Presented by Dr.Rengalakshmi

1. Sustainable Livelihoods
8 Aug 2019

2. Status of small holders
Stabilising Farm Incomes
The Employment Challenge
Increasing Climate Risk
Challenge of Agroecology
Market Risks
Changing context of rural agrarian systems
Status
• 85% are small holders, operates 45% of the area
• Structure of income: crop cultivation (47%), Animal
husbandry(13%). Non-farm business (8%) and wages
and salaries (32%) – average income (Rs 78000 to one
lakh)
• Groundwater Overuse and Declining Water Levels –
Visible over 33% of the Districts and Blocks – 66% of
the wells owned by small holders
• Soil degradation due to imbalanced use of organic vs
inorganic nutrients
• Gender inequity in land ownership and access to
productive resources
• Share of institutional credit – 46%
• Increasing degree of Climate variability and change&
• Market access and risk
Main challenges

3. Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
Policies
Institutions
Processes
NS
FP
H
The Poor
Vulnerability
Context
Shocks
Seasonality
Trends
Changes
influence
Livelihood
Strategies
Livelihood
Outcomes
Slide 16
Livelihoods: Capabilities, the Assets (both material and social resources) & the Activities
required for a means of living.
It is sustainable when they can able to cope with and recover from stresses and shocks;
maintain or enhance capabilities and assets without ... without undermining the natural
resource base

4. Approaches – Livelihoods
1. Biovillage
2. Bioindustrial watersheds – landed farmers
3. Sustainable agriculture – intensification and
diversification
4. Ecoenterprises – landless agrl. labourers
Common framework is – Enhancing the productivity
in concurrence with natural resources

5. Augment
Agro ecosystem
Sustainability &
Enhancement of
Livelihoods for
Watershed
Communities
HUMAN
CENTERED
Pro Nature - Pro Poor
Pro Women - Pro Jobs
OUTCOMES
FPOs/ BIO
INDUSTRIAL
INSTITUTIONS
INCREASED
Land & Water Productivity
Exclusion to Inclusion - Financial
Diversified & Value added Livelihoods
Community Managed Institutions
Management of Climate Change Risks
Stakeholders Concerted Action
SUSTAINABLE
Agriculture / Food Security
Environmental Quality
Livelihoods and
Happy Farm Families
OUTCOMES
Bioindustrial Watershed - Operational Framework
Climate Change -
Mitigation and Adaptation
Bio village
Paradigm
Gender
Mainstreaming
Partnerships / Entitlements
& Capacity Building
Cross
Cutting Issues
KEY COMPONENTS
Convergence
Biomass Actors
Watershed Community
Owned, Monitored
& Managed
PRI
NREGA
Conservation and Enhancing NR
Land , Water & Biodiversity
Improving Small Farm Productivity &
Profitability - PTD /IIFS
Crop - Livestock Integration
Generation of Non Farm Market driven
Enterprises
BV
BV
BV

6. Bio Industrial Scale Up based on
Watershed Development
Access to
Water &
other
assets &
services
Building
social
capital -
FPOs
Intensification
/Diversification
livelihood
options
Integration
of Value
Chain
Scaling Up
Models
Key Drivers
1. Equitable access to water, credit & other
support services
2. Bridging the yield gap and increase
productivity, Value addition and
Profitability of small farms
3. Risk management (abiotic) and
4. Institutional building and
5. Market access

7. o Enhancement of natural resources:
Individual Farm Ponds (8) tank (1), open
wells (25), Water Harvesting Structures (3),
irrigation channels (2000 m), diversion weirs
(9), compartmental bunding (58 acres), /
Staggered Trenches (43), gully plugging
structures (11), Agro forestry and farm
forestry
 Addressing productivity issues: Production
of Paddy almost doubled in both the
seasons, 30% increase in groundnut in rabi
season and 66% in vegetables
o
Case of Tolla watershed
Total area – 750 ha (320 ha –cultivable land) covering
272 families

8. 8
Physical capital: 162 Farmers covered with different land & water management works
and ensured cropping, where as 303 Acres land provided with assured irrigation
facility.
Natural Capital: 161 Acres land treated with different land & water management
practices, brought in to cultivation (Fallow, Cultivable, Uncultivated & affected by
soil erosion) became productive.
Water table increased up to 65%– Drinking water scarcity in summer is addressed.
Human Capital: 8465 workdays employment generated through land & water
management works and Employment Workdays ensured - 180 to 200 days.
Social capital: Promoted one Farmer collective with 740 farmers (32% women)
Financial capital: Community banking system established
Additional income increased:
• Rs. 2000 to 10000 per acre - paddy, ragi & groundnut
• Rs. 5000 to 20000 for Vegetables

