SUMMARY REPORT DECEMBER 2021- JANUARY 2022

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:
The project “Empowering indigenous communities through Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs) for
resilient, integrated and innovative natural resource management” is funded by the World Bank and
supported by Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA). ALCs combined agroecology with
participatory research and aims to empower indigenous communities to recognize, revive, practice, and
eventually further develop traditional agroecology technologies and practices and stimulates local
innovation for sustainable local food systems. Natural resource management investigated through ALCs
include:

• Land planning and seed selection for community resilience;
• Increasing Yield by reducing loss through Pest Management;
• Reversing soil degradation.

The project also aims to achieve:

• Greater accountability across ALC members to resolve priority issues;
• Ease of access to blended indigenous-contemporary solutions already documented;
• Continued and expanded community learning through intuition and community led experiments;
• Ease of knowledge exchanges across different ALC clusters;
• Preparation for long term ALC community ownership.

The project area will include 100 villages from all three major indigenous communities in Meghalaya
(Khasi, Garo and Jaintia) across 7 of the 12 districts in Meghalaya.

INTRODUCTION:
The project’s MOU was signed in November 2021 and funds of Rs 1,74,24,931.00 (One crore seventy four lakhs twenty four thousand nine hundred and thirty one only) received on December 23, 2021. The first two months was mainly preparatory works focused on recruitment, setting up systems, startup workshops with the partner organizations namely: Society for Urban and Rural Empowerment, Jowai and Social Service Centre, Shillong and confirming with the project villages through the Free Prior and Informed Consent process. The report highlights the key activities undertaken during December, 2021 and January, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN:

1. 1. 1. Staff Orientation: The staff orientation programme was held from December 6 to 9, 2021. During the four days workshop, the team NESFAS, partner organizations, namely, Society for Urban and Rural Empowerment (SURE), Jowai and Social Service Centre (SSC) Shillong, were part of it. The staff include 12 Associates (with MSW background and years of experience in the social work field) who will will coordinate at the Cluster villages, Monitoring Team: 3 staff with experience in social work and project monitoring, Research team: 3 staff, and Communication team: 4
         

         Selection of Community facilitators at South
         West Garo Hills District.

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

          

 

 

2. Selection of Community Facilitators (CF): 100 community facilitators have been selected and recruited from every partner village to help amplify the works. The recruitment of the CF was done after a letter was sent to the headmen/nokmas of the partner villages, requesting to nominate 3 community people who have the following criteria: a) basic English reading and writing skills; b) is smart and influential; c) must be from the village. The Associate in charge of the respective cluster then conducted the interviews and selected the candidates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Orientation for Community Facilitators (CF): The orientation programme for the 100 selected CFs were conducted at cluster The orientation was done in 12 different clusters:

• NESFAS: Ri-Bhoi clusters, Sohra cum Mairang clusters, Sohra Clusters, Mawkynrew clusters, East Garo Hills cum West Garo Hills Clusters, Rongram Cluster, Reraphara and Betasing Clusters.
• SURE: Thadlaskein cluster, Laskein Cluster, Amlarem Cum Thadlaskein Clusters
• SSC: Ri-Bhoi and East Khasi Hills Clusters

4. General Awareness: 99 awareness programmes have been conducted in the partner villages which saw the participation of 3470 community members. The objectives of the programme include:

• To mobilize community participation in the ALC
• To introduce the objectives and project activities to the community.
• To identify committed farmers to be members of

After the programme, the communities have also signed the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and a total of 98 communities (out of a 100) have signed and accepted the project.

In one month’s time, during the different programmes held under the project, the challenges faced by food producers and local farmers were highlighted and the strengths of the Indigenous Food Systems to address the issues of climate change, unsustainable production, loss of traditional knowledge were also discussed.

 

Various participants shared their observation in the changes they have observed in their farming practices over the years and reflected upon how actions need to be taken to conserve the natural resources of agrobiodiversity. They addressed some of the changes such as shift from traditional farming to conventional farming for increased yield, excessive use of chemicals, mono-cropping, cash cropping and more. It was observed thatmost of the farmers use chemical pesticides but many came forward and agreed to experiment with the traditional methods of pest management as an alternative to pesticides. The concept of agroecology and its components were thoroughly discussed in the programmes, laying emphasis on the traditional farming
system that has proven to be sustainable for many years. Agroecology is a science that understands farms as ecosystems with a set of productive practices and a social process or social movement where people become engaged with farming and food systems (Wezel et al. 2009).

 

 

 

Some of the issues raised in the general awareness programme with possible solutions include:
Bring back lost local seed varieties into farms example Millet.	Seed banks, Seed exchange programme.
Use of harmful chemical fertilizers.	Adoption of different composting techniques like Berkeley methods.
Having sense of ownership to the project.	Continue dialogue with the dorbar shnong, capacity building with the CFs.
Pest management.	The project will engage both Indigenous knowledge and contemporary knowledge.
Lack of diversity in kitchen gardens.	Seed exchange, domestication of wild edibles.

 

WAY FORWARD PLAN FOR FEBRUARY, 2022:

1. Completion of General Awareness of pending village e Namdong; West Jaintia Hills District;
2. ABD (Agrobiodiversity Walks) with community and NESFAS experts to explore diversity of local species together;
3. Facilitate for the formation of ALC with Custodian Farmers that agreed to join ALC – orientation and and invitation to the pledge and engage support of Village Council;
4. Community led ALC Kick-off Workshop – explaining the purpose of ALC, ways of working, allocating leadership responsibilities, agree meeting schedules, initial expectations for long