EED, Germany and AFPRO have been working together for rural development in the Northeast for the more than two-and-a-half decades in four of the states. The Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme is the latest in the series of programmes designed towards this end. Working with NGO partners in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, the partnership reaches out to tribal and deprived communities living in interior villages of the region.

The focus of activities been natural resource based development for enhancing water availability, food security and livelihoods in the region. Hence AFPRO has been providing socio-technical support for drinking water and sanitation, water conservation, agriculture, horticulture, small-scale livestock, fisheries, and the strengthening of village institutions. The programme seeks to attain its goals through a participatory and sustainable approach. Income generation activities and formation of Self-Help Groups are also being taken up for providing employment opportunities and livelihood options.

Many innovative technologies and approaches have been adopted for achieving the project goal. Among those implemented for provision of drinking water and sanitation facilities are gravity flow and rainwater harvesting systems, horizontal roughing cum slow sand filters for water purification, and low cost bamboo leach pit latrines. Plantations of various fruits and spices (pineapple, banana, orange, ginger, etc), and other useful plants like Assam fan palm (toco patta) and betel palm or Areca catechu have been encouraged and are being implemented. Activities for land development like terracing and compost pits too have been taken up. People have also been facilitated in rearing pigs and poultry

The programme places a major emphasis on training and capacity building activities. Much training has been provided in the above mentioned areas. Among these, a unique focus has been placed on mason’s training, specially on-the-job training during implementation of low-cost latrines to ensure its replication.

(Field Unit: Guwahati, Assam)