The biggest impact of HARIT PRAYAS!

Kota ( Chatarpur)  has become  1^st 100% Organic Cultivation village with efforts through HARIT PRAYAS project of Caritas India  

This is not me, but a leading new national news paper ( Nai Duniya) which has covered a story on Kota village is stating it and after that other media houses are also covering it!

With HARIT PRAYAS we are able to bring a new side of development….a project with a movement of change, let’s believe a change!

A brief about Kota village:

Kota is the far most village of HARIT PRAYAS in Chatarpur (Madhya Pradesh), its around 100 kms from Khajuraho (our cluster office). Also its quite difficult to reach Kota, as to reach Kota one has to cross a river and dark forest.; generally an outsider prefer not to go to Kota and non of the organisation or any other government institution has ever shown any interest in the development of Kota. HARIT PRAYAS team at Satna included Kota in the project as a challenge to work in the village and to bring out the change.

In Kota there are altogether 35 SC and ST families and population is around 200. People living there depend on agriculture and used to practice synthetic fertiliser based cultivation, When HARIT PRAYAS project has started there our cluster Coordinator Mr. Virender sen (of HARIT PRAYAS Satna team) started staying there in the village facing all the difficulties and slowly-slowly started guiding village community on organic cultivation. He has visited and stayed in all the 35 families and with slow process of motivation, series of trainings and demonstration in Kota.

Unbelievable Change!

• Today Kota has become the 100% organic cultivation village  and hope fully it’s the 1^st in Madhya Pradesh. Here important is to note that organic cultivation has not only become the practice but it has become the thought process of the community.
• Yes till certification has not yet started in this area, but certification is not only the criteria of organic cultivation, HARIT PRAYAS team along with Caritas India support has gone beyond certification and worked on changing thought process of the community on organic cultivation from synthetic fertiliser based cultivation.
•  It is also important to note that earlier (baseline line status) say that in Kota 100% farmers  ( those who used to used to practice agriculture) used to practice synthetic fertiliser based cultivation.  
• The most important thing HARIT PRAYAS is not only focusing on agriculture part, but with a minimum focus the team is able to bring pout the change, and its remarkable. The credit is mainly to the team working there.

To bring out this change entire credit goes to the cluster Coordinator Mr. Virender and the HARIT PRAYAS Team at SSSS-Satna ( please find a video of Interaction of Mr. Virender and Project Coordinator Ms . Preeti with Kota farmer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQUrV58WbJ0&feature=youtu.be )

What this 100% organic cultivation is actually giving benefit?

Now community members are happy with the concept of organic cultivation and are able to reduce the input cost in agriculture by 70-90%. The best part is that saved amount they are using for the development of their houses from Kutcha to Pucca houses and also contributing some amount for the development of village to make it neat and clean.

Benefit in agriculture has reduce migration up to 100% in the village ( watch attached video) baseline report states 40% of total HHs migration.

My own recent experience ( Caritas India Project Officer for HARIT PRAYAS)

I have visited Kota on 22^nd Nov and last time I have visited it in 2011, I find a big change not only in organic cultivation, but in the behaviour, the hygiene and sanitation and indeed the well being of the village.

Its good experience to see such changes. Also Kota is now like a hill station, and those who earlier do not want to visit it , now because of HARIT PRAYAS intervention, many government institutions are visiting it and there is planning to have a small bridge over the river near by Kota ( which cuts Kota from entire other villages in rainy season).

I suggest that HARIT PRAYAS Kota village at Chatarpur could be one of the ideal village for exposure on organic cultivation, so we can suggest to some opf the partners to visit there for exposure in other projects!

Let’s believe Change!

For more on HARIT PRAYAS log on to www.haritprayas.blogspot.com, or follow on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/harit.prayas) or follow on Twitter (HARIT PRAYAS) or watch HARIT PRAYAS channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/haritprayas

सिर्फ़ हंगामा, खड़ा करना, मेरा मकसद नही

sirf hangama, khada karna, mera maksad nahi

सारी कोशिश, है की ये, सूरत बदलनी चाहिए

saari koshish, hai ki ye, soorat badalni chahiye

मेरे सीने में नही, तो तेरे सीने में सही

mere seene mein nahi, to tere seene mein sahi

हो कही भी आग लेकिन, आग जलनी चाहिए

ho kahi bhi aag lekin, aag jalni chahiye

Poet Dushyant Kumar wrote above lines on bringing change-describes that its not only we talk about change…but instead we must bring change!  And with Caritas  India HARIT PRAYAS project we have  tried to bring  change at community and at all stake holder levels. 

