Activities

The project will have three components:

(i) Improved jhum management

(ii) Value chain and  market access

(iii) Project management and knowledge services.

Improved Jhum Management

The project intends to introduce agricultural interventions by taking into account climate change and  its impact on food production and livelihoods and promote proven and emerging climate resilient best  practices. These include:

(i) use of remote sensing capacities to facilitate Village Councils to identify lands
appropriate for cultivation and to avoid using steeply sloping lands for jhum cultivation, as is prevalent  currently;

(ii) introduction of fertility management practices using both biological measures and also
possibly through the introduction of “nano-nutrient delivery systems”;

(iii) use of traditional knowledge in  erosion control for ensuring extension of cultivation period from currently one year to at least three years;

(iv) use of better agronomic practices, introduction of agro-forestry, linear planting, cereal and pulse  cultivation to build synergy between crops to maintain soil health on one hand and improved farmer  income on the other.

Value Chain and Market Access

Production Support: The project will support activities for enhancing production of Naga -chillies,  large cardamom and ginger using a cluster approach. The clusters / villages will be selected based on the  suitability (soil, climate, water, etc.) of soils and slopes, interest and ability of farmers to invest in labour to  cultivate selected crops and ability to allocate a separate plot of about 0.5 ha either in current jhum or in  fallow jhum to grow only the selected crops.

Marketing Support: The major constraints to value chain development of traditional spice, and
agricultural and horticultural crops are mainly issues related to marketing. They include:

(i) limited  aggregation for achieving economies of scale required for cost effective collection, transportation and  storage;

(ii) insufficient investment in post-harvest management practices, including primary processing to
add value and also to reduce volume for transportation;

(iii) inadequate data on marketable quantity to  feed into supply chain,

(iv) inadequate linkage with premium markets on account of issues related  compliance to certification and quality standards; an

(iv) limited access to market players from outside  the state

Livestock support services: The project will train a CAHW, in all the 650 project villages. With women having a major role in livestock, about 50% CAHWs will be women and remaining will be men folk committed to serve the community and stay in the village. The project envisages immunizing the pigs and poultry in the project area and the pigs will also be de-wormed on a limited scale during the first three years of the project. The project will focus mainly on the pig sub-sector by developing support services related to breed improvement, feed improvement, and animal health. The project will demonstrate and promote feed crops cultivation (e.g. sweet potato, tapioca, colocasia, cow-pea, maize, azolla, etc.) in the backyard and create awareness among the farmers about the nutrient requirement of pigs.

Project Management and Knowledge Services

Knowledge Management: The project will develop a Knowledge Management strategy and action plan for knowledge generation and dissemination. This will include internal learning through regular progress review meetings, and participatory M&E at the community level. Information will be shared at the village level. Knowledge will also be shared with external stakeholders and the wider development community through generation of knowledge products.

Capacity building and knowledge generation: The project will be working on both jhum improvement and settled agriculture. In order to generate concurrent impact data and to demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches, the project will engage the ICAR, Regional Centre in Barapani and the Regional Agriculture Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI). Both these institutions come under the Deputy Director General (Extension), ICAR, GoI