SUMMARY REPORT FEBRUARY 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. December and January 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

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN:

1. General Awareness : 1 pending awareness programme
has been conducted in Namdong village. The objectives of
the programme include :

• To mobilize community participation in the ALC project.
• To introduce the objectives and project activities to the
  community.
• To identify committed farmers to be members of ALC.
  After the programme, the communities have also signed the
  Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and to date, all of
  the 100 project communities have signed and accepted the
  project.

2. Review workshop : The review workshop was conducted
on February 15, 2022 whereby all team members of the
project from NESFAS, SURE and SSC confluence for the
following purposes :

• To review the achievement of targets
• To discuss on the cluster and theme of experiments
• To plan the problem solving and community work
  plan workshop.
• Facilitate organizational structure and institution
  building

3. Workshops on problem solving, objective setting & community work-plan : The first workshop kick
started in February 18, 2022, at Sohmynting village, and which saw the participation of ALC farmers from
four villages. 16 other workshops of the same were then held in other clusters throughout the month.
The main aims and objectives of the workshop include :

• To List the problems faced by farmers in terms of soil, pest and seeds and provide existing
  solutions to those problems.
• To Identify the knowledge Gap.
• To document traditional knowledge and practices from knowledge holders.
• To share the existing solutions to problems of one community with another community.
  Outputs of the workshop/s :
• 57 villages participated in these workshops, with the participation of 747 attendees.
• 30 problems on farming has been identified and prioritized.
• Out of the 33, 30 solutions/experiments for these problems have been identified/shared by the
  farmers. They will now require testing and validating.

4. Formation of ALCs :

A total of 195 Agroecology Learning Circles (ALCs) have been formed, who are going to be our main stakeholders in the project and work towards achieving the goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Output Tracker

Sl.no 1	Category 1: Awareness and Community Trust for newly selected 71 villages	Total targets	Targets achieved till February,2022	Remarks
A	General awareness and invitation to participate given to whole community – General awareness with entire community programme about the project explaining project goals and objective. Manage expectations by sharing the list of activities avaialble under programme.	100	100	Completed
B	ABD (Agrobiodiversity Walks) with community and NESFAS experts to explore diversity of local species together	30	0	As of now we are only doing the free listing of the agro biodiversity and conduct the Agro biodiversity walk, when the vegetation season begins
C	With Custodian Farmers that agreed to join ALC – orientation and and invitation to sign free and prior informed consent and engage support of Village Council	30	0	The pledge for commitment has been prepared and each ALC group member shall comply with the pledge and sign
D	Community led ALC Kick-off Workshop – explaining the purpose of ALC, ways of working, allocating leadership responsibilities, agree meeting schedules, initial expectations for long term ownership of ALC	30	0	100 Community facilitators will be trained on organisational and leadership skills
Sl.no 2	Category 2: Analysis of Existing Information and Identification of Knowledge Gaps and Opportunities
A	ALC Agroecology Problem Solving and Objective setting Workshop (2-3 days) – Ask community to discuss problem; reveal solutions already available in the community; identify knowledge gaps	30	17
B	Develop a community work plan that addresses priority problems agreed on by consensus and decide on the need for additional experts or not	30	17
C	Training from NESFAS and or experts to share relevant technical and practical guidance and give ALC members opportunity to ask questions e.g. how to set up a seed bank, how to choose seeds, how to create good compost	30	0	As soon as we identify the knowledge gap and before we start the experiment work in the village, techincal training will be given to the farmers to address the knowledge gap.
D	Facilitate exchange visits between villages that have complementary problems/solutions so ALC members can learn from other ALC members in other regions	30	0	Exchange visits will start taking place from March, 2022, to address the knowledge gap
Sl.no 3	Category:3 Community Led Participatory Research and Experiments
A	Training on Participatory Research methodology for ALC Experiments that includes information on data collection, stakeholder engagement, data analysis	15	0	The groundwork has started and training are ongoing.
B	Support community in design their ALC experiments	20	0
Sl.no 4	Category 4 : Supervise and facilitate experimentation & ensure ALC accountability
A	Variety of activities to include field inspections, support in answering practical questions, sourcing of missing information, accountability	35	0	The groundwork has started and training are ongoing.
B	Analyse experiment results and draft feedback and recommended follow-up actions	15	0
Sl.no 5	Category 5 :Knowledge Dissemination and Propagation
A	Transfer experiment feedback and findings into videos, leaflets, community demonstrations	30	0	To be conducted after development of workplan
B	Share experiment findings at village and cluster level through meetings and workshops and events e.g. food festivals, seeds fairs	10	0
C	Develop a Detailed Knowledge Collation and Communication Strategy	10	0
D	Execution of social media and radio campaigns as per strategy	10	0
E	Regular identification of ALC community member ready to share their findings and participatory video and audio interviews	20	0
F	State level workshop to share findings with policy makers	0	0
Sl.no 6	Category 6 :Empowering Community to Continue Long Term Problem Shooting
A	Workshop to develop a plan of action with the village councils to take forward the initiative	0	0	To be conducted after development of workplan

 

 

 

1. Farmer from Mawbri advocates for return to traditional farming
   https://www.nesfas.in/farmer-from-mawbri-advocates-for-return-to-traditional-farming/
2. Custodian farmer from Jaintia Hills successfully promotes traditional method for pest management
   https://www.nesfas.in/custodian-farmer-from-jaintia-hills-successfully-promotes-traditional-method-for-pestmanagement/
3. Tackling day-to-day agricultural problems, hand-in-hand: Testimonies from the ground
   https://www.nesfas.in/tackling-day-to-day-agricultural-problems-hand-in-hand-testimonies-from-the-ground/
4. The inception of Agroecology Learning Circles and local methods of composting
   https://www.nesfas.in/the-inception-of-agroecology-learning-circles-and-local-methods-of-composting/
5. Local farmers work together, solve problems on agricultural obstacles
   https://www.nesfas.in/local-farmers-work-together-solve-problems-on-agricultural-obstacles/
6. Agroecology Learning Circles step up to defend traditional food systems
   https://www.nesfas.in/agroecology-learning-circles-step-up-to-defend-traditional-food-systems/