1. Community project to enhance the living standard of farmer families in Mahavilachchiya, Providing the basic requirements to irrigate the farming lands.
With the support of a funding organization, the intended project wishes to provide some selected hard working farmer families of the area with one of the following basic agricultural needs of their choice.
• An Agricultural Well
• A water Pump
So that they will be well off to continue farming as a lucrative means of living.
This project is intended to benefit the sixty selected families in such a way that they will be able to continue cultivation of crops through out the year without any obstacle making their economy sound and hence improving their living standards
The selected farmers on receiving the aids will form a society (a farmer’s guild) and work as a unit under the guidance of the project leader. The society will work according to its constitution to ensure the maximum and effective utilization of the funds to fulfill the intended objectives. Initially depending on the choice of the family they will be made to identify the their choice as to what they are going to use the funds for whether it is the construction of the well or buying the water pump depending on their need. Some farmers already have wells and some lands have canals near by from which they can access water. In that case they will be asked to buy the water pump. If the well is a priority for some family they will in consultation with the project leader decide on the construction of the well. The farmers who undertake to build the well should finish construction of the well within two months after receiving funds. The society will get the services of a construction company under a concessionary rate to build the wells so that they will have uniformity in time line. On completion of the either one of these requirements or both in some cases (This will be decided by the project leader in consultation with the mediatory organization) the respective families should within six month time start cultivating in an area not les than one acre, a crop of their choice approved by the society. And on harvesting each beneficiary family should deposit 500 rupees per month in the society’s sustainability fund. And the cultivation should continue round the year with the rotation of crops to ensure better harvest. Further, with the lapse of the first year the dependent children in all the beneficiary families should start a bank account in one of the banks in the area and an amount not less than 100 rupees should be deposited by the family and every month and at the monthly meeting these books should be checked by the authoritative committee which will consists of the project leader and the president, the secretary of the farmers guild and a representative of the Horizon Lanka e-Farmers Project.
At the end of the first year each of the beneficiary families should have cultivated in not less than one acre in extent, a crop of their choice approved by the guild.
Each of the beneficiary families should at the end of the year have one of the two requirements (the Farming well or the Water pump) or both in some cases.
At the end of the first year each of the dependent children should have started a savings account in some bank of the area with the minimum balance of 1000 rupees.
The project is expected to have improved the living standard of the beneficiary families.
Funds will be provided for each selected family for the water pump and the construction of the farming well as decided by the authoritative committee. In some cases some families might get both of these requirements upon the approval of the committee. After the initial cost, the funds will freeze and the farmer’s guild will maintain a fund called Project Maintenance Fund which will come in to effect after six months of the launch of the project. This is a kind of consolidated fund maintained by the beneficiary farmers with an obligatory monthly contribution of 1000 rupees. Funds from this consolidated fund will be utilized for a members’ only loan scheme for members of the farmers’ guild on an interest rate so decided by the farmers’ guild. Through this project is expected to have accumulated in the consolidated fund a sum of rupees 360,000.This can swell further with the commencement of the small scale loan scheme (suggested in the project) for farming matters or otherwise as decided by the framers’ guild.
This project is designed bearing in mind that the main occupation of the people of Mahavilachchiya is cultivation of crops like paddy, vegetables, chilies and other cereals like peas and ground nuts. However Mahavilachchiya being a village in the dry zone experiences rain during one time of the year only. Hence, the farmers in the area face the problem of not having enough water for their cultivation during the dry season of the year.
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However, it is a fact that the soil of the area is fertile and the crops can be grown through the year and the rotation of crops will bring about an increased yield of crops if the water supply is made constant by some means or the other. Further, if a large farming well can be dug there will be water through out the year. If the water from these wells can be lifted in someway and carried to the land around, each of these farmers can grow constantly one crop or the other in an area of approximately one acre which is more than sufficient to make the living standard of these families sound and economically sustainable.
