2 watersheds (i.e. Shillahalla and Neeralipallam). The role of the NGO is to organize the community into SAGs, Resource Management Committees, and Watershed Associations, assist in capacity building of these CBOs, and assist in micro-planning along with the Government Line Departments like the Agriculture Engineering Department, Horticulture Department, Forest Department, etc, The micro-plans are then consolidated, and based on the same, the programmes are then implemented by the watershed committees with the support of the Line Departments. In the current year, micro-planning was completed in both the 2 micro-watersheds with which the Project is associated.

Tea Promotion Programme

Under the Tea Quality Upgradation Programme taken up by the Tea Board and funded by the Ministry of Industries and Commerce, the focus is on improving the quality of tea in Nilgiris District through village awareness, training, and mechanized pruning. 2 self help groups formed by the Project have been selected to participate in this programme. The members have been trained and inputs have been provided. Support to small growers also includes quality control and market linkages. In the current year, as a result of better garden management, plucking and marketing, the farmers were able to realise higher yields and were able to get 20% to 40% better prices.

Local Level Institutions

The Project is working with 165 self help affinity groups, 5 self help group federations, and 13 watershed associations. The Project was a partner of the Tamilnadu Women’s Development Corporation on the Mahalir Thittam Programme which focuses on motivating and facilitating the formation of women’s’ self help affinity groups and training them and linking them with the Government for socio-economic development inputs. However, in the current year no progress was made on this programme and the Project decided not to sign the Agreement for the new phase due to the inflexible terms and operational difficulties of working with the government.

Of the 165 self help groups, 113 have been linked to banks for financial assistance (under the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme). Upto now, Rs.7,961,000/- has been given as loans to the groups, of which Rs.2,406,000 was financed during the current year.

Training Activites

All Myrada-facilitated CBOs (Community Based Organisations) undergo a package of training to build their individual and institutional capabilities. During the year, 80 trainings programmes were conducted for self help groups, 12 trainings for federations, 13 trainings for micro-watershed associations and 7 trainings for the general category of farmers.

Future Plans

The HOPE-funded programme, which is the main programme of the Project will come to an end in September 2003. As a follow-up, the Project will establish a Resource Centre to service the CBOs and provide necessary capacity building inputs and linkages.

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