Turning fallow into fertile land
CHHATTISGARH: Despite the ownership right of his land, under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, Budhram Gond — a resident of Jhiriya forest village in Chhattisgarh’s Mungeli district — faced years of relentless poverty owing to lack of information on alternative farming on his fallow land. Like Gond, thousands of tribals have had similar agricultural issues. But since 2018, ‘Hamar jungle hamar ajivika’ (my forest my livelihood), an innovative concept launched by chief secretary Rajendra Prasad Mandal, has given a new lease of life to these villagers.
So much so that, Gond, for the first time, earned an additional `1.50 lakh from his 4-acre land in the last financial year. Mandal linked land rights with livelihood opportunities under the concept, aimed at protecting tribals’ lands and facilitating cultivation in fallow lands. Mandal got thousands of acres of the allotted forest lands under the FRA into productive agriculture fields in several districts through securing convergence of various implementing agencies and schemes, including MGNREGA. Chhattisgarh has a 32 per cent tribal population.
The recent data shows 45 per cent of the state’s population is below the poverty line, with a major portion of that section belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes category. At the national level, 25 per cent of the population is below the poverty line. Despite being bestowed with recognition of forest rights and land ownership, the tribals and non-tribal forest dwellers are recognised by the Act (OTFD) often rely upon the primitive practice of single cropland use and mostly grow paddy.
“The focus of the Chhattisgarh government remains on the rural economy in consonance with its flagship programme ‘Narva Garuva Ghurwa Baari’ (Narwa — canals for irrigation, Garuva — livestock to support farmers, Ghurwa — manures, fodders etc. to minimise investment cost and enhance the output and Baari — raising land production capacity with lesser inputs). The lands acquired under the FRA having enough potential and scope to achieve diverse objectives can’t be ignored. Besides multiple crops, there are other possibilities to boost livelihood, generate income for the ST and OTFD, when these lands are used to an optimum level of production,” Mandal, the 1987-batch IAS officer, says. Mandal was an additional chief secretary of the panchayat, public works department, forest & environment among other departments.
The initiative
The plan was focus on improving the financial conditions of the beneficiaries and promotion of sustainable integrated farming, smart soil and water conservation. To begin with, Mandal identified contiguous patches of forest land (of 40 acres or more) as a cluster in 2018. Then baseline surveys were conducted across 38 clusters in 20 districts spread across 4,240 acres. Initially, the surveys covered 1,557 FRA beneficiaries. While an average annual income of a farmer under the FRA was `4850, around 96 per cent of the beneficiaries did not have year-long irrigation facilities.
Such difficulties were taken into consideration while implementing the unique concept. While fostering community awareness, an action plan for poverty alleviation was implemented through diversified livelihood approaches. The ST and OTFD gradually surpassed the limitations on rain-fed agriculture to multi-tier, multi-cropping one. For instance, at Kekrakholi in Dhamtari district, over 160 acres of uncultivated lands under the FRA have been made productive.
“Through planning on the land development, for the first time the tribals irrigated paddy and other crops here”, says Dharam Singh, an assistant project officer of the MNREGA. Projects like FRA through the convergence approach stood as an amalgamation of natural resource management, integrated farming system, scientific approaches, community participation, strengthening of self-help groups, the welfare of tribes. With the convergence process of various departments with the MNERGA, the FRA beneficiaries got an additional 50 days of employment under the poverty alleviation scheme.
Under ‘hamar jungle hamar ajivika’ plan
- Leveraging through convergence of government schemes
- Integrated farming system on lands allotted under FRA Boost to individual income and rural economy
- Promoting sustainable approach
- Community participation