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister in HARIT PRAYAS field

Madhya Pradesh CM  Mr. Shiv Raj Singh Chauhan has programme near by our HARIT PRAYAS project field in Khajuraho (Rajnagar block) has interaction with the collectivism women farmers group of HARIT PRAYAS there. The same has been covered in NEWS by leading Media houses.

Caritas India Project Officer visit to HARIT PRAYAS@ MVSS-Sagar

• 3^rd/12/2012: Reaching to Sagar (early morning by Gondwana Express)
• 3^rd/12/2012: Interaction with the Director and the staff , sharing of plan and moving to field for field visit.
• 4^th/12/2012: discussion on field visit, re-orientation to the entire project team on HARIT PRAYAS and the way foreword, HARIT PRAYAS project finance review and meeting with NABARD DDM

• 5^th/12/2012: Visit to field 2 villages ( especially visit to VICs) and discussion on Caritas India Chairman’s visit.
• 6^th/12/2012: Caritas India Chairman visit to the field of HARIT PRAYAS
• 6^th/12/2012: Leaving for Khajuraho

HARIT PRAYAS channel!

Now you all can meet with the farmers of HARIT PRAYAS and see and feel the innovation on LIVE ( will be live from 1^st Jan 2013) channel of HARIT PRAYAS at http://www.youtube.com/user/haritprayas . HARIT PRAYAs channel is an outcome of informal communication wing of HARIT PRAYAS with support from Project team-Ms. Preeti,Mr. Vinod, Mr. Prakash, fr. Robin & Fr. Jossy

Next week programme schedule on HARIT PRAYAS channel is :

26^th/11/2012 : 2.00 pm:  Community in Guwali village ( HARIT PRAYAS village at Jhansi) on NREGA

27^th/11/2012: 3.30 pm  Introducing the farmers of Madhya Pradesh 1^st 100% organic village through the effort of HARIT PRAYAS –Kota village

28^th /11/2012: 1.00 pm:  HARIT PRAYAS strengthening the concept of RTI in villages of Jhansi

Enjoy watching HARIT PRAYAS channel and follow on face book (http://www.facebook.com/harit.prayas ) and on Twitter HARIT PRAYAS.

Innovative farmers from the field of HARIT PRAYAS

Dear all,

Greetings from the field of HARIT PRAYAS!

jage hain der tak, hamen kuchh der sone do

thodee see rat aur hai, subah toh hone do

aadhe adhure khwab jo pure naa ho sake

ek bar phir se nind me woh khwab bone do

“The above lines are from a Hindi movie “Guru” it indicates that we have started our endeavours and change has started happening, lets wait some more dream of change will soom be fulfilled, in the same with HARIT PRAYAS we have started the process of change and HOPE that with HARIT PRAYAS Bundelkhand will be on development track with more prosperity and love!”

Innovation  is the base and life line of HARIT PRAYAS and its not only limited to the technology based innovation or programmatic innovation, innovation has now taken place at community level….now individual community members are doing innovation with support from HARIT PRAYAS team.

In concern with the above today we are introducing two unique innovative farmers to you all who has bring out the innovation in the field of sustainable agriculture and organic brick making. The two farmers are Gauri and harden from HARIT PRAYAS Majhota village (Khajuraho). Gauri has introduced the organic cultivation of ‘Aarvi’ ( potato family) with no cost input, where as Hardeen has made a profitable agriculture with usage of traditional seeds, introduced the concept of organic bricks, cultivated paddy ( through organic cultivation) after 10 years in the Khajuraho region and organic crop rotation technique. All these innovations are first its own and with all our google search we are not able to find any such innovation any where.

Watch Harden at:

Usage of tradional seeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7o26CB3uGQ&feature=plcp

Organic bricks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3MLZ7OKGNE&feature=plcp

HARIT PRAYAS reaching to 200 villages:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BndxrRPLIvQ&feature=plcp

Watch Gauri at:

On organic cultivation of Arvi ( potato variety crop):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhpdV-TSKto&feature=plcp

Here it is also important to know that with HARIT PRASYAS we are able to made organic cultivation simple…easily available and indeed lowest in cost…..we are able to introduce at maximum organic input costing of 100 INR for any crop cultivation for one acre. All credit goes to the field staff of HARIT PRAYAS.

HARIT PRAYAS team!

Enabling tribal’s of Jhansi to submit written application for MGNREGA!

