“I am experiencing a new way of life through my involvement in the WADI programme”, says Subhas Tamang. Subhas is one of the farmers under WADI project from Nim Gumbagaon village in Kalimpong district of West Bengal.

In October, Caritas India in collaboration with NABARD has initiated WADI under their Tribal Development Fund (TDF) for 15 villages under 3 Gram Panchayats of Kalimpong Block-III of Kalimpong district of West Bengal which is implemented by Anugyalaya DDSSS partner in Darjeeling.

Tribal farmers in the region were cultivating large cardamom and ginger in a large scale in the area, but they were facing economic challenges due to the high incidence of pest, diseases and climate uncertainties which also affects their resilience.

After the Wadi project, farmers started cultivating Kiwi as a potential replacement which helps them in improving their economic condition. Out of 500 targeted families in the project, 110 families of 6 villages have been covered under Kiwi plantation with Alison and Hayward varieties.

The plantation material has been procured from Diran Kiwi Farm, Arunachal Pradesh as recommended by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Kalimpong.

Farmers were also suggested to cultivate other two horticultural crops, improved ‘Allahabad safeda variety of Guava’ in the lower region for 200 families and ‘Mandarin orange of Khasi’ variety for other 200 families which has equal potential to add income for the WADI farmers in a span of 4-5 years. The plantation of these crops has been completed by July first week with the active involvement of Village Planning Committee (VPCs) in these 15 villages.

To ensure income of WADI farmers for the first few tears of the project, intercropping of vegetables with improved varieties of round chilli has been promoted for 200 families in April this year. Another round of intercropping with rabi vegetables of broccoli, carrot, peas, tomato, french beans would be undertaken in the month of November.

50 participating WADI farmers have been trained on the aspect of bee cultivation and linkage formed with KVIB for support in setting up beekeeping units. These establishments are important from the point of view of raising income by farmers as well to ensure adequate pollination for the horticulture crops planted.

All the participating families of the project have done levelling and terracing of the land as a measure for soil conservation and land preparation for the plantation. Plantation with local varieties of border crops is due in 200 acres of land with 200 farmers for August to ensure the protection of crops against calamities. 3 units of 2000-litre PVC tank has been established in 3 villages for the distribution for water supply system to 73 beneficiary households.

The key objective of this project is to improve the quality of life of 500 tribal households by enhancing their income and employment potential through land-based alternate livelihood options i.e.  high value horticulture development and by supporting social development of participating families including women’s empowerment process and to create a suitable replicable model in the region for scaling up in future.

The project has created a very strong multi-stakeholder platform at block and district level to ensure a regular flow of information regarding dissemination of best practices, areas of improvement, linkage and networking issues, the role of village Planning Committee and farmers organizations in relation to marketing strategies etc at this stage. A Technical Committee has also been constituted involving KVK, experts from Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Dept. of Horticulture/Agriculture at block and district level to review the progress of work in each quarter along with NABARD representatives and Caritas India.