WORKSHOP ON ROLE CLARITY FOR THE HARIT PRAYAS STAFF FOR THE 2ND YEAR (25TH/02/2012) @JHANSI

FIELD VISIT TO HARIT PRAYAS VILLAGES OF JHANSI: Pathari, Math & Chamruwa: By Caritas India Project Officer

Impact of HARIT PRAYAS@jHANSI: RECORD VOTING IN HARIT PRAYAS VILLAGES

Good news from HARIT PRAYAS field! Just few days back for assembly elections our HARIT PRAYAS at Jhansi team has done campaign for “importance of voting in BABINA Block HARIT PRAYAS villages and  we are happy to share that in those villages and in entire BABINA BLOCK, voting percentages has broke all the records of total voting % in BABINA block…its 70% voting, which is highest in Bundelkhand region till date!

 You can read the % of voting and news on the following link or with attached paper cutting in the Danik Jargan ( Jhansi edition of 24^th/02/2012)

http://epaper.jagran.com/epaper/24-feb-2012-263-jhansi-edition-jhansi-Page-1.html

Visit plan of Caritas India Project Officer by JCSS-HARIT PRAYAS team ( 23rd-25th Feb 2012)

As per the schedule of visit by Mr. Vinod Pandey sir to Jhansi, we have planned that on 24th we will go to the project area villages and next day, i.e on 25th the team members of Harit Prayas will come to office for discussion on Job description and feed back for improvement implementation of the project, in its word and spirit.

The list of villages and concerned activity in the village is as following- (24-02-2012)

1. Pathari      - Meeting with Farmers' club members

                    - Visiting demo plot on organic farming where farmers will share their experience with organic farming, as facilitated by Harit Prayas project.

                    - Meeting with few MNREGA workers

2. Chamraua  - Visiting Demo Plot on Organic Farming and meeting with Farmers named Gudda and Madhav

                    - V.I.C Visit

3. Matth        - Demo plot visit of Asharam on organic farming

                    - Meeting with MNREGA workers

On 25-02-2012, 2nd day, all staffs of JCSS - Harit Prayas will be at office at sharp 9.00 AM.

The cluster coordinators of the concerned villages have been communicated about the schedule and their opinion has also been sought for this.

HARIT PRAYAS@JHANSI:strengthening democracy!

“Democracy is the ideal that all the citizens of a nation determine together the laws or actions of their state, requiring that all citizens have an equal opportunity to express their consent and their will. In practise, "democracy" is the extent to which a given system approximates this ideal, and a given political system is referred to as "a democracy" if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy.The most common system that is deemed "democratic" in the modern world is parliamentary democracy in which the voting public takes part in elections and chooses politicians to represent them in a Legislative Assembly”

Now HARIT PRAYAS has moved a step ahead in terms of not only securing the livelihood and rights of downtrodden people, but also strengthening the overall good governance system in the form of strengthening democracy by  ‘making community aware about casting their vote-through the message that vote is important and it gives us the power to elect the best people’s representative who can work for the welfare of people”

Considering the same and in concern with assembly elections voting in Jhansi on 23^rd/02/2012; JCSS-HARIT PRAYAS team in collaboration with Dainik Jagran ( a leading Hindi daily news paper) has gernerated mass awareness in all the 20 villages of HARIT PRAYAS in BABINA block of Jhansi.

Campaign has been supported by the National Daily Dainik Jagran. In the campaign the community members, children and women participated in the rally and the Harit Prayas team was encouraged with the people’s participation.

"Jaago matdata jaago" is the awareness campaign which makes voters aware of the importance of their vote. In Harit Prayas project villages Khandi, Guawali (chopra), on 17/02/2012 and Chamraua on 18/02/2012, team Harit Prayas organized rally with help of our community members. After rally a brief address was also given to the participants and the team emphasized the importance of vote. People requested to come out of their houses on voting day and they must cast their vote and elect right candidate who will work for betterment of people.

Slogan used- “matdaan- mahadan” , “apna vote, awashya karne”

Hope, this awareness campaign make people not only aware of their rights but also of their duty. This campaign has also given new breakthrough in reaching the HARIT PRAYAS project to the community.