Caritas India staff along with the HARIT PRAYAS team at JCSS-Jhansi is facilitating a workshop at Jhansi ( Guwali village)  on MGNREGA. Guwali is a tribal village and is in the interiors of BABINA block.  Its quite difficult to reach as the way to reach Guwali is Kutcha roads only, so we can imagine how NREGA would be reaching here, but with the endeavours of HARIT PRAYAS team now at least Guwali people have Job cards and the next focus is on submission of written application to get the job under NREGA. At the end of the workshop it has been decided by the community and the HARIT PRAYTAS system that, with the support from HARIT PRAYAS team every Sunday there would be a NREGA day in the village and the community would learn about the NREGA through HARIT PRAYAS cluster coordinators and on Monday would submit written application for the same.

Kota the 1^st 100% Organic Cultivation village in Madhya Pradesh!

With HARIT PRAYAS we are able to bring a new side of development….a project with a movement of change, lets believe a change!

Kota is the far most village of HARIT PRAYAS in Chatarpur, its around 100 kms from Khajuraho (our cluster office). Also its quite difficult to reach Kota, as to reach Kota one has to cross a river and dark forest.; generally an outsider prefer not to go to Kota and non of the organisation or any other government institution has ever shown any interest in the development of Kota. HARIT PRAYAS team at Satna included Kota in the project as a challenge to work in the village and to bring out the change.

In Kota there are altogether 35 SC and ST families and population is around 200. People living there depend on agriculture and used to practice synthetic fertiliser based cultivation, When HARIT PRAYAS project has started there our cluster Coordinator Mr. Virender sen (of HARIT PRAYAS Satna team) started staying there in the village facing all the difficulties and slowly-slowly started guiding village community on organic cultivation. He has visited and stayed in all the 35 families and with slow process of motivation, series of training's and demonstration in Kota, today Kota has become the 1^st 100% organic cultivation village in Madhya Pradesh.

To bring out this change entire credit goes to The cluster Coordinator Mr. Virender and the HARIT PRAYAS Team at SSSS-Satna.

Now community members are happy with the concept of organic cultivation and are able to reduce the input cost in agriculture by 70-90%. The best part is that saved amount they are using for the development of their houses from Kutcha to Pucca houses and also contributing some amount for the development of village to make it neat and clean.

Its good experience to see such changes. Also Kota is now like a hill station, and those who earlier do not want to visit it , now because of HARIT PRAYAS intervention, many government institutions are visting it and there is planning to have a small bridge over the river near by Kota ( which cuts Kota from entire other villages in rainy season).

Let’s believe Change!

HARIT PRAYAS Innovation: Increasing production through traditional seeds

Hardeen, 35 an innovative farmer from HARIT PRAYAS Majhota with his innovation has proved that with traditional seeds we could have much better crop than the seed purchased from Market. In the Kharif (Rain crop) season Hardeen has did organic cultivation from both the tradional seed and the seed purchased from market  and after harvesting he has noticed that the production from traditional seeds are almost 50-60% more than the market purchased seed. According to Hardeen the cost of market purchased seed is 100Rupees per kg, where as traditional seed is free of cost or 40-45 rupees per kg (available with the farmers in the village itself).

Hardeen has given an equal treatment to the cultivation from both the seeds….lets watch the unbelievable change happening through HARIT PRAYAS in the Bundelkhand region of India.

The concept of cultivation through traditional seeds has been seeded amongst the commun ity through HARIT PRAYAS and Hardeen gives due credit  to the HARIT PRAYAS to bring out this change. Now in HARIT PRAYAS Majhota village more than 60% of the farmers are using only traditional seeds.

HARIT PRAYAS is a development project in Bundelkhand region (India) and is supported by Caritas India and caritas Spain.

The impact of HARIT PRAYAS in the village is so high that community and the PRI has officially changed the name of Majhota to HARIT PRAYAS Majhota in June 2012.

For more on HARIT PRAYAS log on to www.haritprayas.blogspot.com

Field visit by Caritas India Project Officer to HARIT PRAYAS at Khajuraho ( SSSS-Satna)

Visit plan: 21st- 23^rd Nov 2102

Partner Organisation: SSSS-Satna

Reaching on:  21^st Nov 2012 morning at Khajuraho

Leaving on:  23^rd Nov 2012 evening from Satna  

Date	Tentative Plan	Remark (if any)
21st /11/2012 (Wednesday)	Field visit to the Kota & One more project village and meeting with the field staff in the village itself	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff
22nd /11/2012 (Thursday)	Field visit to HARIT PRAYAS Majhota village ( probably with the staff from IWID-Till now they have not confirmed their participation)	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff
23rd /11/2012 (Friday)	Finance overview and checklist of HARIT PRAYAS	Finance Manger & Director & Coordinator

