Annual income in 15 poverty-stricken districts of Madhya Pradesh, which have been taken under a World Bank sponsored project, has now reached near Rs 1 lakh, state government has claimed.
A recent review of District Poverty Initiative Project, a World Bank-sponsored project revealed that 30,000 families have reported more than Rs one lakh average annual income.
"It was mere Rs 3,000-15,000 per annum few years ago. The review meeting has observed that cumulative annual income of 325,000 families has reached Rs 1,377 crore," a government official said.
State government authorities and a World Bank team led by Kevin Crockford reviewed the impact of DPIP in 15 districts of the state. Crockford refused to make comments on the review meet and its findings.
The first phase of DPIP was implemented in 2,817 villages across 14 districts of the states namely; Chhatarpur, Damoh, Sagar,Panna, Raisen, Vidisha, Guna, Tikamgarh, Sidhi, Narsinghpur, Rajgarh, Rewa,Shajapur and Shivpuri.
The target population in the villages was motivated to form groups known as Common Interest Group (CIG).
The first phase was introduced in 2001 with a World Bank grant of Rs 496.46 crore. The first phase had reported 65 per cent increase in total income of the families covered under the project while there was 149 per cent increase in agriculture production, 46 per cent land converted into double crop and 114 per cent into triple crop.
Also, the income from agriculture reported 66 per cent increase among covered families. The second phase was introduced in October 2009 for a period of five years.
"A total of Rs 374.63 crore financial support was extended to various families through self-help groups for income generation activities. Besides, Rs 148.51 crore bank-linkage was available to various self-help groups," the official said.
Under the project, a number of farmers' producer companies were formed for seed production, poultry business or dairy-based activities.
"The turnover of 15 agriculture producing companies stood at Rs 22.20 crore,dairy-based producers' companies have reported Rs 1.60 crore while poultry companies have reported Rs 123.85 crore turnover during FY 2013-14," the officer said.
The producer companies have farmers as stakeholder they jointly produce agri-commodities for their companies, which are supported by government machinery for marketing activities. Also they have access to easy loans in case they need funds.
"This way they can avoid money-lenders for farm loan or funds for other needs. More importantly, entire fund in these companies is largely managed by women members," the official said.