FIELD VISIT TO SAMNAPUR AND KANCHI PIPARIYAH by Caritas India Project Officer

Date: 17th/02/2012

Time: 10:00 am to 6 pm

Field area visited: Samnapur & Kanchi pipariyah

First we visited to Harit Prayas VIC at Panch Mile. There we met with VIC incharge Mr. Sandeep Agnihotri.

Observations:

·         Location of VIC is good.

·         Need to put vacancy forms related to employment in VIC and other necessary and beneficial documents for village community.

·         List of total HH under Harit Prayas Project.

·         To bring out innovative ideas to motivate more and more people to take benefit from VIC.

Then we went to Samnapur which is 36 kms form our office. There we met members of Sangam Kissan Club and Radha Mahila Mandal.

In FC there are 16 members who hold very less land. We talked them about their monthly meetings, on issues related to organic cultivation and NREGA. Later we talked to members of MM.

Then we went to the farm of Mr. Hargovind (FC member) who has started organic cultivation in 40 decibel of land. He used organic manure and Amrit Pani (prepared by Mr. Laxman Jatt- FC leader and participant in learning cycle meet) in the farm.

After lunch we went to Kanchi Pipariyah- field area of Mr. Rajendra Patel which is 15 kms away from Rehli. There we met with Mahalakshmi Mahila Mandal. During interaction Mrs. Sapna and Mrs. Aarti shared how they went and deposited the monthly saving in bank which is 8 kms away from the village. Project Officer Mr. Vinod Pandey has briefed the members on benefits of forming MM and cleanliness in their areas to avoid health problems.

Observation:

·         Mahalakshmi MM is quite strong.

·         Need to strengthen MM and FC on the scale to make them an effective one.

·         FC soon to be linked with NABARD.

courtsey: MVSS-Sagar HARIT PRAYAS team

MPACT OF HARIT PRAYAS on MGNREGA in Bundelkhand region

With our HARIT PRAYAS project we are able to generate positive impact on better implementation of MGNREGA in Bundelkhand region in last one year (Jan-Dec 2011). It also covers the work under Bundelkhand package. The key strategy in the form of raising CBOs and strengthening linkages with PRI has strengthen HARIT PRAYAS to have impact on MGNNREGA implementation.

The MGNREGA is a radical step that is expected to significantly reduce rural poverty and hunger.  It guarantees one hundred days of employment at a certain minimum wage as a matter of right rather than as a great privilege. For those who live on the margin of subsistence, it makes dramatic difference by providing the right to live with dignity by seeking work through a due process. It also provides an opportunity to create useful assets and regenerate degraded ecological resources to enhance livelihood security.

One of the best ways to obtain high returns from manual labour is to invest such efforts to increase the land productivity and improve ecological services, which in the long-term would enhance the livelihood and food security situation.

Enhancing the natural resources is the critical element for promoting sustainable livelihoods in the poorly endowed arid/semi-arid regions. The field level experiences from arid/semi-arid tracts in the country reinforce the view that ecological restoration is the key to livelihood improvement in these regions. The HARIT PRAYAS experience has shown that a individual Household based  planning approach – a pre-requisite to ensure and secure the right for work.

Job cards & demand for work…

The result shows that 100% of target households have the job cards and all the job cards are in their own custody. Whereas incase of demand for work we could infer from the graph that 546 households have given written application for demanding job under MGNREGA ( according to baseline data it was earlier ZERO) and all the applicants have received the job.

HARIT PRAYAS team promotes the proper way of demanding job i.e. through written application; as in most of the Panchyats sarpanch/sachiv prefers no written application, because if some gives written application and concerned Panchayat is not able to provide job the the particular individual in 15 days then the concerned Panchayat has to give unemployment allowance which hardly any Panchayat prefers. Also written application for job under MGNREGA gives guarantee for the job/unemployment allowance as well as creates pressure on Panchayat to provide the job.

Full wage payment…

In Bundelkhand region full wages are in UP (120 INR per day) & in MP (122 INR per day). HARIT PRAYAS team with 18 training programmes on MGNREGA (including 2 at district level and rest at village level) is able to secure 407 target community members to receive full wages for their job done under MGNREGA.  It is also worth to notice that with HARIT PRAYAS its not we are making government system to work properly, we are enabling people to make system work properly and also making people to involve properly, as in many cases community do not do proper prescribed measured work under MGNREGA and ask for full wages! How it is possible to pay full wages without full work?

