Land & Water Development
- “Land is Livelihood” is the concept that drives SAFAL’s Land and Water Resource Development programme. It remains a core activity in SAFAL's strategy to develop rural livelihoods. SAFAL's multi-disciplinary and integrated approach, therefore, is based on the premise that significant opportunities for livelihood enhancement exist through the restoration and management of the available natural resources in the rural areas.Agriculture based livelihood cannot go beyond a point if development of two fundamental resources such as land and water are unaddressed. There is enough experience today to know that a family with one to two acres of land requires a one-time investment of average Rs.30000-40000 to improve the land and water condition so that cropping intensity can be doubled.
- Such amount of investment in a phased manner with support of institutional credit from their own institutions like SHG, Farmer Producer Organisations, etc., the livelihood of the family can be stabilized. It is near impossible for the family to consider such investment on their own given his/her economic conditions. On the other hand, a simple calculation suggests that each family in a village has entitlement of earning about Rs.20000-25000 every year through MGNREGS. This means that entire need of investment for land and water resources development for the family can be sourced from the resource entitlement of the same family. What is essentially required is a planning protocol at the village level with the Gram Panchayats and a technical support mechanism to the Gram Panchayats for implementing the plan using MGNREGS fund. SAFAL has been working in this model of supporting Gram Panchayats and community groups in all its programme areas with considerable success.
Role of Safal
To create a forum for rapport building between the project staff and participating for effective and efficient participatory planning and implementation of the project activities. To help the participating core team and department ofAgriculture in getting feedback from the field while implementing the activities and in supporting, monitoring and evaluation system of the project.
To motivate and sensitize the member farmers of FPC, project beneficiaries, CBOsand rural communities. Solve the grass root level issues/problems, market issues, production and environmental impact of FPOs activities with an emphasize on participatory approach.
SAFAL is mainly facilitating market driven agricultural intensification and diversification by assisting farmers to become more competitive and able to take advantage on emerging economic opportunities. To facilitate active participation and capacity building of the FPOs members, FIGs, CBOs, farmers’ groups and women’s groups in the project activities under SFAC.