Dairy development through natural resource management: a success story of drought prone village in India

S Phand, R Tiwari* and H P S Arya**

Division of Extension Education, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar (IVRI), Bareilly, U.P.-243 122
shahajiphand@rediffmail.com
* Agriculture Technology Information Centre, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, U.P.-243 122
rupasi@ivri.up.nic.in
** Division of Extension Education, IVRI, Izatnagar, Bareilly, U.P.-243 122
hpsarya@ ivri.up.nic.in
(Part of the M.V.Sc Thesis work of the first author)

Abstract

Livestock sector is a powerful tool for sustenance of millions of poor worldwide, who otherwise becomes a victim of monsoon vagaries. Though the veterinary sciences have been blessed with a powerful tool but mere awareness and availability will not suffice the purpose. The ultimate end user i.e the farmers should be in position to take advantage of this situation and therefore the basic issues should be address first which are in the way of livestock sector development. Village economy and its development are based on its natural resource and their successful management by the village community for production. Natural resource management therefore has to be the key pin for an effective strategy for rural development. Livestock has been seen always a subsidiary of agriculture rather than as a separate entity, therefore failure in one will always affects the others. If this symbiotic relationships of these two sectors need to be success, then there is need of a holistic approach of development, which should address the basic issues such as water availability for irrigation, strategy to overcome frequent draft, infrastructure and organizational development for marketing and processing of the products through grass root level institutional mechanism. In 1985 with this holistic approach a Government of Maharashtra (India) came forward with its new programme called Adarsh Gaon Yojana (AGY) (Ideal Village Scheme), based on natural resource management. The programme was undertaken in 300 villages across 300 blocks in Maharashtra.

The present study was carried out at Hiware Bazar village of Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra to find out the impact of AGY on different sectors. A research design used for the study was 'Before-After with Control' and data was collected through 'Personal Interview' and 'Secondary Sources'. A total 117 respondents were selected randomly for the study (54 from Experimental Village and 54 from Control Village); similarly data was collected from 9 Government officials who were concerned to implementation of AGY in that village. Secondary data was also collected from Grampanchyat office (village administration unit) and NGO involved in the implementation of AGY to crosscheck the respondent's response.

The present study revealed that, programme achieved great success particularly in the drought prone areas. Due to community watershed management; today ensured water availability is the biggest asset in the village. Agriculture and allied field has been revitalized. Villagers have turned toward the commercial cropping system. Today nearly 70 percent of villagers are engaged in dairy farming as a subsidiary occupation moreover it is now one of the major commercial enterprises in the village. In nutshell the overall impact of AGY can be summarized in terms of economic development, as earlier (Before 1994) out of 180 families, 168 were 'Below Poverty Line' and today (2004-05) it was noted proudly that, not a single family in the village is BPL (Phand 2005)

The basic idea of Government of Maharashtra to start 'Ideal Village Scheme' was to overcome frequent drought through natural resource management by village community themselves. The findings of present study have revealed that, this approach is very much successful in achieving the set objectives and can further be replicated to other villages also.

Keywords: Dairy development, ideal village scheme, natural resource management

Introduction

Village economy and its development are based on its natural resource and their management for production. Natural resource management therefore has to be the key pin for an effective strategy for rural development in general and livestock sector in particular. Most of the rural development models have therefore considered natural resource management as the means for rural transformation. (Singh 2004)

FAO (Mishra No date) has defined 'Natural Resources Management' as the management and conservation of the natural resources base, and the orientation of technological and institutional change in such a manner as to ensure the attainment and continued satisfaction of human needs for present and future generations. Such sustainable development conserves land, water, plant and animal genetic resources and is environmentally non-degrading, technically appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable.

According to ILRI (2000), if livestock were to play a sustained role in improving the livelihoods of many millions of poor people who currently depended on them, the trade-offs between increasing income and food security while conserving natural resource needed to be understood and balanced, in the context of this multitude of factors, requiring an integrated approach to natural resource management.

Livestock had been seen always as a subsidiary of agriculture rather than as a separate entity and due to monsoon vagaries failure in one will always affects the others. Moreover it is a common phenomenon of drought prone region of India like Maharshtra where only 16 % of land has assured irrigation facilities. If this symbiotic relationships of these two sectors need to be success, then there is need of a holistic approach of development. Which should address the basic issues such as strategy to overcome frequent draft through watershed development, natural resource management; and thereby agriculture, fodder development; infrastructure development; marketing and processing of livestock products through grass root level institutional mechanism i.e cooperative milk society; to achieve the ultimate goal of socio-economic development of rural masses.

In 1985 with this holistic approach of rural development a Government of Maharashtra came forward with its new programme called 'Adarsh Gaon Yojana' (AGY) (Ideal Village Scheme). The implementation of the programme was based on the following "Panchasutra" (The five principles) i.e. Donation of Labor (Shramdan), Ban on Grazing (Kurhad Bandi), Ban on Tree cutting (Charai Bandi), Ban on Liquor (Nasha Bandi), Family Planning (Kutumb Niyojan). The criteria for selection of village under this programme is that, village should be located in a drought prone area and should have shortage of drinking water as their major problem. The villagers should have to take an oath to follow above five principles (Warghade 2003). The 'AGY' aims at encouraging the villages to become self-sufficient and self-reliant by following the five principles and involving them in the watershed development programme with the assistance of NGO and government departments.

Though the initially programme was undertaken in 300 villages across 300 blocks in Maharashtra, but it was observed that even after 20 years implementation of programme only few villages have successful to get honored with 'Ideal Village'. Therefore in order to find out the secrets of successful villages a comprehensive study was undertaken. The present paper revealed the impact of AGY on dairy sector, particularly changes in livestock population, productivity, production and thereby income from livestock sector.
 

