OLM focuses on stabilizing and promoting existing livelihood portfolio of the poor through its three pillars – ‘vulnerability reduction’ and ‘livelihoods enhancement’ through deepening/enhancing and expanding existing livelihoods options and tapping new opportunities in farm and non-farm sectors; ‘employment’ - building skills for the job market outside; and ‘enterprises’ - nurturing self-employed and entrepreneurs (for micro-enterprises).

 

 

Livelihoods:

1. Farm Livelihoods:

 

The livelihoods plan has been developed and extended upon the success of “mission 2.64+” which was renamed as Mission Samrudhi. “Mission Samrudhi” is the umbrella under which the entire livelihood activities of OLM are being implemented. The Mission Samrudhi  initiative provides for multi-sect oral engagement of women with different livelihoods options aimed at reducing household vulnerability.OLM strongly believes in multi –sect oral and multi-departmental convergence and leverages additional resources for accumulation of resources at targeted households, especially the poor and excluded households, who remain at the bottom of the development pyramid. During the year 2018-19, one thousand GPs were targeted under Mission Samrudhi initiative for focused livelihood interventions on a priority basis, which was surpassed with 1060 GPs being covered in the same year.

Odisha Livelihoods Mission has adopted a focused strategy for farm livelihoods promotion which has following components.

Component A: Building and deepening capacities of community cadres : Building the capacities and deepening the understanding of Community cadres on diverse livelihoods options and interventions is one strategic move by OLM. Efforts were made year towards strengthening livelihoods understanding among the livelihood CRPS such as Krishi Mitras and Prani Mitras, who are engaged with communities in promotion of agriculture and livestock activities respectively. Standardized module-based trainings, like 6-modules spanning over 18 days for 3180 number of Krishi Mitras   and 3-modules spreading over 15 days on poultry and goat rearing  for 2120 Prani Mitras were conducted in the year. . This initiative resulted  in streamlining and spreading livelihood activities thus bringing significant number of households under different livelihood  interventions.

Component B: Sector Livelihoods:OLM has taken up large-scale program on universalizing the agriculture and livestock extension approach based on learning from  TRIPTI and MKSP projects. 1060 Gama Panchayats have been covered under Mission Samrudhi during the year wherein 3180 Krishi Mitras and 2120 Prani Mitras are providing extension services on sustainable farming and livestock care. In fact entire institution ecosystem has been built with the creation of 525 common facility centers for universalization of farm mechanization and creating hand holding support framework through provisioning of External livelihoods support persons from MKSP project. In addition, OLM has also taken on board many capable NGOs like Pradan, Digital Green, FES, ICRG, IRRI, TATA TRUST, and  MKSP partners for providing capacity building and field support to front-line workers. In addition, partnerships have been strengthened with with RSETI, OUAT and OFMRDC who have been  providing quality training to the Krishi Mitra and Prani Mitra on specific modules like vaccination and farm machinery upkeep and maintenance.  Significant efforts have been made to spur the convergence efforts on the ground by making regular convergence meetings at various levels, which has resulted in grounding of about 24,000 assets at household/community level.

The concept of Farmers Field School in innovative in the way it is designed to promote best agricultural/farming practices  at the community level through on-field demonstration aimed at  preserving and  promoting traditional wisdom of rural farming communities. It is based on the premise of “learning by doing approach/principle”. In the year 2018-19, 86 number of FFS have been promoted by OLM. To strengthen FFS initiatives four numbers of season-long trainings were organized in Koraput, Angul, Sundergarh and Nayagarh district where about 120 FFS members imparted training on PoP in respect of climate resilient paddy.

Seed multiplication program was introduced into the livelihood portfolio of OLM in the year 2018-19. In 12 districts of the state , in association with IRRI, quality seed production of paddy varieties like DRR-44, BINA, SAHABHAGIDHAN, SWARNA SUB -1, etc were promoted. Early results of this initiative indicate that about 2058 rural farmers have now been able to preserve and multiply these climate-resilient varieties which they would use in the paddy plantation of subsequent years. Being encouraged by this new initiative, the farmers of these 12 districts have taken interest in preserving and multiplying the available pulse varieties for use in coming seasons.

