Boost Women's Livelihood Collectives for Equality

Due to lockdown in India farmers were cut off from the market for long time. The need of crops diversification in off-season of mushroom is much needed for the sustainable livelihood of the farmers. Again active action for market linkages and mobilizing the women groups in a more organized way was one of the areas of work was identified during implementation.

In the month of June when the lockdown was a bit relaxed, we planned the process of mobilizing women into a Farmer Producer Company (FPC). Due to restriction in mobility, we could not reach out to the community for the mobilization process.

During the month of July community meetings started for FPC formation. FPC formation meeting was conducted on 2^nd July and with everyone’s agreement, it was named Milanjyoti Agro Producer Company Limited. Ten women farmers were nominated and selected as members of the board for the FPC.

In the month of September registration process of FPC initiated and we could successfully register the FPC legally. We conducted a need assessment in the month of September for crop diversification and possible other farm activity. After the need assessment it was decided that black paper, ginger, turmeric cultivation will be carried forward with the women farmers for sustainable livelihood.

We have planned capacity building training on FPO governance, horticulture for next quarter.

• Global_Giving_Updated_Report_2020_October.docx (DOCX)

In the month of January, the production and sale of mushroom from all the villages continued and the total production for the season from November to February was arrived at 1282kgs and total amount received by the women mushroom growers from the season arrived at 141,640 INR. Taking into consideration the frequent financial transactions as well as the need to maintain proper accounts, a capacity building workshop for the community organizations were planned and executed in the month of February in association with the Finance Team of FST. Our women collective representatives also participated in a regional North-East Trade Facilitation Fair wherein they were exposed to various innovations and practices prevalent in the states in terms of sustainable livelihood practices.

Also, in the month of February, our community organizations began planning for the post mushroom cultivations season. They decided to engage in cultivation of Papaya, Lemon and Black pepper which can be seen as an alternate means of livelihood with their existing practice of paddy and vegetable cultivation during the mushroom off-season. However due to the pandemic of COVID 19 and its related lockdown across the country, we couldn’t carry on with the planned programs.

We plan to carry on with our activities once there are relaxations in lockdown and with due consideration of safety measures of social distancing and sanitization practices.

During this period of lockdown, understanding the plight of the daily wage labourers as well as the vulnerable families, FST engaged in relief measures in association with the community mobilizers and grassroot organization in the project villages. We were able to reach out to 120 families from the 5 villages of Baksa block with essential items such as rice, potatoes, pulses, vegetable oil, salt and hygiene materials such as soap, washing powder and disinfectant.

Links:

• Official Website of FST

• Updated Work Report (DOCX)