Average working days…

Baseline report of HARIT PRAYAS states that average working days under MGNREGA is 45 days in a year and NREGA website states ( on paper) average working days in the region is 75 days (2010) per household[1] including other Bundelkhand regions[2] also. With effort of HARIT PRAYAS project team at 3 districts we are able to achieve average 55 working days per households under MGNREGA and it is ground base data. Considering the situation and high political engagement and Uttar Pradesh government under MGNREGA scam, even in near future for the HARIT PRAYAS team especially for Jhansi team it would be difficult to increase the number of working days per HHs.

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[1] www.samprag.org/downloads/mnrega/mgnrega_lucknow_meet.pdf

[2] The region is now divided between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, with the larger portion lying in the latter.

The major towns are Jhansi, Datia, Tikamgarh, Rath , Lalitpur, Sagar, Damoh, Orai, Panna , Hamirpur , Mahoba , Banda Narsinghpur and Chhatarpur

VICs at Sagar has a brand name in the form of “Soochna Dwar”

“ROLE CLARITY & ENHANCING CAPCITY OF PROJECT STAFF’@Sagar (16th feb 2012)

Through various interactions and recently in the LEARNING CYCLE MEET it’s good to observe the interest of HARIT PRAYAS project staff for the cause and commitment towards bringing change. Now we have entered in to the 2^nd year of HARIT PRAYAS project and some where we need to sharpen our skills and redesign our Job to per form better. In concern with the same we have plan to organize workshop on “ROLE CLARITY & ENHANCING CAPCITY OF PROJECT STAFF’. The workshop would be organized during my field visits to the HARIT PRAYAS project partners.

Objectives of the workshop

• To review the JD, clearly identify the indicators for performance and set the target on individual basis for the year.
• To enhance the capacities of the staff of on their particular roles & responsibilities.  

Methodology to be used

• Discussion on current JD along with the 2^nd year plan and 1st year achievement
• Group exercise
• Role play

Expected outcome

• HARIT PRAYAS staff has developed clarity on their roles and responsibilities staff for the better implementation of HARIT PRAYAS & and contribute to the organization, community and for the self.

We are Self Dependent Now…

A small village in Rehli Block namely Kanchi pipariyah  consists of 171 HHs that are of minority community mainly belonging to harijan caste out of which we have 50 targets HHs.

Mr. Rajendre Patel (cluster coordinator) made efforts for a MM of 12 females of this community 4 months before.

The name of the MM was fixed by the mahilas themselves as MAHALAKSHMI MAHILA MANDAL who seem to be very much interested in making a move from the line of poverty to a new life. Their willingness for the same was shown by the shift they made in their thinking from making of beedi to something a newer IGA. Their stage of motivation was high with the regular visits of the harit prayas team and the trainings that were conducted.

For some or the other reason there was clash because of which the members were reduced to 10. From here on the eager to make a fight back for showing the others of what they are and what they can build up.

So they have fixed their saving to 50rs per head on 1^st of every month, which was irregular in the beginning. Now they have a balance 2000rs in bank.

All the mahilas along with the cluster coordinator made a visit to the bank for opening bank A/C at Chandhpur (SBI Branch) 8km far from the village totally a different area from Rehli.

For some reason the cluster coordinator could not make a visit to the group for the monthly meeting day, so the mahilas themselves arranged their meeting and travelled by cycle to bank to deposit the saving and filled the form all by themselves. For the first time Mrs. Sapna Ahirwar and Mrs.Aarti Ahirwar had filled the bank form and deposited the money.

The age old custom of wearing Gungat seems to slowly vanish from this village as the mahilas are coming out of the villages and facing the world all just after the intervention of the Harit Prayas team.

HARIT PRAYAS @SATNA-KHAJURAHO IN news

Impact of sustainable agriculture in satna is now getting in media. Please find attached news paper cutting of Dainik Bhaskar, where in HARIT PRAYAS at Khajuraho came in NEWS for spreading sustainable agriculture amongst farmers through trainings.

Whither Bundelkhand package?

“It never reached anywhere except in the pockets of the officers, contractors”

“Bundelkhand package? It never reached anywhere except in the pockets of the officers and contractors.” This is the standard reply one gets on queries over the ambitious Rs. 7,266 crore special package announced by the Planning Commission for this backward drought-prone region of Uttar Pradesh.

Announced in 2009, the package was meant for the overall development of the region spread across districts in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh — collectively known as the Bundelkhand region — and was to be implemented over three financial years between 2009-10 and 2011-12.

