Objectives of the Central India Initiative

Tribals remain the most disadvantaged section of our society, in terms of poverty, illiteracy and lack of access to social and technical services. Most tribals are first or second generation farmers, primarily cultivating rainfed crops. Agriculture practices are two decades or more behind time, and adoption of modern agricultural practices remains sporadic even when supply constraints are removed. While many of the issues involved are shared by poor families, experience has shown that tribal and non tribal communities have essentially different sets of capabilities that need to be specially addressed.

It has also been seen that a variety of tenets that guide interveners in their choice of programmes and methodologies are not always apriori rooted in scientific analyses. A focussed effort by a team of experienced development professionals to unravel these issues can generate an active debate. It would form an essential part of the quest to bring forward alternative processes for effecting large-scale development of the resource rich but poor central India region. Sadguru Foundation's activities in the tribal areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as well as PRADAN's Irrigated Agriculture schemes in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa have essentially been based on this idea. It is in this backdrop that IWMI-Tata, Sadguru Foundation and PRADAN propose to play a convening and synthesising role, on behalf of several existing and potential players in this region, to analyse the overall experience of promoting irrigated agriculture to generate livelihoods for the poor.

The Primary Objectives of this exercise would be to:

• Understand what stimulates and what inhibits demand from tribal groups and individuals to access modern technologies related to irrigated agriculture as a means of livelihood.
• Arrive at programmatic propositions and policy suggestions based on research.
• Identify areas for further research.