National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), which recently increased the corpus of its Tribal Development Fund (TDF) to Rs 600 crore, has launched six projects for the integrated development of tribals in Karnataka.
Nabard has launched its popular 'Wadi' (means garden) programme, a tree-based farming system, in six places in the state, such as Pavagada in Tumkur district, Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district, Bagepalli in Chikballapur district, H D Kote in Mysore district, Challakere in Chitradurga district and Raichur. Nabard will spend Rs 18.7 crore on implementation of this programme, said Venkatesh Tagat, chief general manager, Nabard.
"The main objective of the programme is to achieve sustainable development of the poorest of the tribal families through a combination of interventions. As part of this programme we will provide financial grant to 1,000 tribal families in each of the six places for six years. We monitor it to see that by end of the programme the tribal families start earning their livelihood," Tagat told Business Standard.
The agriculture credit organisation had started the TDF with a corpus of Rs 50 crore in 2004 with a view to uplift the tribal population, which constitutes 8 per cent of the national population.
The integrated tribal development projects through 'Wadi' approach were first launched in Gujarat with a sponsorship from KfW of Germany and later extended to parts of Maharashtra. Wadi is a combination of fruit crops suitable to the area, with forestry species on the periphery of the land holdings. Two or more tree crops are selected in the ‘Wadi’ model to minimise biological and marketing risks. While the fruit plants generate income after 4-5 years, the forestry species provide a fence and also act as a shelter belt.
Under the tribal development programme, Nabard has so far released Rs 3.87 crore. So far, a major work that has been taken up is in the Pavagada area, where tribal families have been assisted to plant 30,000 mango saplings over 860 acres.
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The tribals will also be encouraged to use modern fertiliser and seeds for agriculture activities apart from planting trees, Tagat said.
The projects under TDF will be implemented through community-based organisations or non-government organisations that have sound managerial and financial capabilities and that are registered and are working in the project area. The tribals will also be encouraged to take up plantation of cashew, sapota, aonla along with multi-purpose fast growing forestry species in their areas.
Other interventions include income generation activities for landless, women development, micro enterprises development for landless families and, health and drudgery reduction among others, Tagat said.
During the next financial year, Nabard plans to take up six more such projects in the districts of Uttara Kannada, Belgaum, Kolar among others, he added.