Of this amount, Rs. 3,506 crore was meant for seven districts in U.P. and the remaining for development of six districts bordering M.P. A substantial chunk of the money was to be allotted for the already existing schemes of watershed management, irrigation, drinking water, animal husbandry and environment.

Driving down the far-off regions where the much-touted package was to be implemented, villagers have tales to narrate of how officials and politicians allegedly ensured that it was not implemented and wherever some work was done, it was mere tokenism.

“Diseased goats were distributed by the State government under the livelihood scheme of the package that, instead of helping the poor farmer, resulted in the death of his own cattle as the infection spread,” explained Deepak, a local journalist in Lalitpur.

His friend pitched in to explain how 6,000 wells were dug up across the district but these collapsed within a few months because money was exhausted in digging and no funds were released to upgrade them.

There is another instance where several lakh of rupees were shown as spent on a road from Jhansi to a nearby village. But the road did not exist. When Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia visited the village to review the implementation of the scheme last year, along with local Congress MP Pradeep Jain, the local contractor is said to have shouted down Mr. Jain for pointing out the deficiencies.

“I am looking for the package. Where is it? Bundelkhand package could well be the biggest scandal,” said Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti. Her sentiments are shared by the Congress as well as the Samajwadi Party.

A review of the Bundelkhand package showed that only 16.57 per cent of the total allocation has been spent so far in Uttar Pradesh and 21.70 per cent in Madhya Pradesh over the past two years. The package is now expected to be extended by the Planning Commission.

The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) is the nodal agency created under the Planning Commission to release the funds under the Bundelkhand package. According to the NRAA, till November 30, 2011, it released Rs. 860.973 crore to U.P. out of a total allocation of Rs. 3,606 crore. But only Rs. 280.99 crore was spent. While Rs. 1,129.92 crore was released to M.P. out of a total allocation of Rs. 3,860 crore, it spent a meagre Rs. 424.4 crore.

The U.P. government is yet to demand the second instalment since it is yet to spend 70 per cent of the first instalment, which is mandatory as per the rules. However, the State government led by the Bahujan Samaj Party has been accusing the Centre of not releasing the funds on time that resulted in the poor implementation of package schemes. Uttar Pradesh has been demanding Rs. 80,000 crore for the development of the Bundelkhand region.

“There can be no proper implementation of any scheme unless there is independent monitoring,” points out Professor Krishna Gandhi, a social activist who runs an NGO Abhiruchi. He said the State government and the people were unaware of what the package was all about. Whatever money came was spent without proper planning and effective monitoring, he said while suggesting overseeing the implementation by an independent ombudsman.

As of now, the local monitoring committees set up by the Congress workers are not adequate enough. There is resentment that the Central monitoring team that visits off and on does only an aerial survey of the works done under the package and hence is unable to get the authentic picture of the mess that the scheme is in.

for more detail read on:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2883401.ece 

Training on MGNREGA : & its impact @Satna-Khajuraho

For the rural area MNREGA is life line, especially for marginalized farmers and landless community members. In the reporting month team Harit Prayas, satna conducted two units of MNREGA training. In these trainings the team trained people on the provisions of MNREGA. Due to lack of awareness of the schemes community members are unable to get the benefit of MNREGA. So through this training they came to know all about MNREGA. Total number of participants were in these trainings are 104. There is details of people who linked with this scheme….

S.NO.	NAME OF VILLAGE	NO. OF PEOPLE  LINKED with MGNREGA on the basis of training
1	Silone	19
2	Majotta	5
3	Kawar	11
4	Karondia	05
5	Saleiyya	08
6	Taleiyya	02
7	Motidungaria	04
8	Amronia	07
9	Motigarh	06
10	Adiwashipura	09
11	Dewra	10
12	Patra	05
13	Dharampura	10
14	Tapra	04

HARIT PRAYAS NEWS LETTER

We are happy to share that our HARIT PRAYAS team at Jhansi has come out with HARIT PRAYAS quarterly news letter in Hindi covering various process aspects of HARIT PRAYAS at Jhansi. This would be a regular news letter on quarterly basis. On the name of the project the news letter has named HARIT PRAYAS.

Aatmamnthan-LEARNING CYCLE MEET-in Camera!

