Our Work

On the occasion of World Water Day 22nd March’2017, NABARD (National Bank for Rural and Agriculture Development) has launched a nationwide water campaign. The campaign has been conducted during the period of May to July’2017. The campaign slogan is “Jal Jeevan Hai”. During this period, around one lakh villages across 200 districts of 21 states in vulnerable and water stressed areas are covered where ground water is over exploited.

The main objective of the campaign is to reach out to the rural communities to promote awareness about the need for conservation, preservation, and the efficient use of water resources. To that end, issues such as rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, and better agronomic and irrigation (more crop per drop) practices will be promoted. The major highlights of the campaign include community participation in adopting efficient irrigation methods, ground water recharge and appropriate cropping pattern for enhancing agricultural productivity.

To conduct this campaign throughout the country, NABARD has selected 8000 Krishi Jaldoots (Water Ambassadors). The Krishi Jaldoots will be selected from local area and having a good grasp and knowledge of the problems of their respective areas. They will help to run the campaign in localized and more effective manner.

These Jaldoots will arrange awareness programs at village level in which they will aware the villagers including farmers’ groups, women’s self help groups, cooperative institutes and local governing bodies about various methods of rain water harvesting, efficient water use, ground water recharge and integrated farming systems.

NABARD with support from CEE (Center for Environmental Education) has also introduced Krishi Jaldoot App for android mobiles in which all the data collected from villages can be fed. The locally generated information will be uploaded on this mobile app.

Campaign in Barshi Block:
As a part of this campaign, NABARD Solapur and MITRA Foundation together conducted the water awareness programs in 120 villages of Barshi block. For this purpose, NABARD has selected 7 Krishi Jaldoots from MITRA Foundation, Barshi. These Jaldoots has undergone one day training arranged by NABARD Solapur on 13th May’2017.

After undergoing training workshop, Jaldoots started the campaign at village level. For convenience, we divided them into 3 groups consisting of two Jaldoots each. Remaining one Jaldoot is kept as optional. After that we allotted them villages as per their convenience.

Krishi Jaldoots used to visit the village on the previous day of actual program to meet the local governing bodies and discuss about village volunteers. In this meeting Jaldoot will meet Sarpanch and Grampanchayat body and inform them about next day’s program and their expected cooperation. On the day of actual program, Jaldoots would conduct following activities-

a. Finalization of village volunteers:
In every village, we have selected 11 volunteers. These volunteers will help the Jaldoot team to conduct whole program in the village. In future they will act as a mediator between NABARD and different Government departments.
b. Transit walk in the village:
Early morning of the scheduled day Jaldoots will arrange rally (Transit walk) in which they would invite farmers, women, youth and students to join. The main objective of transit walk is to convey the main message of the campaign to all the villagers. For this purpose they would use various communication aids like slogans, posters, folk arts and cultural songs. Jaldoots will inform all the villagers about ‘Krishi Jal Samvad’ program during this transit walk.
c. Resource mapping:
After transit walk, resourse mapping exercise is conducted. This will help to identify key water structures in the villages, their existing status, renovation needs of existing infrastructure and innovative solutions to address the water issues of the village. In this exercise village map will be drawn with Rangoli in the open place showing all the water resources available in the village. The villagers will help to spot the places where these resources are on the map. Water storage ponds, check dams, nallas, river, etc. objects will be shown. Whatever water structures are damaged and what are the projected resources are also specified on the map. After completion of drawing map on the floor, a pucca map is drawn on drawing sheet.
d. Meeting with Farmer’s groups and Women’s SHGs:
After resource mapping, discussion with Farmers’ groups and women’s SHGs will be conducted simultaneously at two different places. During this discussion, information about water resources available for agricultural purpose and problems faced by villagers about agriculture water is collected.
e. Krishi Jal Samvad:
This is the main program of the campaign in each village. It is an interactive forum for group discussion focusing on water-related issues and identifying local best practices and solutions to tackle them. The session will also educate the villagers about various government initiatives and schemes focusing on water and agriculture. Government officials, NABARD representatives, progressive farmers will be invited for this program as resource person. They will guide the villagers about cultural and modern irrigation methods, rainwater harvesting technology, government schemes, financial support, etc.
f. Oath taking:
At the end of the Krishi Jal Samvad, a common oath taking and signature campaign will be conducted and program will be concluded. There was an overwhelming response from all the villages for this campaign. All the above mentioned programs were conducted in every village. The campaign was running in the block from 15th May’2017 to 16th June’2017. After successful completion of all the programs in a village, we got an appreciation letter from the Sarpanch of respective villages. After completing the campaign, we collected all the primary data and village maps from Jaldoots and consolidated it. This primary data includes villagewise and datewise program conducted details, water structures availability in the villages, structures need to be renovated, volunteer details and action plan. We have also prepared villagewise action plan, proposed budget and expected help each from society, government, banks, NGOs and others.

