Facilitators – Rohan Mukerjee, Naresh Biswas
This Orientation program for Central India Using Diversity (UD) fellows carried out at XISA Raipur in the second week of January involved 2 fellows from MP, and 5 fellows from Chhattisgarh. The fellows from Jharkhand, Patalkot and one fellow from Gariyaband were unable to attend the program.
Introduction of fellows and overview of the UD project – Each of the fellows provided an introduction of themselves and the field area they are working in with a focus on traditional agricultural practices, use of forests and uncultivated food (UF) and forest rights of the target communities.
Naresh Biswas and Rohan Mukerjee provided the participants with an overview of the Using Diversity (UD) project, its concept, the communities it aims to work with, objectives, expected outcomes and roles of the fellows.
Forest Rights and FRA
Naresh Biswas provided a detailed presentation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and its different components and their relevance for the project areas and communities. The core concepts of Individual Forest Rights (IFR), Community Forest Rights (CFR) and Habitat Rights were explained in the context of the project areas and project communities. The project objectives with regards to improved awareness and implementation of Forest Rights especially CFR and habitat rights were discussed and explained in detail. The roles of the fellows in this regard were also explained.
The component of the project that focuses on documentation, safeguarding and revival of traditional agricultural practices was explained and discussed. The establishment of community seed banks which would facilitate provision of seeds of traditional crops that are disappearing or have become extinct from project areas to community farmers was explained. In this regard the participants were divided into area wise groups to draw up tentative seed requirement lists for their areas which would guide the collection and procurement of seeds for the community seed banks to be established in their areas. The process of establishment of community seed banks was explored and discussed. The fellows would identify appropriate community organisations like women SHG groups which would be responsible for the management and running of the seed banks.
Uncultivated Food (UF)
The documentation of UF, spreading of awareness of UF through community events and programs like UF melas, and protection and revival of UF plants through the plantation of saplings of UF plants in community areas was discussed and explained. What constitutes UF and the importance of UF to the target communities was explained in detail.
Documentation and reporting – Documentation and reporting is a vital component of the project and the fellows were provided data collection formats and templates with regards to the gathering of general information regarding their project areas with a focus on community forests, forest rights and implementation of FRA, traditional agricultural practices, traditional crops, uncultivated food and livelihoods in addition to basic demographic information and data of project villages. The fellows were provided a brief overview of data collection methods and carried out a dry run of filling in data collection formats.
A monthly reporting format for the fellows which would enable effective reporting and monitoring of project activities was shared and explained.
Future Action – The participants were given tasks for the rest of January to be completed prior to the next training program in the end of January 2018. These tasks involved the gathering of baseline information from project areas and finalising seed requirement lists based on the needs of the project communities and spreading information about the UD project concept and its objectives.