Aatmamnthan-LEARNING CYCLE MEET

Aatmamnthan-LEARNING CYCLE MEET

OF

LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS PROJECTS

SSSS-Satna

30^th Jan-1^st Feb 2012

1. What is Aatmmanthan: LEARNING CYCLE MEET?

Learning cycle meet represents experience sharing of “community based project implementation’ from the project partners of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS project team (including community members would be). Sharing of learning would be entirely based on the result of the project and its process part”

1.2 Objective of the meet:

• To enhance the effectiveness & the quality of programme through cross learning amongst the teams of LIFE, HARIT PRAYAS, Caritas India and community members from the field are of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS.

• To review both the LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS project in terms of result achievement and process adoption

• Both the project teams LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS have shown the desired result achievement and get capacitated for better performance of the project.

2. Where and how it has organized (process part)?

Aatmmanthan-Learning Cycle Meet has organized at SSSS-Satna from 30^th Jan to 1^st Feb 2012 where in representatives from 5 partner organizations partner’s organizations-SSSS-Satna including directors, all the project staff of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS and community members (two from each partner) along with Caritas india staff, resource person from ASK and PGSSS have involved and made the learning cycle meet more worth for the purpose being it was organized.  It has started with the inauguration by VG Fr. Joseph (from Satna) and welcome of all the learners i.e. participants in the learning cycle meet. It moved ahead with the different steps of learning’s as:

• Clarifying the concept of meet in the beginning
• Sharing of the project progress and learning at different level
• Mixed group interactions ( inter team and inter- team interactions)
• Field visit to feel the progress and learning
• Consolidation of learning’s
• Adoption of learning’s

2.1 Day- wise process

Learning cycle meet was a three days process from 30^th Jan-1^st Feb 2012.

1^st Day: 30^th Jan 2012

Day one has initiated with the following process:

• All the 5 teams of (2 of LIFE & 3 of HARIT PRAYAS) presented and shared the progress of the concerned project and learning from the same: This has given a clear cut picture of project progress of both LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS project at the concerned partners. From the presentation it has come out that  HARIT PRAYAS team at Sagar has made 300+ community members to submit written application for MGNREGA, at Satna team has come out with organic  at Jhansi team has good progress in community mobilization , with LIFE team at Banswara team has achieved 2^nd best award in District for the promotion of organic cultivation, where as at Ajmer team has done quite well CBOs strengthening and linkages with other stakeholders.

• Members from other teams and communities from other part raised the queries and good discussion & sharing has taken place. Few of the key queries are related with: SOIL TESTING REPORT RECEIVED BY THE FARMERS, IMPORTANCE OF APPROVAL OF FARMER’S CLUB BY NABARD, AMRITPANI-a only substitute for DAP & UREA, IMPORTANCE OF OTHER LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS (especially for youth-female) and on MGNREGA wage rate.

There was a good discussion on “livelihood options for youth-female” Fr. Tony after his presentation raised query that in field it is quite difficult to find livelihood options for females youths and after an hour of discussion with the forum it has came out that not only female youth, infect both male and female youth could be promoted to involve in the promotion and cultivation of sustainable agriculture. As sustainable agriculture have much better options for income generation. Also involvement of youth in agriculture doesn’t mean that they should be denied from education.

• Community members shared the impact of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS project in their concerned villages: Hardeen ( a farmer  from Majhota village-HARIT PRAYAS project at Satna) has shared  that with HARIT PRAYAS he is able to reduce more than 90% of input cost in agriculture, Angoori devi ( a female farmer from Jhansi) has shared about his selection as farmers club secretary, Bhairia ( a farmer from LIFE project village of Banswara) has shared the importance of sustainable agriculture and has compared SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE WITH MOTHERS MILK, Meera devi  ( a SHG member from LIFE project village of Ajmer) has shared about how with SHGs she has moved from a member to an entrepreneur and Luxman Singh ( Farmer club president from the HARIT PRAYAS village of Sagar) has shared about the formation of farmers club.

• Input on organic certification by a resource person from PGSS-Gorakhpur: This has able to give a basic clarity on organic certification process and strengthening organic cultivation.
• Consolidation of learning’s and impact of project has shared at the end of the day.    

