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Brief Description of Project Components
1. Social Mobilization and strengthening of CBOs and WUAs
Social mobilization plays key role in development. For the purpose, a social mobilization strategy was chalked out just after the inception of the project. A project message was developed, which contained information about the project interventions, donors, implementers and interpreted the role of community in implementation of the project. Initially meetings were held with local body members and other notables of the community to prepare ground for village level dialogues. During these meetings, the project message was delivered, information about the project interventions was given and dates, venues and timings were chalked out for village level dialogues. The project team developed a spatial plan and formulated teams to hold dialogues in different villages in target UCs. The communities were asked to organize themselves into structured Community Based Organizations (CBOs). The CBO formation process was fully facilitated by the project. Consequently, 79 CBOs emerged in ten union councils out which 59 were newly formed while the remaining were the CBOs formed by LASOONA under Malakand Rural Development Project, and Barani Area Development Project while some were formed by Palas Conservation and Development Project.
Side by side the project developed and distributed the minutes’ registers and resolution pads among the CBOs to streamline the social mobilization and project implementation processes.
Important needs of the community were identified and prioritized using RRA tools. During interaction with the communities, profiles of 75 activists were developed to identify individuals that could facilitate the project team in implementation process.
In order to enhance the competencies of the newly formed CBO members’ three training events were organized on managerial skills. More than 100 managers (presidents and general secretaries) of the CBOs participated in these events. They were educated about the history, importance and need of organized groups as well as the structure, membership and registration of CBO etc.
Moreover, the project team collected baseline data in ten union councils pertaining to social setup, agrarian infrastructure and agriculture to use it as a bench mark for assessing impacts of the project in future.
2. Restoration and Improvement of Agrarian Infrastructure
To restore the agrarian infrastructure, partially or fully damaged during the earthquake and subsequent rainfalls, the project started implementing different restorative measures after the formation of community groups.
In this connection the engineering team, after the completion of need identification and prioritization process, conducted technical and social feasibility surveys of potential sites for rooftop water harvesting at union council Sarkool and for damaged protection walls at union councils Shang, Dandai, Sarkool and Haran. The potential pasture tracks were identified in union councils Shapur, Sharakot, Shang, Dandai and Pirkhana but social and technical feasibility survey of only one track was carried due to budgetary constraints. On the basis of the surveys project digests and bill of quantities were prepared for two rooftop water harvesting schemes, three retaining wall schemes, twelve retaining wall schemes and one pasture track rehabilitation scheme. Terms of Partnership (ToPs) agreements were signed with the concerned CBOs to clarify the roles and responsibilities of both the organization and community in the implementation of schemes. The local contractors supply stone, sand and gravel etc. on signed contracts. However, the cement was procured and supplied by the donor (GAA) to the warehouses at Besham and Pattan from where it was transported to the sites. For each scheme, five members’ monitoring committees were constituted within the concerned CBOs. All the communities provide labour on cash for work basis. More than 60 % of the construction work has been completed on almost all the schemes.
Slopping Agricultural Land Technology is an agro forestry technique, meant for controlling soil erosion and increasing soil fertility in the hilly areas. The project is also working on this technology on pilot basis. Suitable sites have been identified for SALT and the team will start physical work on the sites in the forthcoming monsoon season .
3. Improved production and Establishment of Fruit Orchards with Focus on Erosion
District Shangla and Kohistan are situated in extreme north of the NWFP. The area has been endowed with good climatic and edaphic conditions for growing almost all types of crops and orchards native to temperate regions. Unfortunately, farmers of the area have very little interactions with the research organizations, government extension departments and progressive farmers in the rest of the province due to remoteness from the major urban centers and commercial markets. For this reason, the project proposed an agricultural package not only to recover the damages to the agriculture caused by the recent earthquake but also to establish foundations for improved agricultural production in the area.
The project also provided training to 35 farmers in orchard management, top working and off-season vegetables production at ARI- Swat because it was necessary to develop a cadre of trained farmers having both the scientific and traditional knowledge base of crop production. Training Group Profile (TGP) technique was used for selecting suitable farmers for the training. The training was carried out in two different events in Shangla and Kohistan. The training was facilitated by four resource persons from ARI- Swat.
To complement and make the outcomes of the community farmers training more fruitful in terms of agriculture production a 5 day exposure visit was organized for 21 farmers to ARI Swat, CABI Mingora, Tarnaab Farm Peshawar, LASOONA Saidu Sharif and Hujra organization. Objective of the visit was to explore the possibilities and opportunities for developing linkages with growers associations, organizations and NGOs for services provision and enhancing agriculture yield especially from orchards and off season vegetables production.
Looking into the suitable climate for growing orchards and raising off-season vegetables in the project area, a number of off-season vegetables and orchards demonstration plots of were established in nine union councils. These include nine orchards plots of apple, apricot, plum, persimmon, pears, cherry, sweet orange, china lemon and walnut (one orchard per union council), seven off season potato plots, two pea and turnip plots each. However, tomato plots will be established later on in the month of June, 2007. For plots establishment services of consultants were hired from reputed agricultural institutes. Besides demonstration plots 117 orchards of apple, apricot, plum, persimmon, pears, cherry, sweet orange, china lemon and walnut were also established in the erosion threatened areas of nine union councils. Horticulturists from ARI- Swat provided technical expertise in this activity. It is expected that the orchards will not only prevent the fragile soil from erosion but will also enhance the economic conditions of the local farmers.
Further, the project developed extension/ awareness material for the community farmers and the trained individuals in the form of five brochures, one user guide and three crop calendars. The calendars have been designed especially for the district Shangla and district Kohistan.
IDistribution of Agricultural Inputs
To ensure the availability of seeds and agricultural hand tools, that had been lost during to earthquake, the agriculture section of the project after thorough consultation with the experts of Agriculture Research Institute (ARI), CABI, and PCDP, suggested specific varieties and types of seeds and tools for distribution among the neediest rural households. Accordingly, procurement was done by GAA in the light of bills of quantities prepared by the project staff. The quantities procured were 140 bags of 25 Kg maize seeds (Azam variety), 880 bags of 25 Kg maize grade fertilizers, 470 sets of common light tools, 302 sets of rare light tools and 212 sets of heavy tools. The commodities were distributed among the beneficiaries according to the distribution plan developed by the project staff.
For detailed information please download the Final Project Report
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