Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Kandhamal district has bagged the prestigious SKOCH Governance Award in the silver category for its ambitious ‘Mission 171’ project that played an instrumental role in doubling the income of farm families with sustainability.
District Collector Dr. Brundha D has received the award at the 61st SKOCH summit held at the Constitution Club of India in New Delhi on Wednesday.
SKOCH group is a private think-tank dealing with socio-economic issues. The award, instituted in 2003, recognizes people, projects and institutions that go the extra mile to make the nation better. It also recognizes projects and institutions that are making best efforts in the area of digital, financial and social inclusions for the betterment of the nation.
The district administration had launched the Mission 171 project on April 18, 2018 on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya symbolising a new beginning to bring good fortune and luck to distressed farmers.
‘Mission 171’ Tackled Challenges in Livelihood Sector in Kandhamal
Even though agriculture and its allied sectors remains the mainstay of livelihood source for the poor in the tribal-dominated Kandhamal district, the key challenge to this sector is the adverse geographic territory. Having only 30 percent of the geographical area as cultivable land and 70 percent hilly and forest terrain, Kandhamal is devoid of industries and other major commercial activities. Although horticulture sector plays a major role in livelihood augmentation, the problem of cost intensiveness hinders its growth and development. In addition to these, the district has other challenges like poor road and network connectivity, drought prone area with poor irrigation facilities and LWE activities.
Monotonous implementation of schemes by different government departments without effective convergence could not effectively tackle the challenges in the livelihood sector in the district, and rather became another challenge.
In order to overcome these problems and provide sustainable livelihood to the people, the district administration launched ‘Mission 171’ project to develop model farm projects relating to agriculture and allied activities in each of the 171 gram panchayats in the district. The project was developed with 2-5 hectares of land involving a single or group of beneficiaries in a Gram Panchayat.
All the possible convergence under different departmental schemes such as MGNREGS, Jalanidhi/BKoGY, PMKSY, MIDH/ATMA, PKVY, Institutional Finance and Skill Development Training was made available in these model farms to ensure complete sustainable livelihood for the farmers. Various government departments including agriculture, horticulture, ITDAs, Panchayati Raj, ORMAS and NABARD were roped in to provide support under various schemes of the Government.
One Block Level Officer from the Executing Agencies designated as a Nodal Officer was entrusted for each of the projects. Block Level Coordination committees under the Chairmanship of BDOs were formed for periodical review and monitoring. District Level Coordination Committee under the Chairmanship of Collector and District Magistrate is assigned for periodical review and monitoring of progress. Careful effort of documentation and case study for each of the project was done for impact evaluation.
Output And Outcome of Mission 171:
Since implementation of this unique project, as many as 604 farm families have been benefited with doubling of income towards sustainability. Around 463 hectares of land has been put to intense activities and 375 hectares of area is now put under Micro Irrigation (Drip/Sprinkler).
Under the Mission, 573 Soil Health Cards (SHC) have been issued. A total of 456 farmers have availed loan linkage from banks. Over 173 eligible beneficiaries have been covered under skill development programs. More than 114 farmers have been integrated with allied activities like Goat farming and poultry.
‘Mission 171’ Gets National Recognition
The Mission 171 project has now emerged as the perfect example of convergence model in ensuring sustainable livelihood to the poor and marginalized farmers. The project has been appreciated at national level for its effectiveness, replicability and scalability.
The SKOCH Governance Award is a testimony to it.