Smallholders are important players in food production. In developing countries like India, agricultural smallholder production is an important driver of the economy. However, agriculture faces multiple challenges, such as low productivity, soil quality, lack of agricultural and business skills, lack of access to finance, climate change, food insecurity, and unequal bargaining power which often make these small farmers more vulnerable and insecure.

Considering the above scenario, Caritas India collaborated with NABARD West Bengal Region to initiate a comprehensive tribal development program call WADI through its intermediary partner organisation Anugyalaya in the year 2017 for a period of six years in the Gorubathan block of Kalimpong district of West Bengal. The program is spread across three-gram panchayats of the block with 500 tribal households from 15 villages to enhance the income and employment potential through land-based alternate livelihood options.

The objective of the WADI program is to increase the income and employment potential of the participating farming households of the area through the establishment of profitable orchards in at least 1 acre of cultivable fallow land within a period of six years through a combination of high-value fruit crops i.e., Kiwi, Mandarin Orange, and Guava. The other important aspect of the project is to supplement and complement agriculture and allied activities to ensure the income of the tribal farm families during the interim period till the orchard is established within 3-4 years.

To make it more effective and sustainable, Caritas India sensitizes these smallholders to form community institutions like the WADI committee, Village Planning Committee (VPC), and women SHGs in various stages to make them custodians of all decision-making processes gradually from input arrangement to business generation for the WADI program at the local level.

A project review meeting and field visit was undertaken by Caritas India technical team from August 23-26, 2022 to assess the progress and provide necessary technical support to the team. The project has created significant impacts on the smallholders of the locality. This has effectively motivated the farmers from the non-WADI program areas to explore possibilities of developing such high-value orchard through fruit crops like Kiwi. In the forthcoming period, business development and marketing will be the major concern through support of NABARD, CARITAS INDIA and other apex agencies based in the district and state.

“This is the first fruit of my orchard, and I am so glad to see the production. Apart from this, now I have developed my own nursery and sold the Kiwi saplings to farmers in other areas. This has provided me with an opportunity to develop my skill and become a small agri-entrepreneur in future,” said Subhash Tamang during the visit.

The WADI project has supported the tribal households to develop kiwi, guava, and orange orchards in an approximate area of 70-80 decimals of land. Kiwi and guava have already started fruiting and oranges will be matured by the end of six years. The households have undertaken to intercrop with seasonal vegetable crops which have supported them with an average income of Rs.30000 – Rs.40000 per season/beneficiary. The expected income from the most profitable crop Kiwi will be around Rs.1 lakh – 1.5lakh/per smallholder during Nov-Dec 2022.

Under the technical guidance of  Caritas India, the village planning committee (VPC) is further consolidated into WADI clusters and the representatives from these clusters will form a centralized WADI committee which will be further converted into a Farmer Producer Company (FPC) in the forthcoming period.