SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Public Systems: Major central government anddonor-supported programmes for Livelihood Promotion(i) DPIP-Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (APRPRP) –Indira Kranthi PathamThe Andhra Pradesh District Poverty Initiatives Project (APDPIP) was built on the United NationsDevelopment Program (UNDP) supported South Asia Poverty Alleviation Project (SAPAP) i and theAP government’s investments in institution building through SHGs. A follow-up APDPRP programmescaling up APDPIP ii in the rest of the districts in AP was initiated in 2003. In the year 2005 the stategovernment decided to extend the same approach to all rural areas of AP iii by the name of Velugu andleverage the programme with funds from ongoing programmes from the state budget. The World Bankcredit supports the overall strategy of the state to address rural poverty reduction in a holistic mannerand the present government has renamed Velugu as Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP). Thus IKP is an integrationof these programmes and SGSY and the state’s funds. The Society for Elimination of RuralPoverty (SERP) implements this large programme.is built on thefoundation ofcommunityowned andmanagedinstitutionswith a role forpoor women totake initiativesin planning,implementingand monitoringthe developmentprogrammes.Livelihood Promotion StrategyInstitution Building: The entire programme is built on the foundation of community owned and managedinstitutions with a role for poor women to take initiatives in planning, implementing and monitoringthe development programmes. Community institutions have been developed into a four-tier structure.All SHGs at the hamlet level are organised into a Village Organisation (VO). There can be more thanone VO in a village, depending on the numbers. The VOs in one Mandal are then federated to form theMandal Samakhya (MS), which typically has 4,000 to 6,000 women as members. Around 20 MS’s formthe Zilla Samakhya (ZS). A key design feature is the deployment of a large number of animators, groupleaders, community resource persons, etc selected from the target villages to support the CBOs. Thestrategy is to ensure that the institutions are formed around a system of local ownership and supportand are not dependent on external sources forever.IKP hascontributed tothe de-linkingof exploitativeinter-linkedcredit andcommoditymarkets.As of April 2008, the programme has mobilised 88 lakh members into seven lakh SHGs, 34,269 VOs,1,086 MSs and 22 ZSs. A unique feature of the programme has been the focus on the poorest of thepoor, SCs, STs, single women and the disabled. The percentage of total SC and ST households mobilisedinto SHGs account for 90 per cent of the total of such rural households. These institutional arrangementshave enabled the poor to access a range of services, resources and expertise from both the publicand the private sector.Build on existing livelihoods: IKP has identified a number of livelihood initiatives, which are aimedat building on the existing livelihood patterns of the poor. Availing financial support through SHGs, thehouseholds have invested predominantly in agriculture, dairy, non-farm trade, and sheep-rearing withagriculture and dairy taking a predominant share. The programme has contributed to the de-linking ofexploitative inter-linked credit and commodity markets. CBOs are permitted to act as authorised procurementand marketing agents by line departments and para-statal agencies like the dairy corporationwhich assures communities of price benefits. The collective activities have cumulatively benefited about300,000 poor households in the project area. The turnover has increased from Rs 16 crore in 2004-’05to Rs 320 crore as of March 2008.Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA): The major intervention under CMSA hasbeen promotion of non-pesticide management practices (NPMP) which replace chemical and other externalinputs with local knowledge and natural methods of pest management. The partnership betweenNGOs and MSs as a community-managed extension programme, covers 2.05 lakh acres benefiting nearly90,000 farmers. The cost of cultivation has reduced to a substantial extent leading to a 40-to-60-per centincrease in the income of a farmer.The sustainable agriculture intervention is now being looked at as a comprehensive programme whichis dovetailing various other elements such as natural resource management of soil and water, setting up117