Background
The rising trend in food prices is an international phenomenon and the people of developing countries are suffering most. Despite having fertile land, abundance of water resources the people of Pakistan are also facing problem due to economic mismanagement and here in Pakistan food inflation is touching its record high figures.
The people of Hasilpur Distt Bahawalpur are also facing hardships due to high prices of food and shrinking agrarian land and fast track urbanization.
Most of the people have small tract of land with no access to finances and fertilizers that is why per acre yield is relatively low.
People of the area engage their women in crop cultivation and harvesting. If women are given seeds and training to cultivate their own small farms their men can work in factories and in this way their house hold income can be increased. They can be saved from impact of rising food prices and secured their kitchen.
That is why Safe Winds organization undertook this intervention with the help of Human relief Foundation UK and Lahore chamber of commerce and industry(LCCI).
Project Objectives:
- Development of model vegetable Farms
- To improve the economic condition of the women folk.
- Develop and provide training for Production, value-chain activities such as improved storage, primary processing, packaging and marketing of products among rural communities.
- Develop technical know how among the people of project are about tunnel farming and hybrid seeds.
- Awareness raising among the communities.
- To empower and educate house hold women
Implementation Methodology:
The project was implemented by following activities.
- Field Survey
- Social Mobilization
- Workshops on Tunnel Farming & Hybrid Seeds
- Seed Distribution
- Farm Monitoring
Field Survey:
First of all a complete survey of the area was carried out by a team consisted of one HRF member and a member from SWO and identified most deserving 300 families who had their small tracts of land and were interested to learn tunnel farming and then grow hybrid vegetables. The beneficiaries are 300
Social Mobilization:
The idea seemed strange to the people of the area that training and seeds would be given to women folk. Because it is age old tradition for the women to help their men but it was out of question to take driving seat in agriculture. So it was like breaking a tradition, violating a custom for women folk of the area take decision independently so mobilization team had to face a bit resistance even on the part of women to have training and work independently. But they made it happen and succeeded in bringing them around to send their women for training.
After stiff process of mobilization our team identified following women of the area for training and seeds distribution.
After identifying the women who wanted to have training and grow vegetables community based organizations (CBO) were formed in every village and their hierarchy was formed so that they themselves could take responsibility for mobilizing other members of their village, monitor themselves and could be used as reference for further project in the area.
The list of CBOs with their hierarchy is mentioned below:
Workshops/ Trainings on Tunnel Farming:
Because the people of the area were used to traditional farming it was totally a new concept for them to grow off season crops.
So to introduce them with tunnel farming and hybrid seeds a series of workshops were arranged with the help of Agriculture Department of Punjab.
Agriculture Dept Punjab provided us expert facilitator.
Workshops were started with recitation from Holy Quran followed by introduction of both the partner NGOs and objectives of the project.
Afterwards Agriculturist delivered lectures on the technical aspects of tunnel farming and its viability and it financial benefits.
Participant took keen interest in this innovative agriculture and raise different type of questions.
Participants promised to go for this sort of farming and at the end all the participants were offered refreshments...
Seed Distribution:
This phase of the project was most challenging because the supply of seed were promised by Lahore chamber of commerce and it was a bit late that is why we had to face a bit embarrassment but at last we managed to secure the supply of seeds. And in the presence of HRF representative and members of CBOs seeds were distributed.
Monitoring:
It is very essential for any activity to be monitored so that results can be gauged as per the objectives that is why after giving them seeds two member team which were consisted of HRF member and SWO member remained there for monitoring and for liaison with the community and for getting them connected with agriculture dept and giving them advice in case of any problem. Seminars on marketing and social mobilization/ the Concept of CBOs.
At the end of the project a series of seminars were arranged on agri marketing and the concept of CBOs so that they could organize themselves on their level and form their small CBOs and pool their resources for solving their problem at local level.
Participants were also trained on how to market their products on local level.
The participants were very thankful to HRF UK and they requested to establish vocational centers so that women folk of the area could learn some skills and earn their livelihood while remaining at home.
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