NUAPADA: The Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM) is set to develop community nurseries in the district to provide alternative income avenues for self-help groups, who are badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The nurseries would be set up under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). These community nurseries will supply saplings to beneficiaries of nutri-gardens in the district.
District project manager of OLM Timan Bara said, “Such a convergence programme has been implemented for the first time in the district. In the first phase, work has started on 10 community nurseries in Nuapada, Komna, Boden, Khariar and Sinapali blocks. Around 10-15 SHG members have been engaged in each of these nurseries where vermi-compost will be prepared and saplings raised. Most of the saplings from the nurseries will be supplied to the nutri-gardens being prepared under ‘Mo Upakari Bagicha’ project.”
Under the nutri-garden project, the beneficiaries are being given banana, papaya, drumstick and lemon saplings. While the other saplings are being supplied from alternate sources, papaya and drumstick saplings are being raised by the SHG members at the community nurseries.”
They have been given necessary infrastructure like green shade, water storage pits and vermi-compost vats. Moreover, capacity building and handholding support is being provided through krusi mitras, prani mitras, master book keepers (MBK) and community resource persons.
The involvement of MGNREGS in the project is meant to facilitate convergence of funds. A target was set to develop 14,000 nutri-gardens across 131 gram panchayats (GP) in the district in next one year.