 

Component C:  Aggregation and Value chain:  Under this strategy, three Producer Companies have been formed. Such companies have already provided with financial resources to the tune of 17 crore towards infrastructure development, working capital, capacity building and knowledge management components of these PCs. With the facilitation of TSA, these PCs have recruited and deployed 21 technical human resources to support the women farmers in the ground.  The annual   turnover of around 4.5 crore realized in the year 2018-19 by these PCs..At the same time with the help of TSA, a strong effort has been made to organize farmers into producer collective and undertake business operations on the ground. About 220 PGs have been formed in Rayagada, Koraput and Gajapati district. These PGs are engaged in collection, aggregation and primary value addition of commodities like hill brooms, ginger, cashew, by OLM who are engaged in various livelihood activities.  To streamline the marketing initiatives OLM had organized 6 number of buyer- seller meets in three districts named Gajapati, Rayagada and Koraput. In fact, the TSA (Access Development services) and OLM could jointly explore various market opportunities like retail, terminal and institutional buyers. For example, in case of Mango, 49 % has been sold through retail, 28% through wholesale by tapping various markets and 23% though corporate sale. Moreover, the farmer could get an average Rs20/- per Kg which is Rs 8/- per Kg higher than the extant market. Some experiences have also been gained in Cashew, hill broom and ginger trade.

Similarly, OLM has initiated the medicinal plant project under MKSP that planned to cover 5500 households in six districts against which a target of 6700 was achieved in the year 2018-19. These households were aggregated into 54 PGs promoted by OLM. MART has been hired as the technical agency and the work is going on in full swing in organizing the farmers into collectives, streamlining supply chain and also initiating trades on Harida, Bahada, Amla, and Pipali. OLM has this year mobilized 1000 women farmers for cultivation of Tulsi, Sarpagandha and Pipali under the project who are also members of the PGs promoted by OLM.

Though  a Tasar value chain project has been initiated under MKSP. 800 women farmers were mobilized under 24 PGs for undertaking scientific Tasar rearing activities.

 

Component D: Nutrition sensitive agriculture: Livelihoods and nutrition are integral and intertwined. With expansion of Mission Samrudhi to 1060 GPs in the financial year of 2018-19, OLM had introduced the Nutri-garden initiatives with a focus on Mission Samrudhi GPs. where the focus was primarily on first ensuring household consumption of the products and, wherever surplus is available, the extra quantities are to be sold for commercial purposes. During the year 201-19, total of 12393 nutri-gardens have been promoted by OLM in coordination with Agriculture and horticulture departments in the state. To further support the activity, partnership has been made with MGNREGS in creation of individual assets like green fencing, construction of NAPEP compost pits, dug wells, etc.  under MGNREGS, 2069 individual farm ponds,   2293 dug wells, 5113 compost pits have been constructed at household level.

2: Non- Farm Livelihoods:

SVEP projects are operational 8 blocks.  In the 8 blocks spread over 8 districts significant achievements have been made in respect of establishment of BRCs, recruitment and deployment of CRP-PEs, promotion of entrepreneurs, release of CEFs and so on. In the year against a target of 2700 entrepreneurs, OLM has been successful in promoting 2972 entrepreneurs, which is 114% of the target. All 8 BRCs are fully functional with 115 CRP-PEs regularly providing required support to the entrepreneurs in the field.  During the year 2018-19 two thousand one hundred entrepreneurs have been supported with CEF to the tune of 4.2 crore, which has meaningfully contributed towards the growth and sustainability of such enterprises.  Among the notable achievements under SVEP, OLM has come up with its own master guideline for implementation for SVEP by adapting the national strategy into the local context. The guideline clearly explained the implementation architecture, BRC set up, approval, facilitation and capitalization protocol for entrepreneurs.  In order to provide adequate facilitative support and technical support to all BRCs, one PMU has been established at SMMU with two technically qualified human resources, who are consistently facilitating the implementation of SVEP in the state.  