From the first day of process following are the important results concluded by entire team:

• ALL PARTNERS ARE ACHIEVING RESULTS
• Organic Farming - Use of organic manure and pest repellent has been extremely useful – gives life to land & cost effective
• Confidence and trust of farmers on Organic agriculture has increased – critical factor for development (role of facilitators)
• It takes time but sustainable in future
• Farmers are not only learning and practicing organic & improved agriculture but also making others to learn
• Farmers club & SHG – Community institutions has been instrumental in grounding of intervention and towards ensuring RESULT
• Some partner have done excellent in context of gender whereas some partners still needs to strengthened involvement of women
• Linkage with various stakeholder becomes extremely essential when our results are dependent on other stakeholder such as KVK, banks, government department
• Banswara has received district award for best agriculture promotion
• Organic certification is essential for getting adequate price of produces at various level and farmers needs to follow systematic & adequate practices
• All partners have started using RBM framework – Implementation focused on RESULTS
• Use of monitoring systems has been very useful to know actual progress of the projects
• Integrating systematic project management systems – leads towards better implementation of the project and achievement of results
• It important to invest on human resource to get better RESULT

2^nd Day: 31^st Jan 2012

• Field visit to three HARIT PRAYAS project villages ( Majhota, Kanwar & Motigarh): Three teams were made to visit the pre-decided thre HARIT PRAYAS project villages at Chatarpur-Khajuraho. HARIT PRAYAS project villages are around 200 kms from Satna and  to reach the mentioned villages  we have started our journey early 6.30 and reached Majhota by 9.30, there we had a welcome from the community and as per the team division one team stayed there and other two teams left for the other two villages.
• In villages there were discussion on organic cultivation (especially amrit Pani),,caste system , MGNREGA, farmers club and IGA activities in Mahila Mandals. Team members visited the field, interacted with the community members, farmers club & Mahila Mandal members.
• Discussion with the LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS coordinators on individual skill development: After returning from the field there was a meeting with all the coordinators of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS and discussion on individual skill development on presentation and other aspects related with the project. Apart from this there was few work division for coordinators.

From the field visit of the 2^nd day following are the key learning’s  ( these learning’s are based on the visit of three teams to the three villages and later on their sharing on learning’s)

Sustainable agriculture

—        Complete organic agriculture is possible in less cost– it gives proper yield in long term. Infect in Satna even in the first year it has given better yield in some of the farmers ( like in Hardeen-a farmer from Majhota village has two times better yield from organic in compare to inorganic)

—        We learned how to compare or differentiate organic with chemical farming.

—        Amrit Pani[1] – One of the ways to bring life in agriculture.

—        Community mobilization and excellent rapport building– through local friendly activities such as participating in their village activities, cultural activities, folk song etc.

—        Need to be demonstrating complete process of improved methodology such as…weeding, sowing practices….as it can reduce the input….

—        The comparison of action and results need to be documented well to prove….and learn…. There were good examples of change happening in the field of HARIT PRAYAS at Satna but some where team failed in documenting the whole thing. If it would be documented well, it could also be shared as an IEC material to other villages and  other villages ( from near by) could also be bring to see the change and learn from it.

Community mobilization

—        Winning trust of community is extremely essential. At Satan we are able to see that community have developed a trust on the project and its various components, which results in better intervention and making communities’ life much better.

—        Capacity building of staff through field exposure is vital.  This gives staff and community to think beyond the existing situation and probably they get many ideas and thought process from the same.

—        When we work with the specific target community we need to look into the issue of inclusion – respect of women/SC/Adivasi.

—        Demonstration of any organic product before promoting is essential method….as it would give us the better understanding affects ( positive & negative) on the crop

—        Always try to be facilitators and never try to be doers in the field. It has been observed in the field that Satna team has done quite good role of facilitator and especially in promotion of sustainable agriculture and hence the better result it is there in Satan in the form of entire villages adopting organic cultivation.

—        Farmers guiding other farmers – most effective strategy for change - Farmers are not only learning and practicing organic & improved agriculture but also making others to learn

Forest & Livestock

—        Forest residual can be used for preparation of organic manure. It would be better that there would be a proper contract with the forest department where in community could use the residuals of forest for the organic cultivation and teams working there could facilitate the same. Forest residuals have good source of organic components.

—        Livestock needs to be promoted – upgrading quality of livestock and it’s also lifeline for organic agriculture.

—        Extent focus on other project component such as alternate livelihood and entitlements…

Project villages/context

—        Selection of right project area and target people….

