Oracle Renews Grant to Fund CSEI’s Restoration Efforts
Oracle’s financial support was critical in setting up baselines and monitoring and evaluation systems at our field sites.
To co-design interventions for restoration of degraded lands that is socially and ecologically responsible is a long-term process. The grant from Oracle has been instrumental to help ATREE-CSEI’s Farms and Forest team to get the ball rolling on understanding the extent and drivers of degradation and people’s aspirations in the district of Raichur in Karnataka. With our local partners, Prarambha, we are focusing on devising demand-based and people-centric pathways to restoration.
Oracle has been a financial partner for CSEI-ATREE since the centre was set up in 2019. In the 2022–2023 financial year, Oracle supported us with a 75 lakh grant for our restoration efforts. Over a span of three months, this grant supported restoration work in the lantana-infested forests of the Nilgiris and Raichur’s degraded agricultural lands.
Having successfully completed Phase 1, we are glad that Oracle decided to continue funding Phase 2 of our restoration work. This support was critical in setting up baselines and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems at our field sites.
Phase 2 of the project spans five months and will focus on implementation of restoration on degraded agricultural lands in the rainfed landscapes of the district. We have a number of activities planned, ranging from engagements with local communities to co-designing best possible interventions, exploring institutional models that can facilitate rural livelihood diversification projects to identifying sources for native varieties of plants, shrubs and trees that are essential for restoration of degraded landscapes and for improving people’s livelihoods.
Our work over the past few months under Phase 1 led to a number of important learnings that will serve as an important foundation for our future work in the region.
Aspiration Study
One of the outcomes of this first phase was an aspirations study assessment to ensure that the restoration interventions recommended are demand-based and address end-user needs.
We reviewed literature and designed a one-of-a-kind aspirations framework to be implemented in Raichur. We also identified institutions and agencies to implement the aspirations study in the district. In addition, we also designed cue cards to conduct the aspirations study with the households. Furthermore, we conducted a training with the enumerators for collecting data from the households in Raichur district and kick-started the process for data collection from 200 households.
In the linked blog post, we have detailed our methods and summarise some of the early trends that have emerged, such as the aspiration for plural livelihoods and changes in perception towards migration to cities.
Baseline Study
Another expected outcome was the scientific and systematic long-term M&E protocol for assessing restoration at scale for impact.
We conducted an extensive baseline study in the area where we plan the interventions using the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework as a sampling protocol to identify and geotag the sampling sites. From the sampling sites, we collected data on three variables — (a) socio-economic (b) soil biodiversity and © hydrology. In this phase, we hope to co-create the interventions along with the people living on degraded lands.
To do this, we will share the results of the baseline assessments with the community, fill data gaps and assess local demand for potential interventions on degraded lands.
We hope to co-design a multi-layered intervention after comparing sustainable intervention parameters like the impact on farmer income, financial viability, transition finance, soil health, hydrology and biodiversity.
Institutional structures which form the foundation of interventions are critical pillars to success.
We look to build these structures by
- Analysing existing governance structures of successful farmer collectives
- Identifying gaps in the existing institutional models around specific interventions
- Understanding challenges of organisations working to address farmer pain-points
Plot-level lantana restoration
Systematic and scientific removal and monitoring of long-term lantana invaded plots was another integral part of Phase 1 activities.
We have covered all eight hectares of lantana-infested pilot sites and the systematic and scientific removal of lantana is complete. We supported the development of an innovative mechanical tool designed and developed to optimise lantana removal. The tool was donated to Vinayaka enterprise–a community-run organisation working for removal and restoration of lantana-invaded landscapes. This tool speeds up the removal process across landscapes and adds to the mechanical options available for lantana removal.
Soil Health
We also worked on a potential typology of degraded soils, testing protocols and potential interventions towards restoration of soils.
In December, Soil Vasu will conduct a practical session with farmers in the region on rebuilding soil health visually and with locally available resources. This course will cater to farming families, students, field personnel and extension staff to help them gain better understanding of the importance of soil quality in achieving sustainable agriculture goals.
Read | From Soil Analysis to Spotting Insects in the Dark
In phase 2 of this project, we aim to integrate our learnings from the aspiration study, soil and water tests and journey mapping exercise to identify the most efficient way to make farmers champions of their soil.
If you are interested in running a soil workshop in your community, reach out to sandeep.hanchanale@atree.org.
