Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development II Project
Client: Watershed Management Directorate, Government of Uttarakhand
June, 2019
The Indian Government initiated the ‘Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project II’ (also known as- Gramya II), to ‘increase the efficiency of natural resource use and productivity of rainfed agriculture by participating communities in selected micro watersheds of the State of Uttarakhand’. Gramya II was built on the successful community-based approach of its predecessor Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development Project (Gramya I). Both the projects are co-financed by ‘International Development Association’ (IDA). The team member at WhitePeak was engaged to provide technical assistance for the Uttarakhand Decentralized Watershed Development II Project. This was carried out through a combination of expert interviews and rigorous secondary research. The project objectives were to provide technical and capacity building assistance to the project staff and to formulate various reports. The final deliverable included:
- An Agribusiness Study report covering enabling environment, interventions in production, post-production and marketing, identification of niche value chains and short and long term goals to further strengthen the livelihood of the project beneficiaries and increase the project’s outreach in varied activities
- An Innovative Approaches and Technologies transferred report that illustrates some of the innovative technologies and models implemented by UDWDP-II
- A Skill Development and Job Creation report which included an analysis of project activities for vulnerable individuals and their impact, an analysis on the aggregate impact on individuals and communities and recommendations for the project based on the analysis
- Business Plan for five Farmer Federations (FFs) focusing on a way forward to strengthen the Federation by formulating relevant strategies that FFs can adopt to scale up its operations and to ensure its sustainability
- The team members at WhitePeak were also engaged by Watershed Management Directorate, to conduct a work-shop to develop the capacity of the project staff, especially those working closely with the beneficiary farmers. The work-shop was attended by numerous project staff, deployed across the state. The work-shop focussed on various aspects regarding the formation of farmer federation and consisted of various sessions such as: (i) The need to form Farmer Federation (FFs); (ii) Organizational Structure, Legal Requirement & Registration of FFs; (iii) Fund Management in Farmer Federations; (iv) Services Offered by Farmer Federations; and (v) Preparation of action plans for farmer federations. Interactive classroom sessions & practical case study exercises on FPOs were also conducted with the workshop participants.
