Activities

Empowering by unleashing the power within

When the Department of Agricultural Development and Farmers Welfare aimed the empowerment of the tribal people who live in the forest belt of Ahirappilly Grama Panchyat, they tried to formulate a comprehensive strategy. The focus was to create an ecosystem that ensures the sustainable development of the tribal community.

Many tribal communities inhabit this forest belt. They prefer to live by preserving the unique identities, culture and age-old traditions of the community. The hereditary headman who deals with the social control mechanism of the settlement is called ‘Mooppan’. Non-timber forest produce collection, horticulture and agriculture on forest land are the major means of their livelihood. Traditionally they are expert food gatherers and farmers.

Firstly, the department emphasized the inherent and intuitive abilities of the community. Through regular, periodic consultations with the forest-dependent tribals, the team has ascertained broad community support for the project. When they had been given adequate training and essential mechanization to practise some primary aspects of contemporary agriculture, they were able to enhance their productivity and the quantity and quality of crop yields. Then, while traditional farmers were enlightened with appropriate farming techniques for the improvement of the plantations, the women were trained in nursery development and the production of seedlings. The youth of the settlement were equipped to use simple machines and given proper training on sustainable collection, value addition, development of market intelligence, strengthening the bargaining power, etc.

The settlement is situated in geographically difficult terrain. Due to this, they are facing problems in communication and transportation facilities. The DA&FW has been giving comprehensive support to both forest and agricultural produce. This includes support for the sale and storage of surplus agricultural, horticulture and forest produce, development of designs, dissemination of information about prices and procurement agencies, sustainable marketing, etc. The portal, athirappillytribalvalley.com is a major part of DA&FW’s efforts for tribal empowerment by providing support to marketing development activities. Besides, it ensures genuine and authentic tribal products for customers at their doorsteps.