Capacity Building workshop for the HARIT PRAYAS project team

Place: JCSS-Jhansi

Project team: HARIT PRAYAS JCSS-Jhansi

Facilitated by: Caritas India Project Officer

Visit plan: 24^th Nov 2102

Reaching on: 24^th Nov 2012 morning From Satna probably will reach by 6.00 am in the morning

Leaving on:  24^th Nov evening from by Shatabdi Express

Date	Tentative Plan	Remark (if any)
24/11/2012 (Saturday)	9.30-10.00 am:   HARIT PRAYAS over view ( Project Coordinator has to give an overview of the project)	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	10-12 noon: PMF and result result discussion with project team (need project and chart papers-for group exercise)	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	12 noon to 1.00 pm: Identifying the weak villages and planning the strategy to work on it.	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	2-3 pm:  discussion and sharing on HARIT PRAYAS news letter and farmers club blog	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	3-4 pm:  Reporting and monitoring of HARIT PRAYAS and Visit by Caritas India Chairman	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	4-5 pm:  TOR for exposures and Job Description refinement	Need presence of Director/Asst. Director, Coordinator and all staff including finance
	5-5.30 pm: A small exam on result monitoring	For all the team members

HARIT PRAYAS in NEWS @Sagar in Oct 2012

HARIT PRAYAS Jhansi in NEWSin month of Oct 2012

Building skills of youth through HARIT PRAYAS@Jhansi

Yashpal Yadav s/o Mr. Munna lal lives in Rajapur village had failed in 10 standard and being demoralized he left study and started household work at times he managed with repairing cell phones and small electronic items but in lack of right direction he was misleading his life, aim and ambitions.

One day our field coordinator Mr. Kailash was talking to farmers of Farmers Club on the issue of skill enhancement training for youth. One farmer Virendra told him, if Yaspal will be technically trained in mechanical & electrical works, he might become a very good mechanic. Next day Mr. Kailash called Yashpal and talked to him for training, he agreed and from the next day he was provided with training at a electronic repairing shop at Raksha for 2 months. He learned repairing motors, fan binding works etc. he took 500 rupees credit to open a shop at roadside in his village now he has his own shop and from that he earns 250-300 Rs/- daily binding and repairing motors. He brought happiness to his life and improvement in family condition with his dedication and hard work. He and his family thanked Project Harit Prayas saying all it happens because of the skill enhancement training programme provided under Project Harit Prayas as we identified and put the talent on right place and hope for doing more for a sustainable livelihood of deprived segment of society.

Source: Monthly report of HARIT PRAYAS team by JCSS-Jhansi

Result achieved in Oct 2012 in filed of HARIT PRAYAS @Chatarpur(Satna)

Believe change: Impact of HARIT PRAYAS@Satna

The two sided  impacts of the Harit Prays project is visible in the project area of SSSS.

A. The paddy cultivation was not in practice in our project villages before HARIT PRAYAS project or from last 5 years. This season 11 farmers have gone for paddy cultivation. The paddy cultivation is fully organic and it will increase the livelihood of households. Though the number of farmers involve in paddy cultivation is less, but every change is small at its beginning!

Name of the farmers cultivated Dhan (paddy) after 5 years:-

In this village the farmers were not cultivating paddy (Dhan) for the last 5 years due to various reasons. But this year, by the intervention of the Harit Prayas group these people started cultivation of the Dhan in Organic methods.

S.no.	Name	Village	Purpose
1	Sukaniyan Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
2	Laddubai Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
3	Sarju ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
4	Mahadev Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
5	Bhola Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
6	Kula Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
7	Durjana Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
8	Gubra Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
9	Sarman Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
10	Hardas Ahirwar	Kawar	Dhan
11	Hardeen Patel	Majotta	Dhan

    B. Lehar is one of the project villages, where rate of migration is relatively high. The team members of Harit Prayas project discussed this with the village pradhan and motivated him to take pro-active steps in this direction, and the Harit Prayas project will support the efforts of Panchayat. It consists of  proper and timely implementation of MNREGA, ensuring proper implementation of social security schemes such as Old Age pension schemes, Widow pension scheme etc. We are happy to share that 10 people who had migrated to different places, last year, did not migrate this year.

List of the people who didn’t migrate this Year:-

S.no.	Name	Village
1	Kudda Bansal	Lehar
2	Munna Bansal	Lehar
3	Dhaniram Bansal	Lehar
4	Golibai Bansal	Lehar
5	Santu Bansal	Lehar
6	Dilli Bansal	Tapra
7	Maltu Bansal	Tapra
8	Kattubai Bansal	Tapra
9	Batibai Bansal	Tapra
10	Malthu Bansal	Tapra

Source: Monthly report of HARIT PRAYAS project by SSSS-Satna team