Livelihood

An average of three fourths of the population of the Northeast, depend on Agriculture and other allied activities as their principal means of occupation. Moreover, the share of the agricultural sector in the generation of state incomes varies between 50 to 55 percent. However, the expected outreach and adoption of improved techniques have been very low among agrarian communities in the region. There are challenges in terms of availability of quality inputs, irrigation facilities and protective scientific measures against diseases and pests; this results in slow growth in terms of production and productivity. Lack of awareness and access to services combined with poor market linkage has led to very low incomes from the primary source of occupation. The major objective of this area of intervention is to enable communities in improving their household incomes and develop a sense of entrepreneurship by improving access and diversifying avenues of livelihoods by intervening in the areas of agriculture, horticulture, livestock, fishery and handloom. The Livelihoods program of CML is the largest program of the organization in terms of scale of outreach as well as size of funding. The program formally came into existence in June 2015 with the rolling out of its first direct implementation project encompassing areas of Agriculture, Horticulture, Fishery and Weaving.

Program Objectives

  1. SOCIO ECONOMIC UPLIFTMENT – The program is committed to work towards improving the overall quality of life of rural communities through holistic interventions primarily based on Livelihoods.
  2. PROMOTION OF IMPROVED PRACTICES – It focuses on dissemination of scientific knowledge of Practices for Livelihood Intervention, infusion of improved, cost effective, sustainable and scalable models in Agriculture, Horticulture, Livestock, Fishery and Handloom for increased production and productivity as well as entrepreneurship promotion for generation of business among farmers.
  3. INCREASED INCOME LEVELS
- With the larger vision of developing ‘Lakhpati Kisans’ in the Northeast, the interventions are designed with the broader objective of increasing the average additional annual income of the farmers by one lakh rupees.
  4. SUSTAINABILITY & SCALABILITY – The prime focus of all the livelihood interventions follows the fundamental principle of being physically and economically sustainable. All the interventions go through a strict scrutiny of pilot, proof of concept to scalability and replication for wider outreach.

CURRENT OPERATIONS

OUTREACH – 3 States| 21 Districts | 47 Blocks |458 villages | 32385 Beneficiaries