Central Himalayan Livestock Initiative
Himmotthan Society, a nodal organisation of the Tata Trusts, operationalised the Central Himalayan Livestock initiative (CHLI) to enhance the livelihoods of rural communities through livestock and micro-finance focused programmes.
The programme started in 2015 to address gaps in the livestock sector primarily in terms of sustainability in the ecologically fragile Himalayan region. Acute fodder shortage, inferior quality of livestock breeds, traditional feeding practices, poor animal health and management services, and unorganised marketing often leave the livestock-based livelihoods at mere subsistence levels in the region. The Trusts’ initiative aims to strengthen the livestock value chain by enhancing supply of quality feed and fodder, improving genetic potential of livestock, improving management practices, and strengthening community-based institutions and collective milk marketing.
The objective is to enhance the quality of life of over 60,000 households through self-sustained community institutions and sustainable, resilient livelihood interventions through an integrated programme.
The primary beneficiaries of the CHLI initiative are women.
Women are happy about the ease of work and the reduction in drudgery, especially in fodder collection. Earlier, they had to collect fodder from forests which were far away and now with fodder cultivation at homestead lands, on buds, and the mixed model of growing long duration multi-cut grasses, this chore has been simplified. Women have been able to save up to 2.5 hours daily! They also don’t need to carry heavy loads and have been able to use the time saved with their families. This has resulted in higher and better attendance for children at school, too.
On the economic front, CHLI has established micro-dairies based on the local terrain. One of the dairy products made by women in Uttarakhand is a thickened milk product called khoa. However, there was a lack of adequate market linkages to sell khoa, resulting in women not being able to sell the product. The CHLI team formed a women-led cooperative called the Shyama Devi Self Reliant Cooperative (SRC). The members were trained in standard operating procedures for the preparation of khoa and taught how to prepare popular local sweets such as balmithai and chocolate barfi. They were also trained in book-keeping and inventory management so they can manage the business efficiently.
Himmotthan Society further enhances the income of these women by helping SRC sell other products like local pulses with the help of Trishuli Producer Company, an apex-level community institution, formed and promoted by Himmotthan.
Currently, the second phase of the programme is focussed on strengthening the livestock value chains in existing village clusters and scaling up successful models in surrounding new geographies to increase outreach, volumes, productivity, market share and competitiveness anchored by strong community institutions. In the value chain approach from production to consumption, every aspect of the entire value chain has been addressed.
Apart from this, approximately Rs10 million has been funded by the central government’s rural employment scheme (MNREGA) for planting fodder, renovating cattle sheds and constructing sheds for goats and poultry.
Area of Operation: Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
