ITANAGAR, 26 Sep: The NABARD’s Itanagar-based Regional Office (RO) General Manager Damodar Mishra launched the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP), sanctioned by the NABARD, for Lower Subansiri district, in Billo village on Tuesday.
Addressing the participants, including Yachuli CO Chukhu Taba, NABARD RO AGM OP Mounglang, NABARD DDM Mewang Lowang, Project Level Tribal Development Committee (PLTDC) members, panchayat members, ArSRLM officials and a large gathering of beneficiary farmers, the NABARD RO GM said that “NABARD has been supporting tribal development throughout India, and this is one of NABARD’s many interventions for promoting agriculture and rural development.”
He informed that the objective of the project is to enhance the income level of the farmers, increase the social capital of the area, improve the literacy level and health status, empower women, get livelihood opportunities, and generate employment opportunities throughout the year.
“A project of this nature can be made successful only if all the stakeholders contribute wholeheartedly and own the project,” Mishra said, and expressed optimism that the project would bring developmental change in the project area.
The Yachuli CO thanked the NABARD and implementing agency World Vision India (WVI), and urged the farmers to “think beyond the subsistence level and take advantage of the training and handholding provided under the project.”
He advised them to “make use of the available resources most judiciously and take maximum advantage of the project.”
The CO also urged the gram panchayat members to “prepare micro plans at the ground level, keeping in view the gaps to be filled where government support in any form has still not reached, and ensure that schemes and projects do not overlap.”
The NABARD DDM presented a brief on the ITDP, and informed that “the major components of the project are orchard development (fruits, plantation crops and forest plants); soil conservation in the orchards; water resources management; sustainable agriculture; women development through components such as drudgery reduction measures; on-farm and off-farm income generating activities; formation of farmers-producers organisations (FPO) for collectivisation, processing and marketing of produce; and community health.”
“These interventions will directly benefit 200 tribal families by enhancing their livelihood through horticulture-based cultivation as an alternative means of livelihood, and will be implemented in 12 villages, comprising 200 families in Yazali circle of Lower Subansiri district. The crops and other project components chosen are designed to give a steady stream of income over a long period and provide sustainable employment to the local farmers.
“Further, the project will create a replicable model of integrated development of tribal families on participatory basis through adoption of sustainable income generating activities based on the potential of the area and the local needs; build and explore the prospects of creating an agricultural value chain; and involve FPOs for enhancing project impact, marketing and sustainability,” Lowang said, and added that “this kind of integrated approach may be implemented through convergence mode with participation of the line departments and state government and other stakeholders.”
He thanked the WVI for implementing the project with the farmers.
WVI project coordinator Samuel Mahena, PLTDC president Risso Maya, PLTDC secretary Tao Takam, and farmers also spoke, the NABARD informed in a release.
