AJKA feels that, women farmers play an important role in the agriculture sector and development of rural economy. And the women empowerment is impossible without participation of women in economic development. So AJKA provide training, guidance & financial linkages to the women farmers towards several sustainable livelihood activities. In this aspects 1252 no’s of women farmers are earning their livelihood by doing vegetables farming, mushroom cultivation, dairy farming etc. Further AJKA continues to thrive by forming and growing women based FPO “SANKALPA “with the support of NABARD which aims at enhancing rural women farmers’ sustainable livelihood through agriculture, horticulture and allied activities .
The basic principle of sustainable integrated farming is to enhance the ecological diversity by choosing the appropriate cropping methodology with mixed cropping, crop rotation, crop combination and inter cropping so that there is less competition for water, nutrition and space,
adopting eco friendly agricultural practices. By promoting integrated farming among the rural farmers in Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district AJKA abled to create enormous scope for employment and business opportunities especially for the women farmers for selling seeds, seedling, vermin compost, organic manures, milk, fish, goat etc. 30 no’s of rural farmers have been promoted by AJKA to boost their sustainable livelihood through integrated farming
The climate smart agriculture farming encompasses farming practices that sustainably increase productivity , enhance resolvence/adaptation ,reduce green house gases and help farmer’s livelihood development.AJKA encourages the adoption of technology, organic method, improved verities seeds and higher demanding agri-produce among the farmers.many farmers are now adopting this climate smart agriculture farming and been able to increase their earning from agriculture.
AJKA has been focusing on natural resource management plan sand strategies for sustainable agricultural production and resource conservation and serve as knowledge repository in the field of natural resource management .In this context AJKA’s priority areas are as follows .
Three batches of training were organised on development of khus khus advance processing and marketing in three different venues as per the specially designed training schedules. During the training period the historical background, uses and utilisation of the vetiver was briefly discussed. The master trainers trained the participants how to prepare different handicraft items by the use of vetiver. Knowledge on improved cultivation practices of vetiver was pursed to the trainees. Practical field visit to the wild vetiver plantation spread at the surrounding area of Mahanadi reservoir was conducted during training period so that the trainees would able to know how the roots of vetiver are digging out, how it is being prepared packaged and marketed. The trainees also practically prepared the different handicraft items. Exposure visit was organised to observe and study about vetiver oil extraction unit. During the visit the trainees came to know about the success story of entrepreneur Mr.Dillip Kumar Patel from Mundrajore.
It has been observed that today most of the people are following extra ordinary food habits which have been the reason of various diseases and malnutrition issues. AJKA takes this issue seriously and aware people towards consuming nutritional foods like quality millets, fruits, green and fresh vegetables, milks etc. In context of food habits AJKA always has been promoting the practice of consuming millets as part of the daily diet because millets contains very rich protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. Further AJKA promotes the farming of these types of millets crops. As an initiative we market the farmer’s surplus millets through our FPO Sankalpa. AJKA has mobilised 330 farmers towards millet crops farming in the Lakhanpur block and Kirmira block of Jharsuguda district.
Tailoring & stitching
The training on tailoring and stitching is about learning to stitch a single garment like SAREE, BLOUSE, SALWAR, KAMEEZ, SKIRT and TOP etc. In this training programme the rural women learns about measurements of a specific garment and the way to measure a person for the same guidance on instruction and calculations for drafting of the pattern on the paper and then fabric and the method to cut and stitch the fabric without lining and with lining. Such two training programmes were organised by AJKA during COVID-19 epidemic period following the COVID- guideline properly to strengthen the sustainable livelihood of the rural women community.
Training on weaving skill development
The weaving skill up gradation training was imparted by AJKA to the rural weavers for promoting the livelihood of the Artisans. The training syllabus was included weaving, designing, dyeing and processing activities. Apart from this the marketing skill was also up graded with the guidance of the marketing experts
For smooth management and function of SHGs the members require some basic skill. With the objective to boost skill of SHG management among the members our organisation AJKA organised Grass Level Training programme on SHG management and through this programme 60 no’s SHG members got trained.
1-Training on pottery Making.
2-Training on Hand-crafted idols making.
3-Training on Carpentry.
4-Training on Homemade Snacks.
5-Training on Mushroom cultivation
AJKA believes that ‘Every child is precious’ and ‘Safe childhood is their birthright’. So AJKA has been educating the 250 no’s of children about their rights by visiting schools and organising 10 no’s of awareness programme in the Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district. Apart from this AJKA has identified that the underprivileged girl students, particularly from SC and ST communities, in the rural areas lacks proper menstrual hygiene.
The volunteers of AJKA visited door to door in the Gram Panchayats and sensitized the people about the COVID-19 virus, the disease it causes and how it spreads. We made them aware on the best way to prevent the disease and to maintain social distance, personal hygiene and use of mask. The people were also sensitised to avoid touching their face, eyes and nose with unwashed hands. We got support from some people in this campaign and provided dry foods, masks, senitizer etc for the venerable community.