SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter Vnon-farmactivities havehad significantimpact on theincome of thefamilies withreturns of morethan 100 percent extrapolatedover afive-year period.This has beenpossible dueto linkageswith privatebusinesses formarketing.Community Investment Fund: The project has funded nearly Rs 610 crore for 21,000 sub-projects,as identified by CIGs, through the CIF mechanism. Non-farm livelihood CIGs constituted 27 per centof total CIGs; retail trading, tent house and ready-made garment stitching constituted nearly 50 percent of the non-farm livelihoods undertaken. The end project evaluation based on field visits finds thatnon-farm activities have had significant impact on the income of the families with returns of more than100 per cent extrapolated over a five-year period. This has been possible due to linkages with privatebusinesses for marketing.Natural resource management CIGs comprised 14 per cent of activities initiated under DPIP. Agriculturedevelopment (37 per cent), horticulture (24 per cent), land levelling (15 per cent) and vermi-composting(8 per cent) were the significant activities undertaken. All activities had positive returns as per the endevaluation report based on field visits; however, horticulture had a long gestation period and the projectperiod is not sufficient to measure the returns. Longer hand-holding is also needed for land-based activitiesgiven the frequent exogenous shocks Rajasthan faces.Financial services: Many of the groups initiate savings but the regularity is relative as several studiesreveal. The savings are used for inter loaning and also for payment of member contribution of 10 percent for the sub-project. Bank linkages for working capital and expansion of income-generating activitiesand enterprises have been initiated in the last two years of the project. The livestock purchased areusually insured for the first one year. Repeat insurance usually is not carried out.Impactthe livelihoodposition ofnearly 60 percent of thehouseholds hasincreased andthe effect ishigher on BPLfamilies.Mid-term evaluation of the project has observed that the livelihood position of nearly 60 per cent ofthe households has increased and the effect is higher on BPL families. Since there have been concernsabout sustainability of CIGs beyond the project period, SHG elements have been introduced into CIGswith technical support from NABARD.Key lessons from the three projectsThe key design and implementation features of the three projects can be summarised as in Table 5.2below:120