The day of 1st July is celebrated as the agriculture day (Krishi Din) in Maharashtra. The day is celebrated in the remembrance of the father of the green revolution of Maharashtra – Vasantrao Naik. Hence the day falls on his birthday. Every year we are celebrating Krishi-Saptah during 1st July to 7th July.

We are facing many problems due to environmental degradation and weather changes resulting in climate change. Unaware and selfish developments of modern age has posed big threats to the life on the earth. Trees hold such an ecosystem that plays a vital role in environmental sustainable development. But unfortunately the area under forest cover decreased upto dangerous level.

We are facing many problems due to environmental degradation and weather changes resulting in climate change. Unaware and selfish developments of modern age has posed big threats to the life on the earth. Trees hold such an ecosystem that plays a vital role in environmental sustainable development. But unfortunately the area under forest cover decreased upto dangerous level.

Keeping this in view, MITRA Foundation, Barshi decided to celebrate the week from 1st July’2017 to 7th July’2017 as “Krishi Saptah”. During this period, we planned to conduct the activity of tree plantation in Bashi block and few blocks of Beed district. Solapur and Beed are drought prone districts with low rainfall. We set the target of planting 20000 trees in this area.

Planting trees is most essential to save our ecology. If a full grown tree covers 10 Sq.mt. area, the canopy from 20,000 saplings over Solapur and Beed districts will substantially increase green cover, making it the first step to address climate change.

All the preparatory activities regarding “Krishi Saptah” started from 25th June. At first we informed the schools and colleges, Anganwadis, temples, Health centres from different villages about “Krishi Saptah” program and tree plantation activity. We told them to dig pits well in advance. Simultaneously we visited nurseries to check availability of plants.

While choosing saplings for plantation program, we selected native plants with diversified nature like trees, shrubs, climbers, grasses, etc. Indigenous species like Chinch, Gulmohar, Karanj, Neem, Peepal, Anjan, Beheda, Seetafal have been selected.

During this program, we encouraged people to adopt trees and take care of them as their children. Students are provided with plants to plant them at their homes and take care of them. Cultivating this habit in children will make a big impact in future. We requested people to plant tree in special occasions like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, festivals, etc. People were advised to protect plants from free grazing, fire and water for first 2-3 years.
We conducted the “Tree plantation program” in the villages mentioned below –

Since inception, we have been working for women’s SHG promotion. Till date, we have 130 active SHGs in Barshi block. During group promotion, in the first meeting itself we seeded the concept of SHG. We explained them the importance of regular attendance and saving. We encouraged the members to do maximum monthly saving as per their financial status. We followed following criteria while promoting the SHGs –

Policies for SHG promotion
1. The main focus of the organization during the year should be on SHG promotion and regularizing group meetings on time.
2. All group meetings should be conducted within 25th date of each month.
3. The procedure for group promotion should be -
PRA exercise → Concept seeding → Group formation.
4. Bank account opening & introduction of books of account should be done within a month of group promotion.
5. The President and Secretary are responsible for opening of bank account.
6. All group meetings should be conducted regularly with minimum attendance of 90%.
7. Members not attending the meeting or not saving regularly for three months should be expelled out from the group.
8. Auditing should be completed once in six months.
9. Annual audit should be completed by April of each year.

Policies for Saving
1. All members should save regularly in the monthly meeting.
2. Members should save according to their ability & family condition.
3. The minimum floor level saving rate should be Rs. 100 per member per month.
4. The members should always be informed about their savings, loan outstanding, etc.
5. Members’ pass book should be updated in every monthly meeting.
6. The transaction should take place between the members & the group. The staff should never handle the cash.
7. Percentage of non-savers in the group should be zero.
8. The incidence of non-savers should be monitored & there should be rigorous follow-up to address the issue.
9. The interest rate for the internal lending should be decided by the members collectively. But the minimum interest rate should be 2% per month.
10. The rate of interest on saving should be decided on the profitability of the group.
11. If a member leaves the group within one year, no interest on saving should be given to her.

Policies for internal lending
1. Internal lending should start from the first meeting itself.
2. Single loan policy should be adopted i.e. one loan for one member at a time.
3. No second loan should be given to a member till first one is cleared.
4. Maximum repayment period should be 12 months.
5. Priority wise loan lending – health, education, debt redemption, ration, etc.
6. Capacity to repay the loan amount should be considered while lending rather than credit need.
7. Monthly installments of the loan taken & interest payment should be mentioned in loan cards well in advance.
8. Interest on loan is calculated on diminishing balance method.
9. First bank loan should be given after six months of group promotion.
10. Maximum amount of loan per member should not be more than 50,000/- at a time or it should be in 1:3 proportion of their saving.
11. Members seeking for loan should submit loan request application form in the loan appraisal meeting. It should also be mentioned in minute books.
12. Loan payment to individual members should be given in the monthly meeting in the presence of all members.
13. Members more than 60 years of age, having less than 80% attendance, making irregular payment are not eligible to take the loan.