ORMAS, the sister concern of Odisha Livelihoods Mission has expertise in organizing retail markets for SHG products through the organization of mega and mini-fairs that include Saras fair, district level fair and block level fairs. During this year 2saras, 9 mega fairs and 19 mini-fairs have been organized. In addition, ORMAS has also provided market support to about 700 producer groups engaged in non-farm activities but due to lack of working capital provision, the business activities could not be taken up to a bigger scale. Such fair has been used for capacity building of producers by conducting a workshop, buyer's sellers meeting alongside the sale of produces.

Plan for 2018-19

 

Livelihoods (Farm & Non-farm):

I.Generic and Sectoral Livelihoods

 Mission Samrudhi: Mission Samrudhi, the unique initiative aimed at diversification of livelihoods options, in the second year of its implementation after being renamed, would   be expanded to 1200 Gram Panchayats from the existing number of 1060 Gram Panchayats covering 6 lakh households. Under the program, these households shall be provided comprehensive livelihoods support, last mile extension, sustainable agriculture practice, livestock care, value chain, etc.

Capacity enhancement of Pranimitras & Krishimitras: The existing approach of supporting Mission Samrudhi Gram Panchayats with 3 Krishimitras and 2 Pranimitras would continue. With the expansion program, OLM would engage new 420 Krishimitras and 280 Pranimitras in the newly covered GPs. For the training and capacity enhancement of these community cadres, well structured training programs have been planned throughout the year. For all 2400  Pranimitras, both new and experienced, 3 module based 15 days long training programs on poultry and goat rearing have been designed and planned for execution. Likewise, all 3600 Krishimitras will be provided with 6 module-based trainings on eco-friendly and nutrition sensitive agriculture. In these structured module-based training programs, the Krishimitras will be trained on crop planning & calendar, soil testing, nursery raising, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management, seed multiplication and preservation, nutrition garden, etc. besides exposure visits of all  700 newly recruited Krishimitras and Pranimitras outside the state are planned in the financial year 2019-20. The exposure visits would help these community cadres in learning new ideas and perspectives on agricultural and livestock practices. 

Promotion of Nutrition sensitive Agriculture & Livestock Activities : With a focus on improving the nutrition status of households, the plan has created ample scope for expansion of livestock and nutrition sensitive agriculture base. Capacity enhancement plans are in place to build the capacities of all 3600 Krishimitras on Nutrition Garden/backyard kitchen garden and special training programs for 1200 Pranimitras on management of poultry units. To support the community level demands for livestock, 150 brooding and growing units and 100 buck rearing units is planned to be developed in the year 2019-20. A target of about 20,000 households would be supported to undertake backyard poultry activities in addition to another 10,000 households for   goat rearing in a cluster development approach. The poultry and goat cluster model will be supported by brooding & growing units and buck units for supply of quality chicks and bucks respectively.  The 14 bird poultry model is targeted at the poorer households for egg production. This will primarily help in household nutrition and provide for small income of Rs 4100/-from one cycle and additional benefit of organic manure.

In the present action plan, with learning's from the success of other districts, the coverage of households under nutrition garden/backyard kitchen garden has been increased by fivefold with a target set at   100000 households. To realize this significant target, OLM has convened partnership with APFI ( Aajim Premji Philanthropic Initiative) who with the support of renowned Resource NGOs like Pradan, Harsha Trust and Living Farm would extend technical support to the Nutrition garden as well as livestock  programs. Besides, support from both Agriculture and horticulture departments will be mobilized in an effort to intensify convergence and technical support at grassroots level.

Farmers Field School: The concept of Farmers Field School in innovative in the way it is designed to promote best agricultural/farming practices  at the community level through demonstration mode aimed at  retaining /preserving/ promoting traditional wisdom of rural farming communities. It promotes “learning by doing approach”. OLM has already developed protocols on FFS and in the current year with increased priority of OLM on livelihoods expansion, 500 new FFSs are planned to be developed. This would help in converting Krishimitras as best practicing farmers, field demonstrators and aid in adoption various practices recommended under PoP and generate renewed interest among rural communities to adopt new farming practices.  In order to strengthen the FFS interventions in OLM, in the current year 586 number of Krishimitras and ELSPs are to be trained at BMMU levels, who would be instrumental in implementing 500 FFS models across the state.  

Organic Clusters: Promotion of biodynamic farming by using natural resources available in the locality with a focus on avoiding use of chemical fertilizers and inputs in order to promote eco-agricultural practices, OLM has promoted 84 organic clusters in 17 districts across the state. The interventions around organic clusters would be further strengthened by way of generating pool of skilled human resources on different components of organic clusters such as FFS and seed multiplication without certification. Through six batches of 2 days ToTs on FFS and Organic cluster and FFS and Seed Multiplication a pool of 180 skilled human resources representing DMMU /BMMU staff and Krishimitras/ELSPs would be created.

Emphasis has also been given in the present action plan to direct the interventions to the areas where MKSP project has been in operation and districts with less consumption of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.. In this year's plan, about 1700 women farmers, with representation of 20 women from each of the 84 Organic clusters would be trained by different BMMUs on organic clusters. .

Seed Multiplication without certification: ¨ it will be taken up in selected  14 GPs wherein the response of Mission Samrudhi is good. Provisions for adequate training have been made for Community cadres to undertake such activity with farmers.

Common facility Center (CFC):   CFC has been a strong initiative of OLM for universalizing farm machinery, plugging the gaps in livestock care and disseminating knowledge on technology adoption. The results on the ground are quite impressive in regard to uptake and revenue generation. These institutions have shown promise as self-sustaining institutions without any management of finance from outside. Efforts would be made for better standardization and better use of CFCs by providing business development plan (BDP) trainings to certain CFCs this year.  Apart from existing 525 CFCs, this year another 675 CFCs will be established making it a total of 1200 functional and self sustaining centers at community level.

Convergence with MGNREGS in assets creation: Establishing convergence and collaboration with technical agencies and departments has been a key expansion strategy of OLM. OLM has been largely successful in making policy advocacy with MGNREGS for creation of individual assets to expand the livelihood base of households. Development of goat sheds, poultry sheds, green fences in nutrition gardens, dug wells, farm ponds, NADEP compost pits under MGNREGS are the areas where efforts are intensified towards grounding of these assets. Till February 2019, the number of households that have crated these individual assets under MGNREGS are 23846 and in this year additional number of 46500 households have been targeted to be equipped with individual assets under MGNREGS. Creation of these durable assets at household level would ensure in the promotion of livelihood activities like nutrition garden, back yard poultry, goat rearing activities at a scale.

II) Mainstreaming MKSP interventions under Mission Samrudhi:

MKSP has three program components:

·        

Sustainable agriculture

·        

Medicinal Plant, and

·        

Tasar Promotion

The sustainable agriculture component of MKSP project is in its last phase of implementation with coverage of 36000 households in 9 districts. To sustain the initiatives under sustainable agriculture and integrate it into OLM intervention architecture, six pronged strategies have been developed.

•    All the MKSP project areas will be made intensive on a priority basis.

•   All MKSP GPs will have provision for Krishimitras and Pranimitras as per OLM protocol

• Potential custom hiring centers/ tool banks of MKSP project will be elevated as CFCs with additional financial provisioning from AAP

•    Select clusters will be promoted as organic clusters.

•   A joint assessment would be done in all the project location. Project locations with the good adoption of practices will be further strengthened as immersion grounds for farm livelihoods intervention.

•    Evaluations of the MKSP project will be made to filter learning and assess the potential.

Under the Medicinal Plant promotion, another 4500 new households would be covered during this year. The focus has been on sustainable harvesting ( wild collection) of 4 products, Harida, Bahada, Amla and Ghataki, whereas three medicinal plants named Tu;lasi, Pipali, Sarpagandha are being promoted through sustainable cultivation. A total of 54 numbers of PGs have been formed under this initiative with the intention to promote sustainable harvesting of these products and to streamline marketing system. For extension of support to the households involved in medicinal plant activities, 54 PGs have been promoted by OLM. OLM has  also roped in the services of MART as the technical support agency (TSA) for   this program at the same time,  sustainable cultivation of Tulasi, Pipali, Sarpagandha is also promoted with 1000 households.

