CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD

Problems of Small Farmers

Village Cluster Development: An Approach to support the Poorest

India hosts over 20% of the world's poor. Poverty is

more serious in rural India where agriculture is the

major source of livelihood. As over 85% of the rural

families are either small holders or landless and

deprived of fertile soils, assured source of irrigation,

better quality livestock, poor access to technologies,

critical inputs and market outlets, over 40-50% of the

families face the challenge of unemployment, food

insecurity and loss of biodiversity.

To address the problems of gainful self-employment and sustainable livelihood, BAIF has been

promoting dairy husbandry, water resources development, agri-horti-forestry, eco-friendly agriculture and

women empowerment. However, with poor access to resources, small farmers are unable to generate

adequate income from any single activity. Therefore, it is necessary to promote a multidisciplinary

development programme which can provide a wider option to select various activities of their choice, to

ensure sustainable livelihood. Simultaneously, it is also essential to address their problems of health,

illiteracy and development of local infrastructure for community mobilisation and to establish backward and

forward linkages.

To ensure participation of the poor in socio-economic development, BAIF has evolved a unique Village

Cluster Development Approach. A Cluster is a contiguous group of 12 to 15 Villages comprising of 5000 to

6000 families living below the poverty line who are motivated to participate in holistic development through

introduction of multidisciplinary interventions for

income generation and for improving the quality

of life. Formation of local People's Organisations

(POs) is encouraged for planning and

management of various development activities.

To facilitate this process, the social mobilisers

interact with the local community without any

pre-conceived plan and bring them together to

identify the socio-economic problems. The

community is then encouraged to interact closely

and organise the participant families into

Programme Impact

=

=

=

=

=

The programme includes the poorest of the poor

for improving their livelihood and quality of life.

The specific impacts are:

Motivation of villagers to work in harmony to

make efficient use of their resources for socio-

economic development.

Formation of People's Orgaisations with

maximum participation of women for

self-development and governance.

Enhanced capabilities for increasing agricultural

production and income.

Empowerment of women-headed families and small

farmers through improved animal husbandry

practices and off-farm employment.

Value chain improvement through post-production

processing and marketing facilities for agri and dairy

producers, while generating employment for the

landless.

BAIF DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FOUNDATIONDr. Manibhai Desai Nagar, Warje, Pune 411 058, India

Tel.: +91 20 25231661 Fax: +91 20 25231662

E-mail: enquiry@baif.org.in Website: www.baif.org.in

Committed to SustainableDevelopment in Rural India

Wider Replicability:

The programme requiring over Rs.15,000-25,000 per BPL family

spread over five years, can be funded through various on-going

Government schemes partly by grant and partly by credit. With

the support from the Ministry of Rural Development,

Government of India, State Governments and Corporate

Houses, such Cluster Development Programmes have already

been initiated in many states. There is good scope for

participation of local Civil Society Organisations and People's

Organisations to take active part in implementing this unique

programme in remote and drought prone areas, particularly for

SC, ST and women-headed families throughout the country.

BAIF Fact Sheet 11/2011

different socio-economic

groups based on their

income and access to

various resources. These

Self Help Groups (SHGs)

of men and women who

are homogeneous in their

socio-economic status,

m e e t r e g u l a r l y t o

identify the resources

and opportunities for

individual members to

earn their livelihood. In

this process, while the

marginal ly poor get

smaller support through 1 or 2 development interventions, the poorest families having limited resources,

are given an opportunity to participate in several activities to come out of poverty. Thus, the poor have

scope to earn their income from multiple sources and the chances of failure are reduced. This approach

ensures efficiency and transparency while promoting harmony among the members of different socio-

economic categories.

Inclusion of the landless in the programme also poses a challenge of finding suitable off-farm

production and service activities. Some of the important off-farm activities are pottery, smithy, carpentry,

textile and services such as automobile hire and repairs, electrical wiring and repairs, masonry, production

of pre-casted materials for civil construction, consumer stores, etc. As the off-farm activities have serious

limitations due to poor infrastructure

for input supply, skills and marketing,

preference may be g iven to

agribusiness and related services.

Support is provided for leadership

development, community health,

l i t e r a c y, m i c r o - f i n a n c e a n d

development of micro-enterprises.

SHGs of women are encouraged to

identify specif ic sociocultural

problems apart from food security,

which are obstacles in women

empowerment and improvement in

the quality of life.

Expected Outputs

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=

=·

=

Livelihood

Community Health

Women Empowerment

Access to Micro-finance, Banking and Critical Inputs

Access to Technology, Information, Markets

Agro-Service Centres

Increase in Productivity of Natural Resources

Post-Production Facilities and Development of Value

Chain

Employment Opportunities through Micro-Enterprises

Safe Drinking Water Sources

Drainage and Sanitation Facilities

Primary Health Care

Development of Healthy Habits

Hardship Reduction

Functional Literacy

High Social Values

Vibrant POs

Social Justice and Gender Equity

Good Governance – Active Participation in PRIs

Genesis of Cluster Development Approach

The Cluster Development Approach was evolved while implementing a multidisciplinary project over 8

years (1996-2004) covering 33,000 poor families spread over 217 villages in 11 village clusters of Uttar

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The project aimed at ensuring sustainable

livelihood and improving the status of women and community health through development of people's

organisations at the grassroot level. Over 120 types of micro-enterprises were developed to empower

the landless. Critical inputs were provided to improve livestock and agricultural productivity. This

unique approach enabled over 85% of the participant families to come out of poverty. The crop yield

increased by 60-80% while the overall income increased by 200-300%. With assured supply of clean

drinking water throughout the year, there has been significant improvement in community health and

empowerment of women.

Cluster Development Approach

Cattle Development

WomenEmpowerment

ImprovedAgriculture

WatershedMeasures

Horticulture

Cluster office