Amit Roy — новинки

In India plethora of grassroots experiences abound which dovetail livelihood and micro credit related activities around Self Help Group (SHG) paradigm. The SHG is the organisational means for channelling credit and imparting training for micro enterprise for women living in disadvantaged livelihood environment. The costal district in West Bengal, India is constrained in many of the livelihood opportunities. The first study deals with the parameters in SHG functioning and how SHG community was accommodated in Micro Finance and livelihood development. The other study deals with the livelihood impact of a well established Micro Finance Programs in otherwise well endowed farm sector. Here the women community in developed farm sector is found to have used the micro finance support to its livelihood advantage. This book will help the grassroots livelihood practitioners in devising micro finance based livelihood programs.

Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal, India has many challenges in farm sector. The high rainfall induced hilly terrain poses many challenges to the otherwise resource constrained farming community. The farm productivity is low compared to the potentials. The absence of institutions at the grassroots for transfer of technology emerges to be the main constraint. The public sector organisation in rural development and especially in agriculture in Darjeeling hills lack grassroots linkages for transferring technology. The Farm Science Centre (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) is a front line transfer of technology project (Farm Sector) of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR). The voluntary organisations and/or Non Government Organisations have potentials to be an active player in farm technology transfer. The present book traces the potentials of voluntary organisation in forging linkage with public sector organisation through participatory mode of program planning and implementation in farm sector. The present study is premised on action research mode with the support of need based application of participatory tools.

Rural India has witnessed the growth of many grassroots institutions. The Self Help Groups (SHG) as building block of Micro finance institution is key grassroots initiatives in rural India. These grassroots institutions play very important role in energising livelihood enhancement activities for the disadvantaged community. Indian government has now more economic power to fund the poverty eradication initiatives than ever before, thanks to Indian high growth economy for last 15 years. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) is the national level flagship program of Indian government with the objectives of credit disbursement and livelihood development for the Below Poverty level women community in rural India. The SHG is the organization vehicle of SJSY implementation. The good functioning of SHGs has the potentials to empower women in securing livelihood. The programs implemented by NGOs also contributed to the growth of SHGs and subsequent livelihood enhancement activities. The two case studies illustrate the experience of livelihood enhancement through SHG driven empowerment process.

The traditional agriculture research plan is top down oriented. The agriculture research plans are normally loaded with high dose of command approach and subsidy orientation to the passive farming community who are considered to having homogenous micro farming realities. The assumptions are wrong is known to everybody for quite long time. Counter evidence to that paradigm of command approach is the participatory tool driven planning which accommodates micro climate variations while developing research plan for agriculture interventions. The Agriculture in Darjeeling hills of West Bengal, India, had witnessed many top-down oriented research plans and its suboptimal implementation for quite a long time. The situations are now being reversed with the grassroots based application of participatory tools in preparing micro plan for farming community who are otherwise constrained on many counts. This book deals with participatory tool based research plan basing on micro climatic requirement which will benefit the research practitioners and grassroots agriculture extension workers as practical handbook.

The sizeable public sector resources in India have began to flow in livelihood sector in Disadvantaged Agriculture. Improvement in Agriculture Livelihood in Disadvantaged Agriculture has potentials to counter poverty & destitution of farming community. The technology based interventions are being disseminated to enhance livelihood of farming community in Disadvantaged Agriculture through different livelihood programs being undertaken. The public sector is collaborating with civil society organisations and private sector to refine and transfer agriculture technology for livelihood enhancement of farming community living in Disadvantaged Agriculture. The technology transfer paradigm of Green Revolution era has given way to institution based transfer of technology through consortium mode of working in implementation of livelihood programs. The consortium mode of working has become a dominant technology transfer paradigm in Disadvantaged Agriculture in Indian context. The present book depicts the implementation plan of Livelihood Programs in Disadvantaged Agriculture with reference to World Bank funded National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP).

Liberalization of EXIM policy in India has paved the way for increased export of floricultural products where contribution of dried flowers is enormous. Being natural, eco-friendly, long lasting and inexpensive decorative items, Dry Flowers have good demand both in Indian and international markets. The industry exports 500 varieties of flowers to 20 countries and are much sought after in USA and UK. India stands as one of the major manufacturers and exporters with around 5% of world trade in dry flowers. The process of drying flowers involves drying, bleaching and colouring after their collection in raw form. The suitable packaging techniques add values to catch niche market. The main methods used for drying are: Air Drying, Glycerine, Desiccants, and Pressing. In India, West Bengal is the major player in Dry Flower trade. The book deals with a case study that reveals entire scenario of Dry Flower trade in West Bengal, India. The book will be useful for prospective entrepreneurs in Dry Flower.

India had taken social forestry programs quite aggressively with Farm Forestry as major and unique component. The Farm Forestry created high level of enthusiasm among the farming community as free distribution of quality seedlings by Gram Panchyats (decentralised rural governance in India) was welcome by the farming community. The Other components of social forestry programs like regeneration of degraded forests also spawned culture of plant raising and subsequent nourishment by community initiatives. The present book makes an impact assessment of the farm forestry programs. The farmers with different resource endowments responded differently to the programs. The better-off farming community tried to convert the farm land to forest land through Farm Forestry program through get rid of escalating labour wages and labour management issues. The book also links the micro realities with the understanding of forestry sector at the macro level. This book will help the practitioners and researchers in developing thorough understanding of the project.

The farm sector offers myriad opportunities for the prospective entrepreneurs. The perspective discussion comes first though mostly neglected in the manuals that are commonly available. The present document starts with the sector analysis and described in details the market forces operating in West Bengal India. The discussion about the market forces that are in operation will help entrepreneurs to undertake necessary scenario planning. The other sections of the book dealt with the different modules of farm enterprises. The matrix based discussion will help entrepreneurs to draw up their respective business plan.

Indian agriculture hosts around 4 million farm families in jute cultivation. It also provides sustenance to about 0 .25 million industrial workers and another 0.2 million people in other aspects of the trade. The export of finished goods like hessian, sacking and carpet bagging earns sizeable amount of foreign exchange for the country. In India, Jute is grown in as many as 83 districts covering 7 states but the principal jute growing districts are 12 which lie in 4 states of the eastern region of the country sharing about eighty per cent (80) of total raw jute production. Predominantly jute is a small and marginal farmers’ crop. About 56.4 per cent of area under jute is covered by holdings below 2 hectare. Production of jute is becoming more and more subject to typical constraints of small scale farming being conducted in traditional technology. Government of India had been implementing Special Jute Development Programs (SJDP) in different jute growing zones to ensure the quality jute production. The quality jute value-adds to the finished industrial product. The present study made an intensive analysis of adoption of improved technology in jute cultivation triggered through SJDP

Indian Agriculture has more than 50% of its cultivable area under Disadvantaged Agriculture. Farming Community of Disadvantaged Agriculture needs reality driven livelihood interventions to enhance their income. Livelihood interventions need to be premised on effective Resource Appraisal. Resource Appraisal through using participatory tools to identify livelihood options for the farming community is prerequisite for implementation of effective livelihood based interventions. The combination of qualitative and quantitative parameters has the potentials to grasp the reality demand of Farm Livelihood sector. The present book deals with the Resource Appraisal which dovetails secondary and primary information with ease without compromising the grassroots realities. The Indian agriculture is desperately looking for grassroots based livelihood interventions developed on genuine base line survey. The present book will help the grassroots practitioners in internalizing basic tenets of Resource Appraisal in Farm Livelihood Sector.