 

In the area of Tasar rearing, 24 numbers of PGs have been formed covering 800 households.  The key objective of the program is to promote scientific Tasar rearing activities. As the project is focused on pre-cocoon activities, OLM has collaboration with sericulture department and central silk board for disease free laying and its marketing in remunerative price. OLM has come into an agreement with Tasar Development Foundation (TDF)  as a Technical Support Agency (TSA) to guide the implementation of the program in the field. a target has been set to expand the Tasar rearing intervention into an additional 3000 households this year with the support of the TSA.

 

III) Aggregation and value addition:  

OLM promoted three Producer  Companies( PCs) in three districts named Rayagada, Gajapati & Koraput.  Total of 220 Producer Groups (PGs) have been formed in these three districts. The PEs working with the PGs are engaged in aggregation, primary value addition and marketing of 4 key products such as ginger, mango, cashew and hill brooms

The ‘Dedicated Fund Project” supported by World Bank was wound up in June 2018. However, OLM is still continuing with the project under SRLM AAP and ADS has been continuing as the TSA to provide technical assistance to these three PEs.

This year OLM has planned to promote 4 new PCs, form 435 new PGs, under AAP and another 408 under the NRETP Project. In addition to the formation of PGs under NRETP and AAP, OLM would continue to support the existing 157 PGs. Therefore, a total of 1000 number of PGs would be promoted and strengthened by OLM in the current financial year. For providing support to the PGs, another 4 PCs are planned to be promoted in the current year.

 

IV) Comprehensive Village Livelihood Plan: OLM in partnership with Pradan (NSO) would conduct comprehensive livelihood planning exercise in 150 villages spread over 18 GPs. In these villages, three years comprehensive livelihood development plan along with execution plan would be prepared in consultation with the stakeholders. This comprehensive livelihood development plan would capture the following aspects

·        

Livelihoods assets and resources

·        

Access, ownership  and utilization issues pertaining to the resources by the community

·        

Prevailing agricultural practices

·        

Analyze the current livelihood scenario along with resource analysis for livelihood planning

·        

Develop an action plan for undertaking the need-based livelihood activities with support of OLM..

V. Start up Village Entrepreneurship Program:

 

Startup village entrepreneurship program is a focused intervention to promote start-up entrepreneurship at village level which envisages sustainable self-employment opportunities for rural poor through creating an enterprise eco-system. To the existing coverage of 8 blocks across 8 districts in the state, SVEP is planned to be expanded to another 4 new blocks in this year. Last year’s target of creating 2700 rural entrepreneurs has been achieved with an enhanced coverage of 2972 beneficiaries.  In the current year an additional 2200 entrepreneurs are targeted for support under the SVEP of OLM. To strengthen the support to the new entrepreneurs, the trained CRP-EPs would provide day-to-day support and this year all entrepreneurs are planned to be provided with training by OLM. In all the 8 implementation blocks BRCs have been formed and are fully functional with 115 CRP-EPs deployed in the field.. In the current plan another 4 new BRCs would be formed and strengthened. One functional Project mgmt unit is in place at SMMU of OLM to  support and supervise the activities under SVEP.

 

VI: Organizing marketing events and Fairs:

 

Events and fairs provide opportunities for various SHGs to demonstrate and showcase their products and explore markets and marketing platforms for selling their products. It also provides opportunities for WSHGs and PGs to understand the market dynamics and gain marketing skills. In order to provide a like between WSHGs and PGs,  one mega Saras mela at Bhubaneswar, one regional mela at Dhenkanal, nine big national levels Pallishree melas at Cuttack, Puri, Anugul, Sundergarh, Rourkela, Koraput, Sambalpur, Ganjam Bargarh  and twenty mini-pallishree melas  have  been planned for the year. In addition, it has been planned to send the SHG groups to various national and state level marketing events.