Revitalizing natural resources

India’s largest river island, Majuli, is home to 1.7 lakh people of whom 60% belong to marginalized SC and ST Groups. The island is devastated by perennial floods and climate change. This project seeks to work with People, Resources and Institutions in the flood prone and environmentally fragile river island for ecological balance to facilitate 15,000 people out of poverty. Given that the population depends on nature for survival, it is critical to strengthen natural resources and livelihoods to facilitate poor people to move out of poverty and to sustain the delicate balance between people and their surroundings.

The solution can be replicated globally in similar fragile environment across the globe as it provides holistic approach towards a solution in creating a community driven ecological balance. 

With the effects of Covid-19 and major floods in Majuli during the year lives and livelihoods of over 1.7 lakh people have been greatly affected. To re-establish the livelihoods there will always be increased pressure on environment which will lead to degradation of the same. 

The net irrigated area in Majuli is 9.5% of which in the five-year irrigation plan of the district, it is proposed to increase by over 60% of which mostly are the STW. Against this planning for water harvesting structures is around 20% only. The water pumps are mostly diesel operated. The environmental implications of these pumps are often overlooked and very rarely addressed. 

In Majuli there were 12 registered and 144 unregistered Oxbow lakes (beels) covering area of 937 and 300 respectively. Out of 48 beels, in 46 beels the soil was acidic. Such soil is considered not favorable for fish and microbial activity. Since, plankton form direct food to fish, abundance of weed has negative impact on fish. Beels of Upper Assam has reported 60 to 90% infestation rate by microphytes. Many of the beels are managed by capture fishery norms thereby exploiting the natural fishery stock. Result of this is that the production is also low and reported 137 kg/ha at the Brahmaputra valley.

Proposed solution comprises of working with 6,000 households through mobilizing women into vibrant community institutions in the concepts of Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM). The technology which will be used are:

• INRM planning of villages and work for rejuvenating large ponds, Beels, and farm ponds for thriving fish life and vibrant aquatic ecosystem
• Family based livelihoods planning at the household and village level on agriculture and allied activities; adoption of organic Package of Practices
• Setting up of floating vegetable garden setup to withstand the impact of floods
• Setting up of solar irrigation pumps on a community driven revenue model
• Partnership with government to influence policy and scaling in other North Eastern areas
• New agriculture technology of System Root Intensification (SRI) would be promoted in all crops through organic practices.

The project seeks to work with People, Resources and Institutions in the flood prone and environmentally fragile river island of Majuli for ecological balance to facilitate 3,000 families out of poverty. Majuli is home to 1.7 lakh people of whom 60% belong to marginalized Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Groups. The island is devastated by perennial floods and climate change has aggravates the situation for the largely agrarian community. Poverty is stark in the island with 75% of the people dependent on Public Distribution System for survival. The condition of women is worse. The average landholding is less than a hectare. Available land resources are underutilized and the agriculture production is much below its potential. Large ponds, called Beels, are inundated with water hyacinth and have lowered capacity due to siltation. Majuli is also home to many species of wild animals and plants, including migratory birds. Given the delicate ecology, riverbank erosion (the island has halved over the years) and a population which depends on nature for its survival, it is critical to strengthen natural resources and livelihoods to facilitate poor people to move out of poverty and to sustain the delicate balance between people and their surroundings.

SeSTA has been working in Majuli since the last three years mostly around mobilizing women to institutions and capacity building of these institutions. We have done multiple Participatory Rural Appraisal like resource mapping, wealth ranking, social mapping, FGDs etc. to understand the needs of the areas. Apart from that we are working in close connect with District administration to understand their priorities as well. We have also done some piloting around INRM planning engaging government programs like MGNREGA. Different natural and organic productivity enhancement techniques in agriculture are already tested in the region.

