BRLF Covid-19 Response

Looking at the grim situation which developed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and regular feedback received from the partners, BRLF decided to initiate interim and long- term relief measures for the families residing in the Central Indian Tribal Region and are severely affected due to the pandemic. A Committee, entitled the “Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Committee” was constituted by BRLF to guide these interventions.

The aims of BRLF’s COVID-19 response measures were to:

Minimise the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the rural areas, and
Mitigate the impact of lockdown amongst the poor and marginalised families, especially in the tribal migrant workers of the Central Indian Tribal Region.

BRLF planned to implement its relief measures in two phases – the first phase of relief work was aimed at providing immediate relief to the migrants and most impacted households. In order to contain the spread of the infection, the major focus was to provide dry ration for 20 to 25 days to the most vulnerable households and extend support for gap filling to the village/panchayat level quarantine centres.

The main objective of the program is to increase the reach of government welfare schemes and to address challenges in sectors such as education, health, nutrition and innovation in tribal areas, in order to ensure an integrated and focused approach to the socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribes population in a coordinated and planned manner. Keeping in mind our core competence in the field of CSO facilitation and screening, MoTA has appointed BRLF to carry out a rigorous screening process for shortlisting proposals from different parts of the country on various themes such as education, health and innovation.

This is a working paper on the status of agriculture in Bodoland. The Bodoland Territorial Region is an autonomous region in Assam. A high agricultural productivity characterises Bodoland for many crops. Accordingly, the authors analyse agricultural productivity by looking at the latest data on inputs (e.g. land, water, fertiliser, pest control, agricultural machinery, finance and labour) and outputs (types of crops, coverage and output). The role of agriculture is important for the community and is fully connected with its culture and economy. The paper also provides a series of recommendations for improving the agriculture in the region.

Bodoland is one of the areas in Assam with high agricultural productivity for many crops. But most of the area under crops (around 60 percent) is used for rice production. So, there is potential for increasing their production by increasing the area under other crops. Additionally, we can say that, by increasing the area under some other crops which enjoy good productivity and simultaneously increasing the productivity of some other crops, farmers in Bodoland can aspire to increase their income.
Bodoland’s agriculture is mostly rainfall-dependent. 29 percent of Bodoland’s GCA is irrigated. Although that is higher than the state average, it is far below the average irrigation coverage in the country. Also, most of it is done through Surface Irrigation and hence, the area does not have the problem of a declining water table. Which means, water-intensive crops can be produced here without being too concerned about sustainability. Beyond rice, it could target sugarcane production given there is a proper processing system for the crop.
Per hectare fertiliser consumption is low in Bodoland. Productivity of some crops could be increased by applying more fertilisers in a balanced way with proper irrigation systems in place so that the outcome of agricultural activities can be less dependent on the erratic nature of rainfall, especially in these times of climate change.

First phase - Immediate Relief

Snapshot of the first phase relief work:

Outreach
Partners	14
State	West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
District	11
Block	14
Gram Panchayat	188
Village	520
Distributions of dry ration	9081 households
Distribution of face masks	5550 HHs
Distribution of towels and other sanitary items	739
Dry ration kits distributed in quarantine centres	300
No. of quarantine centres supported	27 centres
Budget Utilisation	Approved budget: 75.78 Lakhs
Budget Utilisation	Expenditure: 75.71 Lakhs

Bodoland is one of the areas in Assam with high agricultural productivity for many crops. But most of the area under crops (around 60 percent) is used for rice production. So, there is potential for increasing their production by increasing the area under other crops. Additionally, we can say that, by increasing the area under some other crops which enjoy good productivity and simultaneously increasing the productivity of some other crops, farmers in Bodoland can aspire to increase their income.
Bodoland’s agriculture is mostly rainfall-dependent. 29 percent of Bodoland’s GCA is irrigated. Although that is higher than the state average, it is far below the average irrigation coverage in the country. Also, most of it is done through Surface Irrigation and hence, the area does not have the problem of a declining water table. Which means, water-intensive crops can be produced here without being too concerned about sustainability. Beyond rice, it could target sugarcane production given there is a proper processing system for the crop.
Per hectare fertiliser consumption is low in Bodoland. Productivity of some crops could be increased by applying more fertilisers in a balanced way with proper irrigation systems in place so that the outcome of agricultural activities can be less dependent on the erratic nature of rainfall, especially in these times of climate change.

Second phase – Relief and Rehabilitation work

In the second phase, the focus was mainly on restoring the livelihoods of the most marginalised and poor households badly affected by the pandemic. Support was provided to the marginal farmers for harvesting of rabi and sowing of kharif crops. Besides this migrant and landless families were supported with alternative livelihood options. Strategically, BRLF decided to focus on areas which were

Most interior & unserved
Resource poor
Had a history of high migration
Had most vulnerable households
Areas not covered by corporate CSR activities

BRLF executed the second phase of the relief and rehabilitation work in collaboration with 17 implementation partners with strong ground presence and working to improve the livelihoods of tribal and most vulnerable communities. Through these short and long term relief and rehabilitation measures, BRLF reached 8346 households from 13 districts of Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

Bodoland is one of the areas in Assam with high agricultural productivity for many crops. But most of the area under crops (around 60 percent) is used for rice production. So, there is potential for increasing their production by increasing the area under other crops. Additionally, we can say that, by increasing the area under some other crops which enjoy good productivity and simultaneously increasing the productivity of some other crops, farmers in Bodoland can aspire to increase their income.
Bodoland’s agriculture is mostly rainfall-dependent. 29 percent of Bodoland’s GCA is irrigated. Although that is higher than the state average, it is far below the average irrigation coverage in the country. Also, most of it is done through Surface Irrigation and hence, the area does not have the problem of a declining water table. Which means, water-intensive crops can be produced here without being too concerned about sustainability. Beyond rice, it could target sugarcane production given there is a proper processing system for the crop.
Per hectare fertiliser consumption is low in Bodoland. Productivity of some crops could be increased by applying more fertilisers in a balanced way with proper irrigation systems in place so that the outcome of agricultural activities can be less dependent on the erratic nature of rainfall, especially in these times of climate change.

Summary of the major interventions and outputs

Action Objective	Major interventions	Outputs
To ensure and extend the days with availability of food and essential commodities to the most vulnerable families	Distribution of dry ration kits to the families affected by COVID 19.	3350 families were supported by distribution of dry ration kits.
	Distribution of baby food kits to the families having babies aged 0 to 3 years.	200 HHs were provided with baby food kits.
Controlling the spread of COVID 19 to minimise the infections	Assessing the situation of quarantine centres and providing support to fill the gaps.	A total 3 quarantine centres were supported by distributing masks, towels, sanitizers, and other essential items.
	Distribution of masks and hygiene kits to the families supported under interim relief.	3350 HHs were supported with hygiene kits which essentially contain masks and sanitizer.
	Providing PPE kits to the CSO staff engaged in relief work.	60 no. of CSO staff was provided with PPE material.
Restoring livelihoods of the poor, marginal farmers and migrant households	Providing seeds and other inputs to the marginal farmers having land holding size maximum up to 2 acres.	3768 no. of families benefited with agricultural input support.
	Conservation and ensure availability of variety of indigenous seeds in the villages itself, by promoting community managed seed banks	Strengthened 60 community seed banks by purchasing new stock of seeds and/or storage equipment.
	Providing alternate livelihood options to the landless migrant families recently returned to their villages from cities.	Input and asset support to 1028 migrant families for alternative livelihood options-Livestock & NTFP.
Ensuring Rights & Entitlements of the community by linking them with various govt. schemes (PDS, MGNREGA etc.)	Linking families with different government schemes like PDS, MGNREGA etc.	11973 HHs linked with different government schemes like PDS, MGNREGA etc.
	Providing direct liquidity support of Rs. 25000 to the FPOs to reach out to vulnerable families not getting serviced under government schemes.	3 FPOs provided with direct liquidity support of Rs 25000.

Bodoland is one of the areas in Assam with high agricultural productivity for many crops. But most of the area under crops (around 60 percent) is used for rice production. So, there is potential for increasing their production by increasing the area under other crops. Additionally, we can say that, by increasing the area under some other crops which enjoy good productivity and simultaneously increasing the productivity of some other crops, farmers in Bodoland can aspire to increase their income.
Bodoland’s agriculture is mostly rainfall-dependent. 29 percent of Bodoland’s GCA is irrigated. Although that is higher than the state average, it is far below the average irrigation coverage in the country. Also, most of it is done through Surface Irrigation and hence, the area does not have the problem of a declining water table. Which means, water-intensive crops can be produced here without being too concerned about sustainability. Beyond rice, it could target sugarcane production given there is a proper processing system for the crop.
Per hectare fertiliser consumption is low in Bodoland. Productivity of some crops could be increased by applying more fertilisers in a balanced way with proper irrigation systems in place so that the outcome of agricultural activities can be less dependent on the erratic nature of rainfall, especially in these times of climate change.

Outreach at a glance

S.N.	Progress tracking indicators and coverage	Unit	Physical Progress up to 31ST July 2020
S.N.	Progress tracking indicators and coverage	Unit	Target	Achievement	Deficit/Surplus
1	Districts covered	No	16	16	0
2	Block covered	No	17	17	0
3	Gram Panchayat covered	No	262	262	0
4	Village covered	No	619	613	-6
5	Ration kit distributed to Covid -19 affected families/households	No.	3350	3350	0
6	PPE for CSO Staff Members (No. of Staff)	Staff	53	60	7
7	IEC Material (to be included in the kit)	Kit	2850	2850	0
8	Baseline survey conducted in number of villages	Village	309	303	-6
9	No. of vulnerable households identified for all interventions	HHs	3381	3447	66
10	Baby food kit distributed to households	No.	200	200	0
11	No. of isolation camps covered by providing input/equipment support for gap filling	Camps	3	3	0
12	Input support to the poor and vulnerable families for next cropping season – seed, fertiliser, water pumps, renting of harvester/thrasher and tractor hours for collective tilling	HHs	1825	2162	337
13	Strengthening of community based seed bank – purchase on new stock of seed and storage equipments	Seed Bank	32	60	28
14	Input support for cultivation of short duration food crop like – vegetable, maize and millets	HHs	1275	1606	331
15	Direct liquidity support to Kishan club and FPOs for purchase of commodity at village level and selling of inputs for next crop (FPO has to be nurtured by partner)	FPOs	3	3	0
16	Transportation support in case of perishables items – vegetable & fruits for at least two times (Number of farmers covered)	Cluster of 50 farmers	6	4	-2
17	Input and asset support to migrant families for alternative livelihoods – livestock and NTFE	HHs	640	1028	388
18	Facilitation support to families to avail their entitlement announced by Govt. – organisation of camps in the village for all schemes, strengthening of PDS supply system & MGNREGA – monitoring and real time information dissemination – bringing in the notice of the local authority in case of shortage of food	HHs	17553	11973	-5580

BRLF Covid-19 Response

Subscribe BRLF Newsletter