SLD

FISHERR (Financial Initiative for Sustainable Environment Resource Regeneration) Revolving fund:

From the PRA information, it was learnt that the exploitation of money lenders/merchants are very much prevalent in all our target villages. Almost all the poor fishermen are found to be under the bondage of merchants and money lenders. More than 75% of their income goes towards paying their interest only. On top of it the fishers cannot fix the prices for their catches. The FISHERR concept was introduced to relieve them from these clutches of moneylenders/merchants and organise them into a cooperative to have a direct market linkage without sacrificing the role of the moneylenders/merchants.

The fishermen, who are under debt with merchants will join together, form a group and will make a debt recovery and relieved from the bondage with the help of the FISHERR Revolving fund. They themselves will fix up the prices for their catches and do direct marketing without merchants’ interventions and this will help them get permanent relief from debt, bondage and also will enhance their income.

Sea Weed culture:

NISHA Cyclone attacked Rameswaram Island on 22 nd November till 27 th November 2008. It has devastated the huts, boats, nets and sea weed culture rafts. Those involved in sea weed culture, lost all their 652 rafts, 17 vallams (country boats – about 90 families) completely damaged, more than 250 mechanized country boats engines were totally spoiled, more than 1500 families lost their fishing gears and more than 10 shore nets have been washed away. Since the Government’s assistance towards rehabilitation is found to be lacking, PAD decided along with the temporary VDCs to initiate the raft building for those who are involved in the sea weed culture. So far 25 persons (from 2 LGs) were given financial assistance of Rs. 6000 each to restore their livelihood (Sea weed culture) to each beneficiary to purchase essential materials like bamboo, rope, seeds for rebuilding 10 rafts each and re – establishing the seaweed culture. From the second harvest only they would get profit as for the second time, they need to spend money for rope alone. That they expect about Rs. 4000 to Rs. 4500 which they get once in 45 days.

Direct Marketing through Share Auto:

Since almost all our working villages are remote and distant from the towns, direct marketing is not much possible and therefore the exploitation of the merchants takes place and due to their unfair price fixation for their fish catch, the people’s income become meagre. In order to promote direct marketing, share auto was provided to the people of one village. 20 groups comprising 391 members were promoted to do direct marketing using that share auto. They utilize the same vehicle for other surrounding villages. The income they receive has been saved in banks and after some period of time, the income will be divided among the people.

Barefoot veterinarian culture:

Livelihood groups have been facilitated to develop the livestock in their villages. But the veterinary services are not much available and accessible in almost all our working villages and even if they approach the govt. veterinary services, they find it time and money consuming, since they need to travel distances to avail the services. In order to promote the veterinary services, barefoot vets from the community were developed by the Veterinary doctor working in PAD. So far, 44 members have been trained and are performing as the doctors of their village and their surrounding village.

Alternative Livelihoods:

PALMYRA FISHERR Revolving fund:

Apart from Fishing, palmyra tapping is another major occupation found to be prevailing along the Gulf of Mannar. Like fishing, palmyra tapping is also seasonal and they were also found under the clutches of money lenders. Inorder to relieve them from the money lenders, they were also provided PALMYRA FISHERR financial assistance.

Community farming:

Some of the villages along Gulf of Mannar are agricultural villages. But the agricultural practices have got almost vanished from these villages. So in one of the agricultural village in Keelakkarai area, in which the present generation were completely new to agriculture, the agricultural practices are rejuvenated. So the land which had been farmed but barren at present, was promoted to do community farming. 36 members from the same village were doing farming in 10. 5 acres. The highlight is, they are doing it as Organic farming.

They have sown ground nuts in majority of the area and also have cultivated vegetable plants and trees like Drumstick, tomato, Ladies finger, beans, kidney beans, moringa, green vegetables, Pumpkin, Brinjal, Mango, Tamarind, black gram, Casuarina, Gooseberry, Guava, Sapota, Black current etc.

Crab and lobster fattening culture:

Crab and lobster fattening is another alternative livelihood programme with less investment and better profit yielding process to the people. It is considered to be an appropriate programme for our target people since majority of them are coastal people and are dependent on sea. The crabs and lobsters at the molting stage, which will be considered as waste during the catch can be cultured in few days and with proper feeding practice and maintenance, they can be cultured / fattened nicely and can be sold for high cost. With this as the core, they were taught various methods of culture and they were let to choose the appropriate method for them. The method they chose is cage method.

Animal husbandry:

Animal husbandry has been promoted in our area in order to provide the people with an additional asset, and also to supplement their income and to assist them during emergency times - which will help them to get rid of the influence of the merchants or money lenders - thereby finally resulting in the increase of livestock in their villages. Through this programme, the need for both the Alternative Livelihood programme and the Livestock promotion is met. Especially for women, those who donot prefer to come out and work, due to family ties and village, this programme has been very useful. With minimum efforts and investments, they are able to earn and also increase the value of their assets.

Boat Engine repair:

This programme is strongly believed to provide them with an additional earning opportunity and at the same time will meet out the needs of the coastal people (since the boat engine repair services are not available in their villages and are only in nearby districts – which was time and money consuming). So far 20 men were trained in the boat engine repair and they were doing these services.

Alternative livelihoods

Diversifying the existing means of income, PAD provides short term skill trainings for youth (so far 200 participants) in crab and lobster fattening, oyster development, fish pickling and preserving and computer training (5 different level).

Alternate employment and training:

The training inputs offered to barefoot vets (44) and engine repairers (40) demonstrated the possibilities of new, alternate entrepreneurial initiatives in this region and successfully addressed the under-employment situation through supplementary income activity for fisher folk and Palmyrah tappers. The presence of these newly trained entrepreneurs within the community has also contributed to a demystification of these “technical” inputs usually provided by men and encouraged the community to rely on local resource persons, irrespective of sex, to successfully solve their problems: Due to barefoot vets mortality rate of animals in serviced areas has decreased from 30% to 5%, and there has been control of outbreaks of common diseases.

Boat engine repairers also proved their utility by attending to urgent repairs in the village and at sea. Their incomes are inadequate as yet, and need to be still supplemented by regular work, i.e. fishing.