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Project Record

Objectives:

Strategies for NR managment to benefit the poor tested, modified and demonstrated through implementation of plans of action in pilot projects in Mugad and surrounding villages.

Background:

This project follows on from a number of peri-urban research projects in Hubli-Dharwad that have gathered information on natural resource management issues and livelihoods. In particular, R7867 has generated much information on who the poor are, and a deeper understanding of their livelihood strategies, as well as baseline information on farming systems and natural resources. R7959 involved the development of a participatory process from which this action plan was produced. The participatory process involved a diagnostic workshop at which representatives from five peri-urban villages around Hubli-Dharwad were asked to present the findings of a number of participatory exercises undertaken in the villages to identify problems facing the poor. The priority issues for small marginal farmers and women in Mugad focussed on declining access to common forest resources and degradation of the village water catchment area. During the situation analysis exercises undertaken in Mugad prior to the diagnostic workshop (in project R7959), villagers described how 50 years ago the forest went right up to the village (about 1km away) and was host to many wild animals. Even 30 years ago the forest supplied valuable resources such as teak, sandalwood, muragi, ebadi, houni, shivanni, muthala, bamboo, godanchi, wild palm and various important medicinal plants. Drastic changes occurred when the Karnataka Forest Department leased the forest land to the Karnataka Forest Development Corporation (it proved to be diffcult to determine exactly what area), which bulldozed the existing forest and replanted with eucalyptus for industrial supply of fibre to supply paper mills and other polyfibre industries. Access by villagers to the forest was forbidden. As a consequence, potters find it difficult to source fuelwood for their kilns, basket makers have to buy raw materials (split bamboo) from Dharwad market, leaf plate makers are forced to trek long distances to source leaves (of Butea monosperma), and women in Mugad either walk to find fuelwood (reducing the time available for other household activities and their participation in productive and social activities), or resort to using agricultural residues which might otherwise have been used to feed dairy animals or incorporated into composts. In addition, both the variety, quantity and high quality of fish from the main tank has been depleted, and fishing supports only 50 instead of the previous 100 families who used to sell fish to Dharwad. Villagers attribute this to pollution from the increasing use of soluble fertilisers, due to the reduced availability of animal dung (because of the lack of fodder and the need to use dung for heating milk), which results in the abundant growth of aquatic weed. Problem analysis by causal diagrams indicated that farmers believe that the use of chemical fertilisers degrades the soil and its water holding capacity (also a finding from project R6825). Farmers also state that rainfall patterns have changed, as have water flows, so that the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon water availability to agriculture has reduced (although it is difficult to state the influence and impact of peri-urban processes on this). However, competition for labour by urban areas is a major factor in the peri-urban interface, and the effects of this strongly impinge upon agricultural activities. The consequence of this decline in the NR base is that the gains made by poor groups under previous projects led by IDS, as outlined above, have been eroded to a significant extent. This erosion of the NR base has reduced capacity of poor villagers to gain their livelihoods from NR, and they have requested that the project address these concerns.

Intended Outputs:

Increased capacity of the communities to achieve sustainable change to their livelihood strategies, through improved access to NRs and alternative livelihood strategies.

Village stakeholders, researchers, target institutions and external interested parties gain new insights from the process of implementing the action plan into:
*factors which facilitate co-operation between different stakeholders.
*solutions to identfied issues which are both effective and sustainable.

Progress and Impact:

Alternative livelihood options for the poor in the six project villages have been widely adopted and resulted in increased communal financial capital leading to changes in livelihood strategies at household level. After learning to analyse markets using a participatory method of market evaluation (MOVE) developed by the project, a significant number of members of the poorest sector (particularly landless women), are targetting their newly-developed income generating activities at specific market niches. Requests to replicate MOVE have been received from two women's groups elsewhere in Karnataka. During 2004, the five-year drought broke and the benefits of soil and water conservation work and other NR management strategies started in previous years were realised, in one case with reinstatement of long abandoned 'rabi' (post-monsoon) cropping. Identification of indicators of change has progressed well and some user (self-help) groups are now beginning to develop and implement their own monitoring systems. Social capital and confidence amongst primary beneficiary groups in approaching target institutions (TIs) directly to resolve their issues having increased significantly. There is thus increased co-operation in pursuing project objectives among village stakeholders, researchers and Tis, but district level involvement continues to be erratic as changes in departmental heads bring different attitudes to bear upon the project. Some state level TIs continue to take a more consistently open attitude, possibly because of their wider exposure to new ideas and approaches to development, and communication of project progress with departments of the State government in Bangalore has been maintained.

Project Conclusions:

At the project final workshop in Bangalore, the State Minister for Urban Affairs called for a forum to examine rural-urban interactions for all districts in the State, and the tertiary level education college which co-hosted the workshop with the project has established chairs in Urban and Rural Administration to teach about and study such interactions. NGOs on the team continue to receive requests to replicate the project's work on alternative livelihood options in non-project villages. Two videos in CD format have been produced, one being a general overview of the project and the other specifically about MOVE.

Publications:

Brook, R.M., Purushothaman, S. and Hunshal, C.S. 2003. Changing frontiers - The peri-urban interface. Hubli-Dharwad, India: Books for Change. 146 + xii pp.



Purushothaman, S., Purohit, S and Ambrose-Oji, B. 2004. The informal collective as a space for participatory planning: The peri-urban interface in Hubli-Dharwad twin city area. In Purkayastha, B and Subramaniam, M, eds, The power of women's informal networks: Lessons in social change from South Asia and West Africa. USA: Lexington Books.



Allen, A. 2003. Environmental planning and management of the peri-urban interface (PUI). Perspectives on an emerging field. Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 15/1, pp135 - 147.



Allen, A. 2003. La interfase periurbana como escenario de cambio y acción hacia la sustentabilidad del desarrollo. Cuadernos del CENDES, dossier entitled ,Más allá de la dicotomía urbano-rural: desarrollo, medio ambiente y pobreza en la interfase periurbana,, edited by Adriana Allen and Miguel Lacabana, Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo (CENDES), Caracas. Vol. 49.



Bradford, A., Brook, R. and Hunshal, C.S. 2003. Wastewater irrigation in Hubli-Dharwad, India: Implications for health and livelihoods. Environment and Urbanization, 15 (2): 157 - 170.



Allen, A. and Purushothaman, S. In Draft. An institutional perspective on the peri-urban interface: Towards collaboration across the urban rural divide. To be submitted to Environment and Planning.



Gregory, P., Hillyer, K. and Ambrose-Oji, B. In Draft. The effects of urbanisation on livelihood diversification strategies of the poor and very poor in peri-urban villages around Hubli-Dharwad. To be submitted to Journal of Rural Studies.



Purushothaman, S and Allen, A. In Draft. Changing institutional perceptions and attitudes to participatory action planning approaches in the peri-urban interface of Hubli-Dharwad, India. To be submitted to Development in Practice.



Thoday, K., Ambrose-Oji, B. In Draft. Starting with political analysis: Understanding and managing change in natural resource management. To be submitted to World Development.

Associated References:

R7867, R7959, R6825