Mission Jeevika – ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department, Odisha

Video

See Presentation

Gallery

Case Study

Mission Jeevika initiative ensures sustainable livelihoods of the ST families through land and non-land based livelihood activities in clusters and developing suitable infrastructures so as to improve the standard of living and facilitate incremental results in their livelihoods in a sustainable manner.

Mission Jeevika comes under the department of ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department, and Government of Odisha.

Problems:

The state had a low level of agricultural productivity per unit of land and low scale of production in the tribal-dominated blocks of the State. State had also struggled from the lack of infrastructure that is crucial for livelihoods such as irrigation and cold storage at the community level. Because of the absence of marketing facilities, the farmers have to depend upon local traders and middlemen for the sale of their farm produce at a lower price. Farmers were not doing mechanized farming, causing low crop diversity. The youth in the tribal areas didn’t want to stay and take up farming as their occupation. The farmers were mainly dependent on the rainfall for irrigation, causing low productivity in droughts like situation.  

Solutions:

The State Government has started Mission Jeevika with the purpose of ensuring sustainable livelihoods of tribal families through land and non-land based livelihood activities in clusters and developing suitable infrastructures so as to improve the standard of living and facilitate incremental results in their livelihoods. Under this programme various initiatives were taken such as promoting new technologies and investing in the agricultural sector to make farm clusters more lucrative and encouraging farmers to diversify to higher-value crops through cluster approaches for the higher scale of production & return. Steps are taken to increase the cropping intensity and introduce cash crops; these steps depend on the suitability of the area. For efficient and timely agricultural operations farm mechanization promoted led to facilitate multiple cropping and thereby increasing production. To increase the revenue, state facilitates marketing support in collaboration with ORMAS & TDCC to the farmers.    

On the other hand, the state had identified the five key livelihood activities and promoted them to have a substantial impact on the socio-economic condition of a large number of tribes.

Outcomes:

Under this ambit of the programme, the annual income of farmers increased over a period of time. Because of Mission Jeevika support, Wasteland/fallow land was brought into cultivation resulting in an increase in the area under cultivation. There is a 120 % increase in area under cultivation by the surveyed beneficiaries compared to last year’s Rabi season and almost 94 % of the beneficiaries covered under the project reported a 30% increase in farm income. Addition to that, there is a creation of sustainable productive assets such as irrigation systems, storage structures, and farm tools for the farmers.

Challenges:

The existing climate and volatile weather in the area presented a huge challenge. It was a challenging task to introduce new crops and new technologies for crop production in the tribal areas and make them adoptable. Inspiring tribal youths to stay in rural areas and become future farmers was another difficult task.

Innovations:

Various innovations took place to implement this programme successfully. It includes Preparation of Farmer-based Livelihood Cluster Action Plans through participatory & consultation processes and Formation of cluster-based producer group & registered under suitable Act to take care of their product collectivization & marketing. Potential activities are promoted only in clusters along with a number of related and supporting services and infrastructure development. Apart from this, the state worked upon enhancing the farmers’ skills and capacities on improved agriculture packages of practices.

Opportunities:

The Mission Jeevika programme can be a replicable model for all small and marginal farmers to enhance their income through promotion of livelihoods in cluster approaches. The programme encourages the tribal farmers to grow multiple crops in a year, given the irrigation infrastructure and other facilities are put in place. The number of clusters in each ITDA will be up-scaled to include Women SHG in collaboration with Mission Shakti Department, Odisha. The program could be up-scaled to other MADA, tribal Cluster pockets of the State as well as other states of India. This programme could also be expanded in the mineral-affected areas under DMF funding.

For more information, please contact:
Mr Satyabrata Guru, Technical Expert (Livelihoods) at otdsbbsr@gmail.com

(The content on the page is provided by the Exhibitor)