Sustainable Integrated Farming: A Scalable Model for Small and Marginal Farmers

Conceptualizing and grounding a development model appropriate to the diverse needs and priorities of different sections of the community, and, at the same time conserving the eco-system of the local livelihoods is a challenge of a very high order.

L IVELIHOOD STRENGTHENING HAS, FOR MANY good reasons, continued to dominate the development effort of most government and non-government agencies concerned with the poor and marginal communities in rural India. However, often, they miss the integrated reality of the livelihood eco-system of the community and adopt theme-centric or activity-specific interventions that fail to bring any significant impact.

The poorer the household, the higher is its livelihood portfolio. This can be for several reasons—to diversify risk, optimize the minimal resources it owns or has access to, or meet its various uncertain needs. Even though women toil hard and do more than 70 per cent of the work in agricultural fields, their identity as farmers is hardly recognized.

On the other hand, conceptualizing and grounding a development model appropriate to the diverse needs and priorities of different sections of the community, and, at the same time, conserving the eco-system of the local livelihoods is a challenge of a very high SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED FARMING: A Scalable Model for Small and Marginal Farmers 26 NEWSREACH NOV_DEC 2018 order. However, the following experience from Keonjhar, Odisha, provides an answer to such a challenge and is worth considering for large-scale replication.

Contextual Issues

Tribal communities such as Gond, Bathuli, Kolha and Munda, and OBC communities such as Mahanta are the major inhabitants of Keonjhar. Agriculture is the predominant activity here, comprising small and marginal farmers with average land-holdings of around 2 acres each. About 50 per cent of the land is un-bunded upland whereas the rest is medium and lowland. Most of the families cultivate paddy in the kharif season and grow vegetables, along with some pulses, in the rabi season, utilizing the residual moisture in the paddy land or using water lifted from ponds, wells and seasonal streams on a small scale.

Other than agriculture, the rearing of small ruminants and backyard poultry have been the next most significant livelihood contributor, especially for the poor, the marginalized and the women. Besides agriculture and livestock, people rely on nontimber forest produce (NTFP) collection from nearby forests and wage labour, for their livelihoods.

Nityanand Dhal is Integrator, Research and Advocacy, PRADAN. He was earlier Team Leader of the Keonjhar team in Odisha.

Asutosh Satpathy is a Consultant, working with PRADAN.