9. Ecoenterprises

10. Case 2. Mass multiplication of Bioinputs – Ecoenterprises
Issues and Context – Reddiyarchatrm block
• In the total work force – 52 % of them are agrl.laborers, of which 60 % are women
• Belongs to socially disadvantaged communities (mostly dalits and chakkliars)
• Total area under cultivation is around 20,000 ha
• Literacy rate: 62 Percent among women and 74% among men
• vulnerability context among agricultural labourers: skewed employment opportunities
(year around), lack of savings, lack of assets, less wage rate, poor health conditions,
seasonal migration etc
• Lack of rural entrepreneurship
• Since women do not have equal access to credit, training, business development services
etc., access to science and technology is unlikely to have a major impact on improving their
livelihoods

11. • Major livelihood strategies are wage labour (Available labour
days – 107 for men and 157 for women in agriculture) and
livestock rearing such as goat and poultry. During lean season
the family moves to nearby industrial towns such as Tirupur,
Coimbatore etc. The labour group follows seasonal migration,
advance selling of labour, sale of livestock, borrowing from
moneylenders, consumption adjustment, work for less wage are
the common coping strategies.
• Targeted households are mobilized into groups and groups
federated at the apex level – 160 groups – organised in to
women federation

12. Biological products: Demystified into Eco-enterprises
Products Common name
1. Trichoderma viride
2. Pseudomonas fluorescens
Bio fungicide
3. Trichogramma chilonis/japanicum
4. Cryptolaemus or Scymnus
Bio pesticide
5. Beauveria bassiana
6. Metarhizium spp
7. Verticillium leccani
8. Bacillus subtilus
Bio pesticide
9. Azosprillum brazilliensis
10. Phosphobacteria
11. K mobilizers
12. Rhizobium
13. Arbuscular Mycorrhiza
Biofertilizers
14. Paeciliomyces lilacinus Bio nematecide (pest)
15. Nesolynx thymus pupal parasitoid to control Uzifly

13. Enhancing capacities ……

14. Technology appropriation to
the local context and user
groups

15. Production process of biofungicide (Pseudomonas and
biofertilizers)……

16. Business Development Services
Services provision was institutionalized
through federation - Kulumai federation –
committee within federation established to
monitor and implement
Credit
services
Technology
upgradation
Product
diversifi
cation
Marketing
services
Legal
complian
ces
Quality
assurance

17. Outcomes
1. Access to technology – skilled employment - five women
groups around 75 women
2. Non traditional jobs, new skills and knowledge
3. Assets in women’s name – collective
4. Entrepreneurship capacities - risk taking ability, continuous
innovation, diversification, Control over decision making on the
enterprise management, innovation in the process etc
5. Expansion on the institutional linkages

18. GainsandLosses–rural
womenaccesstotechnology
andentrepreneurship
Indicators more less Remarks
Work burden + Less equitable for women
Leisure time - Less equitable for women
Skill + More equitable for women
Knowledge + More equitable for women
Responsibilities + More equitable for women
Participation in public/civic/political + More equitable for women
opportunities + More equitable for women
Decision making + More equitable for women
Control over assets (group assets) + More equitable for women
Social prestige + More equitable for women
Conflict/violence - More equitable for women
Women workload is increased while gender division of reproductive work is yet to change and
Women rarely own immovable assets

19. Rice Bio Park
Provide a scope for adopting a
circular economy approach which
is minizing waste and maximizing
the use of resources

20. Concluding remarks
• Social mobilization and organization – group coherence and women’s
leadership
• The capacity building process- pedagogy, interactive learning, learning by
doing and learning by evaluation – partners need to be sensitized to the
approach
• Ensure the availability of business development services/support services
:build capacity of the group members to build the networks and negotiate
• Access to technology and demystification or customization of the
technology to the local context
• Networking and linkages with technical and marketing institutions

21. Challenges
• Complexity and challenges in striking balance among
ecological and economic sustainability dimensions
• Sustaining the collective power to address the
inequalities – measures of nurturing
• Goals of economic and social empowerment may not
always go together – what kind of strategies are
needed?

22. FPOs
Collectives
Technology
support
Market
and
financial
Access
Access to productive resources
Decision
making
Self
confidence
Agency and Power
Key learnings

23. Rice Bio Park
Provide a scope for adopting a
circular economy approach which
is minizing waste and maximizing
the use of resources
Explore the scope for such
processing initiatives

24. Thank you