Research methodology

A research design used for the study was 'Before-After with Control' to reveal the impact of implementation of AGY in selected village.

Locale of the study

The present study was carried out purposively in two villages of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. One was Hiware Bazar,  a small hamlet (Table.1), where the Government of Maharashtra has implemented this programme in 1994 through Grampanchyat (Village level administrative unit). Another village named Jamgaon 20 km. away from the Hiware Bazar was selected as control village for the comparative purpose, where no such programme was implemented. The rationale for selection of 'Hiware Bazar' is that, AGY was implemented in village on 15 August 1994 and it was declared as an 'Ideal Village' in 1998; that means it took only four years to get that honor so it was felt necessary to study the secrets of success (Photo 1).

Similarly the purpose of selection of 'Hiware Bazar' for 'Before AGY' study is that, though it is comparative study with control village but in social science studies it is very difficult to select a control village, which have similar demographic situation to that of the experimental village i.e Location, population size, infrastructure, accessibility to outside market or input agencies. Therefore to have a better picture of impact of AGY it was felt necessary to study the situation of 'Hiware Bazar' village prior to the implementation of AGY, so it can be reveal better; to what extent AGY is successful in changing the socioeconomic condition of villages.

Sampling procedure

A total 117 respondents were selected randomly for the study (54 from Hiware Bazar (Village- X / Experimental Village) and 54 from Jamgaon (Village- Y/ Control Village), which consist of 51 landholder and 3 landless respondents in each village. In addition the data was collected from 9 government officials who were concerned to implementation of AGY in that village.

Data collection

A pre tested semi structured interview schedule and direct observation was utilized for data collection. The data was collected on 'Before- After' basis which includes personal variables (age, education, family size, occupation, land holding size), Natural resource management and watershed development variables (continuous contour trench, loose boulder, earthen structure, percolation tank, water storage structures, cement bunds), Livestock development variables (herd size, herd management, milk productivity, milk production), Economic traits (annual income from livestock sector, total income). In addition secondary data was also collected from Grampanchyat office and NGO involved in the implementation of AGY to crosscheck the respondent's response.

Data analysis

Descriptive statistical tools like frequencies, percentages and percent change were utilized for analyzing the data.

'Before- After' concept

In the present paper the 'Before-After' concept has been used which is explained as follows; The year '1994-95' has been taken as references point to explain situation 'Before AGY' i.e 'Before 1994-95' for the experimental village (Hiware Bazar / Village-X) because the AGY was implemented on 15 August 1994 in that village, while the year '2004-05' has taken as 'After AGY' to show the impact of AGY as the study was undertaken in this particular year. i.e. about 10 years of implementation period. Similarly, for the control village (Jamgaon / Village-Y) where AGY has not been implemented, but same '10 years' period (1994-95 to 2004-05) was considered to explain comparative situation in that village.

Results and discussion

Personal variables

Table 2 indicates that, the selected respondents in the present study ranged between 20 to 70 years of age in both villages and most of them belonged to general caste.

The average family size in Hiware Bazar village was found 5.76, while in village it was 7.0. Majority (94.44 %) of the respondents had agriculture as their main occupation in both villages with average land holding in Hiware Bazar village is 3.90 hectares and 5.00 hectares in Jamgaon village. There was found considerable difference in subsidiary occupation of villages. In Hiware Bazar village nearly 70 percent of respondent was engaged in dairy farming as subsidiary occupation. Regarding the educational status of respondents' literacy percentage was far better in Hiware Bazar village (89.67 %) than Jamgaon village (53.2 %) (Phand 2005).

Natural Resource Management

Watershed development

Being a major component of AGY today villagers has created various water percolations and storage structures on private and common village land through people participation and availing various government schemes. Data was collected through secondary sources on before and after basis regarding the number of such structures created, area covered under such structures, similarly area covered under the tree plantation and total cultivable land (in hectares) in the village. Table 3 shows clearly that as watershed management is the part of AGY implemented in Hiware Bazar village, there were more such structures as compared to its 'before' situation and also to that of the Jamgaon village (Phand 2005).

Major decisions taken for natural resource management

It was notably observed in Hiware Bazar village that, apart from the five principles of AGY i.e. Donation of Labor, Ban on Grazing, Ban on Tree cutting, Ban on Liquor and Family Planning. In order to sustain the development of the village; the villagers had taken certain other decisions in the Gramsabha (General meeting of villagers) such as; Water intensive crops like sugarcane and banana have been prohibited in the village, Use the micro-irrigation methods (drip and sprinkle) for horticultural crops, Ban on bore-wells for the irrigation purpose and Ban on selling of village land to any non- citizen of the village, but no such measures were found in the Jamgaon village (Phand 2005).

Herd size

This refers to the total number of animal heads such as cattle, buffaloes, heifers, bullocks, sheep, goats and as well as birds owned by the respondent. It was measured by actual enumeration. Table 4 shows that, there was sizeable increase in number of milch animals i.e. buffaloes, indigenous cows and crossbreds in Hiware Bazar village as compared to its situation 'before' AGY and also than that of the Jamgaon village. The average milch animals of respondents family was increased from 5.2 to 7 after AGY in Hiware Bazar village, while it shows decreasing trend in Jamgaon village. Though the crossbred was introduced 'after' AGY (1994-95) in both the villages, but in Hiware Bazar village there are 78 percent more crossbred population than the Jamgaon village. Regarding the goats and poultry there was more or less decreasing trend in both villages (Phand 2005)