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Research & Development Programmes

Ecological and Economic Research Network

As reported in our earlier annual report VIKSAT is one of the partners of Ecological and Economic Research Network (EERN) supported by The Ford Foundation through CES, IISc, Bangalore.

The programme included short and long term research and monitoring through multi-location coordinated research programmes to generate information on ecological, economic and other relevant institutional aspects of participatory forestry. The broad goals of EERN include development of methodology for monitoring and evaluation of JFM, assessment of the performance and impact of the JFM and economic analysis of different forest management strategies. VIKSAT has carried out this programme in 24 villages of Baria, Rajpipala and Sabarkantha forest divisions

Augmenting Groundwater Resources by Artificial Recharge

A collaborative research project entitled “Augmenting Groundwater Resources through Artificial Recharge (AGRAR) was taken up with the British Geological Survey, UK which was funded by DFID, UK. The project aimed at studying the ground water movement and predicting the efficacy of different structures in ground water recharge. The research studies were focussed on 3 check dams and 2 ponds located in five villages of Satlasana taluka viz. Bhanavas, Mumanvas, Nana Kothasana, Nedardi and Samrapur. Under the project a conceptual groundwater model, quantifying water balance at various scales studying the livelihood impact was developed. In order to generate enough information for this purpose, data were also collected from 71 observation wells and analysed in conjunction with the weather data from a weather station established by VIKSAT. The project was completed in July, 2005.

Coping with Droughts

Almost three quarters of Gujarat falls under arid or semi arid climatic zone and suffers from drought and recurrent water scarcity. VIKSAT has a long term connections with the local communities in Satlasana taluka of Mehsana district, Bhiloda taluka of Sabarkantha district and Bhuj taluka in Kachchh district.

With the growing realization on developing adaptive strategies and coping mechanisms for droughts and floods under the changing social, economic and political environments in South Asia, a collaborative research was taken up by five partners from Asia.  The key objective was to study and document the adaptive strategies and coping mechanism adopted by rural people during drought and floods. The study was carried out for one year from April 2003 to March 2004. The synthesis document ‘Adaptive Capacity and Livelihood Resilience’ was prepared and published. It contained the purpose and methodology of the research study, meaning of adaptive capacities, conceptual framework and constraints in conventional approaches. It also gave detailed case studies on drought and floods in Asian countries, specifically in India and Nepal.

Life story

Dahiben Velsi (46 years) of Mota Vandora Gam, 15 km. from Bhuj was interviewed to know the drudgery she experienced during drought situations. She is a Pramukh of Mahila Mandal under Swa-Shakti Project. Her husband expired in 1999, since then she is looking after 8 members of her family.  She has three sons and grandchildren at home.

Dahiben is experiencing drought from the age of 10 years. Ever since, she has been contributing her best for the upliftment of her family.  She says, during her 46 years of life, only the initial ten years have passed peacefully. In the remaining 36 years she has struggled with difficulties under drought conditions. During drought (before 35 years), the only livelihood available to them was drought relief activities from Government. She has worked for a minimal daily wage of about 25 to 30 rupees maximum during 1968!   The drought relief programmes were the only source of inspiration for their survival. During drought she used to get from Government drought relief programmes, 1 kg Makai Lot (powder) per person for 8 days consumption. She had to buy Wheat and Bajra for 50 paise. There was heavy shortage of grains. They were provided black Bajra, which they were using for making rotis. These rotis should be consumed immediately; otherwise they would become unpalatable. The rotis were also difficult to break. 

Describing about the availability of water, she says, even during the early drought conditions (in 1970s) they used to get water from the wells. They felt difficulties for water only after the introduction of new machines such as submersible pumps (in 1990s). Regarding fodder she says, she was not keeping cattle, but in their village there were about 100 to 300 numbers of cattle during that time. People used to collectively migrate to other places along with their cattle, leaving only minimum of 25-30 cattle in the village. 

Discussing about her life story, she told that she started doing labour work along with her father from the age of 10 years. In 1996 when Kachchh was facing drought, she used to work on Jira and Khavda road and for that she earned 25-50 rupees. During that time, there were 8 members in their house and at the end of a week they were earning only Rs. 100/- . At that time they faced lots of difficulties for getting food at home. In meals, they were given half of a Bajra Rotla with a glass of water with which they had to be satisfied. Since half Bajra rotla was quite insufficient for them, they depended on the outer skin of a tree called KED and used to eat the inner portion of that with Bajra for satisfying their hunger. During good and favourable seasons they collected groundnut and mixed with jaggery to preserve for using during the lean days as curry. She said, in olden days people had freedom to go to Pakistan during drought for labour work.  Many of their neighbours had gone to Pakistan for labour work. The nuts of Khijora tree were preserved as a source of food.  She has lived all her life from the age of 10 years with the soil of Kachchh and she reiterates that drought is not at all a new experience for them. During all those difficult drought days, the government drought relief programmes were the only hope and source of income. As she belonged to Vankar community, she used to do Vanar work but she was not having the required tools for her work in the past. Dahiben says that due to drought she and her family members were deprived of education because they needed to work hard to satisfy their basic needs, which was food. Thus, food became an important priority in comparison to education for them.