Policies for book keeping
1. The account books should be introduced in the group immediately after first meeting.
2. Following books should be available at the group level -
- Loan voucher
- Member register
- Minutes book
- Bank passbook
- Member pass book
3. The responsibility of updating the books of account should be on field associate.
4. The books of accounts should be updated on the same day of meeting and one copy of all transaction should be reached at office within next day.
5. All the loan payment should be entered in loan voucher after getting the signature of the member.
6. Other expenditure should be accounted in payment list.
7. The books of account should be internally audited once in 6 months.

Rural women play a critical role in supporting their families with their small business activities. The income they generate is vital for improving the livelihoods and overall wellbeing of the family members. Although the roles they play are so critical, rural women often face structural barriers such as expectations that they perform unpaid care work, and a lack of access to services that may limit their rights and opportunities to participate in the agricultural and business sector, which in turn lowers the sector’s efficiency.

To overcome these multiple challenges facing rural women and with a view to unlock their potential as farmers, entrepreneurs and agents of change, NABARD (National Bank for Rural and Agriculture Development), VKGB (Vidharbha Konkan Gramin Bank) and MITRA Foundation (Mission of Integrated Training on Rural and Agriculture Development) started the Joint Liability Group (JLG) scheme in Solapur district.

The Joint Program builds on evidence that joint efforts are required to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment aiming to provide women support in a range of areas so as to achieve sustainable development.

The JLG program started in the district since Sept’2017. The overall objectives of the program are –
• To enhance credit flow to farmers and small businesses.
• To serve as a collateral substitute for loans.
• To built mutual trust and confidence between banks and the target group.
• To provide food security to vulnerable section by enhanced agriculture production, productivity and livelihood promotion through JLG mechanism.

The activities under this objective include: identifying target population, forming their JLG with homogeneity and training and capacity building of JLG members. The second action area of this program aims to link the group to the bank for accessing financial services and thereby availing them financial support for creating or enhancing their income generating activities.

Despite the recent policy initiatives to address gender disparities, evidence suggests that rural and semi urban women still face individual, community and institutional barriers to fully exercise their rights. Rural women lack the access to key resources such as land, extension services, technology as well as business development services and financing. Keeping this in view, we started the JLG program in the block in Sept’2017. At first a tri-partite agreement has signed among the three development partners viz. NABARD, VKGB and MITRA Foundation.

Target population: Initially we selected local area of Barshi city and Chikharde village of the block. In Barshi city, we promoted 60 JLGs with average member size of 5 whereas in Chikharde village, we promoted 25 JLGs (Around 125 members).

Activities: Being semi urban area, in Barshi city we focused on small business activities carried out by individual women. These activities include garment shops, grocery shops, small restaurants, vendors, stationery shops, atta chakki, bangle store, dairy activity etc.

JLGs in Vairag: Joint liability group formation and financing has helped in the development of dairy based livelihood among small and marginal farmers. The Branch Manager of Vidharbha Konkan Gramin Bank, Vairag branch visited Dahitane village. This village was amongst one of the poorest village of the districts; where more than 90% farmers were small and marginal farmers. Due to drought and remoteness of the market, they were dependent only on food crops cultivation. They were rearing local cow which was able to provide milk only for family consumption without any marketable surplus.

These women farmers were briefed about JLG concepts. They formed groups with the help of MITRA Foundation staff. These farmers were provided Rs. 50000 as loan for purchase of Jersey cows under NABARD’s JLG Scheme.

Sujata Lokhande, Priyanka Sathe, Balika kashid, Surekha Sathe and Sulochana Kashid started mini dairy at their own farm. Each cow started giving approx 15 to 18 liters milk. They collected this milk and sold the milk to Laxmi dairy at their milk collection booth in the same village. Each cow could generate an income of Rs. 375-450 per day. After deduction of expenditure farmers were getting approx Rs.250 per day.

These farmers were getting regular payment by Laxmi dairy. JLG group members were repaying loan regularly to Vairag branch of Vidharbha Konkan Gramin Bank. They had opened saving bank account in Vairag branch. The bank had also appointed business facilitators in the Dahitane village who facilitate these group members in opening of account and its operation. Thus the linkage between farmers, MITRA Foundation, Laxmi Milk Dairy and Vidharbha Konkan Gramin Bank had helped in generation of livelihood of small and marginal farmers and improvement in their standard of living. By seeing the impact many of the small and marginal farmers had started formation of JLG groups in Dahitane and nearby villages. It had helped in improvement of economy of the area.

All the activities were hassle free and stake holders were co-operating each other due to their mutual benefit. Thus microfinancing under JLG scheme had provided sustainable income to the farmers. This model was sustainable for bankers as the repayment was regular and without much monitoring by banks as farmer clubs did the Job of monitoring.

Present Status of JLGs: