Migration, Farming, Watersheds, SHGs and Micro-finance
Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy
December, 2006
Migration and farming:
The seasonal migration is positive as compared to the permanent migration.
Recently we have seen that because of the International Airport coming up
near Srirangapur Village, some of the urban services are accessible and also
speculation in real estate prices. Because of these factors, there is reverse
migration; people from urban areas have bought land and other assets in the
vicinity. Secondly, the villagers are selling their lands and are moving away to
either urban areas or remote rural areas. The daily wages have increased, a
welcome thing, now the villagers within the village will get good wages (thanks
to NREGP too). This pattern of higher wages is not matching with the price for the
agriculture produce. Resulting in shift in cropping pattern, choosing high revenue
and less labor intensive crops like horticulture.
Watershed Approach:
Watershed approaches should lead to sustainable livelihoods. “Watershed”
concept should not be taken literally for NRM alone or for conservation. From
Livelihoods perspective, it is broader – covering all the 5 capitals – Human,
Natural, Social, Physical and Financial.
Through Dept. of Rural Development under DPAP / DDP hundreds of watershed
projects (@ Rs 30 Lakhs per project) are sanctioned to several villages. Under
convergence we can improve the quality of such projects able to guide them in
sustainable management of assets created under the watershed projects.
SHGs
SHGs (micro-finance) through women are a huge success in AP. Some concerns
are:
- Women have not grown much beyond primary and consumption stage to
income generation and asset building stages.
- All the money saved is being considered as thrift (that is not so)
- The environmental implications are not studied. If excess money is
generated from which source?. Is it at the cost of local resources
exploitation / degration? The whole SHG and thrift movement is at threat
because of ignoring the source of money. In villages it is seasonality that is
more important than, asking the women to pay every week the same
amount, in spite of seasons / situations.
- Only few women in the groups are getting maximum benefit.