The solution will address their needs by:

• SHGs promoted by Assam Rural State Livelihoods Mission (ASRLM) would be strengthened and Producer Groups (PGs) for work on INRM would be promoted. PGs would be capacitated to initiate work on INRM, Beels, organic agriculture input-output linkages and collectivizing village level produce for competitive remuneration in the market. PGs would be organized under the larger umbrella of Producers Organisation (PO) for entire Majuli.
• Capacity building and demonstration with farmers on System of Root   Intensification (SRI) for paddy and vegetable at the village level for farmers to adopt new practices and enhance productivity. SRI will be promoted in all crops including indigenous crops and seeds of the community.  All agriculture practices will be organic based.
• Supporting floating vegetable gardens through the principle of hydroponics with locally available resources for constructing raft. Composting would be promoted. This will help families to ensure their nutritional security even during floods.
• Clearing water hyacinths with deepening and manuring to increase the population of planktons in Beels with introduction of different varieties of fish supervised by PGs. The water hyacinths could be integrated in floating garden for constructing raft.
• Renovating individual farm ponds by netting, liming and manuring to enrich planktons and revitalize the micro ecological balance of farm ponds along with introduction of different varieties of fish through PGs
• Intensive training of CRPs embedded in PGs, on natural resource management, Beel rejuvenation and new agriculture practices. CRPs would be youth from the local community.
• Solar Pumps will be given at the village level to intensify and support agriculture. PGs would be the custodian.  This will be operated through a revenue based model.
• Regular workshop for collaboration and knowledge dissemination with Agricultural Department, Veterinary department, banks, district administration to collaborate for scale up in other areas.  

Majuli being a ecologically sensitive zone and the communities residing here are economically vulnerable and majorly dependent on natural resources the solution provided is in perfect alignment with the Challenge. This project will focus on building a balance between human dependency on natural resources through proper planning, judicious use and proper management. The INRM processes will further help in rejuvenating the eco system.

SeSTA has been working for over 3 years in Majuli and has been working with women institutions by capacitating them. We also have demonstrated few concepts like the SRI, Organic and natural agriculture, INRM based Natural resource planning and implementation. Now we are at a stage where replication of these solutions can be carried out throughout.

The solution intends to work in a holistic approach right from strengthening women led institutions, planning and implementation with them. All the components of the project are integrated in a manner that they addresses the issues of environment conservation through judicious use and also support the communities in generating income. The scientific processes which will be adopted are technologically sound and have yielded good results in the context of Assam and North East India. This will also lead to higher productivity and income to a small and marginal farmer. Once the productivity rises and volume of different agricultural product increases, the community institutions will also work on aggregation, value addition and marketing for creating adequate forward and backward market linkages. At the Block level Farmers Producer Company (FPC) will be initiated which will work be the apex institution for the women farmers to link themselves to the market. 

This similar model we can take up with different State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) who are also working with women to enhance their livelihoods.

The solution will serve over 6,000 Households of Majuli district. In the next five years we look to extend to 50,000 households across Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya. The numbers included will be directly impacted by the solution.

1. Zero hunger achieved through enhancing productivity in paddy and thereby increase food security by 4 to 6 months.

2. Gender Equality achieved through establishing women as farmer and society recognizing her as one. Enhanced participation in Panchayats, enhanced mobility.

3. Revenue based community operated Affordable and clean energy through solar irrigation. Replacing 40% fossil fuel run irrigation pumps by solar powered pumps.

4. No poverty achieved through additional income to a household by 30 to 50% of their existing base income

Full Time Staff: 92

Contractual Staff: 9 

SeSTA has dedicated field teams in 30 blocks of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura comprising of three to four professionals. All the professionals of SeSTA are University graduates with good academic track records. 50% of the employees have over 2 years of experience working in similar projects and 30% employees have over 5 years of experience. These professionals work at the cutting edge through directly reaching out to a vulnerable women. SeSTA also has very good linkages with the PRI bodies along with being a partner of SRLM in each of the states. SeSTA also has a good rapport in all the village with its presence and has a strong community run cadre base. Hence, SeSTA has dedicated human resource, ground works done and favorable relationship with stakeholders to deliver the solution.

The vision of SeSTA is that we envisages a vibrant, democratic and developed society with peace and harmony where every citizen is empowered and lives a dignified life. This is what we espouse in our organization as well. Presently we have male female employees ratio of 50-50%. In the Management Group also we have 35% representation of women, which in the next two years we plan to make it equal. The Management Group also has over 60% representation from Marginalized Sections.