3^rd Day: 1^st Feb 2012

• Sharing of field learning’s ( by the team of Directors, Coordinators , field staff and Community members): all the team members did group exercise to compile the field level learning’s.
• Sharing of monitoring tools by HARIT PRAYAS & LIFE team and discussion on making monitoring tools short, time saving and economically

Presentation by all the team on different learning’s they have from the meet and what they would be taking as the learning for their entire organization: At the end of the learning cycle meet all the consolidated learning’s have been presented in front of all the team members by the resource person and all the five teams have asked to go through all the learning’s and select those learning’s which team would take it for their organization. Project organizations of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS have also decided the time line for the implementation of learning’s at their organizations. Following learning’s are taken by different teams for the development of their organization and strengthening of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS project:

·         Learning’s on sustainable agriculture ( especially Amrit pani)

·         Learning’s on strengthening women collectiveness through IGA

·         Learning’s on strengthening linkages with other stakeholders of development project.

·         Learning’s on strong community mobilization

·         Learning’s on strengthening entitlements amongst the community

3. Something special about LEARNING CYCLE MEET:

Learning cycle meet was unique in itself with number of innovations and special learning’s. Some of the special aspects of the meet were:

• Gallery presentation on various components of HARIT PRAYAS & LIFE project by all the five partners
• Cultural evening on 30^th Jan 2012; presenting various culture of Rajasthan & Bundelkhand region
• Release of first ever project based newsletter of HARIT PRAYAS by community members. The news letter has been worked out by HARIT PRAYAS JCSS-Jhansi team
• Release of CD of documentary films on Organic cultivation revolution in Satna. The CD has been developed by HARIT PRAYAS SSSS-Satna team
• Active involvement of community members, where every community member spoke like the owner of the projects.
• Passion amongst the team to  go beyond limits of development. The team has shown its all creativity and passion to do the things in highly professional way and get maximum learning from the meet for the betterment of the projects as well as the concerned organizations.
• Use of bio-degradable products in meet e.g. Banners are of cloth rather than on plastic/flex
• Taking back learning’s at organization level.
• All communication in Hindi
• Launch of e-learning programme of LIFE & HARIT PRAYAS (e-LHP)

4. What people said about the meet?

People’s voice….

It’s an interesting experience with learning cycle meet and it serves the purpose of its name. I prefer this should continue in other projects also. Fr. Tony & Mr. Mansih ( RCDSSS-Ajmer)

I would practice sustainable agriculture in such a way that it would generate hungerness amongst the other farmers to do the same. Mr. Harideen ( Farmer, Majhota village, Chatarpur-HARIT PRAYAS project village)

I am happy that I am able to learn on organic cultivation and meet with the community members from other parts country. Ms. Angoori ( Farmers club secretary, Jhansi, HARIT PRAYAS project village)

With LIFE project I have became and entrepreneur with initiating my own poultry farm, with this meet I have learnt the best practices of sustainable agriculture and would replicate the same in my farm field. Ms. Mira Devi (SHG member, Ajmer, LIFE project village)

I have not only learned the things from the meet, I have also enjoyed the evry moment of the meet. Mr. Sunil (LIFE project Field staff, RCDSSS-Ajmer)

The process of learning cycle meet was unique and I find it successful in every aspect from its design to its learning. Mr. Ratan (HARIT PRAYAS Coordinator, JCSS-Jhansi)

I have seen a unique blend of learning happening through this whole process of learning cycle meet. Mr. Prakash ( ASK, India)

I am bit surprise to see the clarity and understanding of sustainable agriculture amongst the community and staff within short period of time. Mr. Vijay ( PGSS-Gorakhpur)

It’s an interesting process of learning. Fr. Emanuel ( MVSS-Sagar)

We are taking many learning’s at organization level. Fr. Sebastian ( JCSS-Jhansi)

5. Outcome of the Aatmaanthan-Learning Cycle Meet

In terms of key achievement of the learning cycle meet, it could be concluded that the capacity of each and every member associated with both the project has increased in terms of clarity on result and working towards the change process in the context and amongst the community. In both the project there has been good result and change happening in sustainable agriculture, entitlement ( especially MGNREGA & FRA) and community mobilization in the form of CBO formation.

                                              

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[1] Its an organic substitute for urea and DAP and being easily made with cow urine, jaggery, gram flour, water and neem leaves