Evaluation of Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems Project APFAMGS GCPIND175NET

1
Evaluation of Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed
Groundwater Systems Project (APFAMGS -
GCP/IND/175/NET)

• Debriefing Session
• Hyderabad, 12 September 2008

2
Evaluation team members

• Ms Tullia Aiazzi, evaluation, gender and rural
  development expert, team leader, FAO Evaluation
  Service
• Dr Mihir Maitra, groundwater expert, Indian
• Mr Arnoud Braun, Farmers Field School and
  agricultural development expert, Dutch
• Mr Franco Franchini, administration and finance
  expert, Italian

3
Purpose of the evaluation

• Inform the Government of India, BIRDS and its
  partners, FAO and other stakeholders about the
  achievements of the Project and the efficiency
  and effectiveness of the methodologies used, the
  technologies diffused and the NEX implementation
  modality.
• The Evaluation should also formulate
  recommendations and draw lessons as relevant, in
  the perspective of up-scaling the approach for
  the future development of farmers groundwater
  management in India.
• APFAMGS evaluation will contribute and be
  integrated in the evaluation of FAO cooperation
  with India in the period 2003-2008.

4
Methodology of the evaluation

• Consultative approach with stakeholders final
  debriefing and circulation of the final draft
  report are part of the process.
• Triangulation as a key method for validation of
  information and evidence.
• Analytical tools included review of existing
  reports and project data-base extensive meetings
  and group interviews with project staff at all
  levels, participants to projects activities at
  community level and other stakeholders visits to
  project implementing organizations and to
  participating communities direct observation of
  training sessions, infrastructure works and
  crops observation of one Steering Committee
  Meeting.

5
Project background

• From APWELL to APFAMGS evolving and learning for
  sustainable development
• Netherlands-funded APWELL project, 1995-2003
  focus on drilling community boreholes for
  irrigation
• Increasing scarcity of groundwater, testing and
  consolidation of Participatory Hydrological
  Monitoring (1999-2003)
• RNE managed APFAMGS (2003-04), including
  identification of all implementing organizations
  and consultants
• FAO APFAMGS (August 2004- November 2008).

6
Rationale for the project

• Relevant and timely intervention
• Groundwater resources in constant decrease over
  last two decades due to over-exploitation
  diverse global and local causes, including
  increasingly erratic rainfall, government and
  international efforts toward poverty alleviation
• Approximately 20 of Indian farmers depend on
  groundwater for their livelihoods 85 of rural
  drinking water from groundwater resources
• Supply-side management limited in scope
  demand-side management possible but external
  control and regulatory measures over-costly and
  ineffective
• Wide communication gap between scientific and
  technical language and know-how and groundwater
  users language and knowledge.

7
Project institutional set-up

• Complex, adequate and effective
• Donor FAO through National Execution Modality.
  Strategic, managerial and technical guidance
  credibility and international visibility.
• National Executing Organisation Nodal NGO BIRDS.
  Signer of the Agreement with FAO, Project
  execution and implementation, coordinator of all
  implementing partners and consultants competent
  and credible at state and national level.

8
Project institutional set-up (cont.)

• Implementing Organizations, 9 Partner NGOs
  BIRDS, CARE, CARVE, DIPA, GVS, PARTNER, SAFE,
  SAID and SYA. Long-working organizations,
  competent, committed and credible at community
  level, wealth of diversified experience, mutually
  enriching.
• Consultants Technical Support Team/PRIYUM World
  Education Sumadhura Practica individual
  consultants universities. High professional
  level and commitment.
• Steering Committee multi-stakeholder body,
  scientific and methodology guidance.

9
Project Logical Framework

• Living guidance tool for the Project. More
  accurate formulation would have been appropriate
  and useful.
• Development Objective (new level)
• Improve livelihoods of groundwater users through
  the sustainable use of water resources and
  adoption of water saving production systems.
• Specific Objective (former goal)
• Enable farmers to manage their groundwater
  systems in about 650 villages in seven
  drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh by the
  year 2008.

10
Project Logical Framework (cont.)

• Results (former objectives)
• About 3,000 Men and Women farmers are in a
  position to understand groundwater systems within
  which they are operating at about 650 habitations
  in Andhra Pradesh, in a scientific manner, by the
  year 2008.
• Hydrological data base, using GIS platform, is
  developed for usage of Groundwater Management
  Committees, covering 650 habitations, by the year
  2006.
• About 6,500 farm families enabled for adoption of
  alternative agricultural practices suiting the
  availability of groundwater, by the year 2008.
• Community based institutions established for
  alternative management of groundwater resources
  with equal representation/participation of men
  and women, covering about 650 habitations, by the
  year 2008.

11
Project management

• Strengths
• Effective strategic management.
• Rigour in following project core principles,
  purpose and expected outcomes LF instrumental.
• Flexibility in learning from participants and
  progress at community level through detailed
  annual work plans.
• Constant interaction among partners, including
  good relationship and effective consultation with
  FAO-India.

12
Project management (cont.)

• Intensive monitoring of implementation and
  financial execution.
• Strong staff time inputs volunteered from NNGO
  and PNGOs.
• Exit strategy agreed by all stakeholders and
  implemented in due time.
• NEX modality successful in the view of all
  organizations involved.

13
Result 1 widespread understanding of groundwater
systems

• Strengths
• Farmers understand the seasonal occurrence and
  distribution of groundwater in their habitations
  and in HU as a whole and are able to estimate
  seasonal recharge, draft and balance.
• Farmers are capable of collecting and recording
  rainfall and associated groundwater data.
• Farmers master the concept of groundwater as a
  common property resource (CPR) and are willing to
  manage it for the collective benefit.

14
Result 1 widespread understanding of groundwater
systems

• The project experience on demand side management
  is relevant wherever groundwater is
  over-exploited.
• Project work on the supply side of the
  groundwater resource is a complementary and
  useful action.
• Demystification of the scientific approach and
  terminologies of crop and water management to the
  farmers in an acceptable format without
  compromising on the basic principles is one of
  the most important achievements of the project in
  terms of knowledge sharing and empowerment of
  farmers.

15
Result 2 usage at community level of groundwater
database

• Strengths
• Delineation of HUNs as base units for project
  intervention using GIS
• HUNs, GMCs and FWS participants use maps produced
  through GIS, to visualize and plan actions at
  their level.
• PNGOs are managing databases and are able to make
  maps available to HUNs and GMCs.
• Work on-going on integration of GIS and Remote
  Sensing.

16
Result 2 usage at community level of groundwater
database (cont.)

• Caution required
• Information kiosks are attractive, but a careful
  cost/benefit analysis, including their potential
  as decision making tool, should be done before
  investing further in them.

17
Result 3 adoption of alternative agricultural
practices

• Strengths
• Sequential adaptation of the FFS approach to the
  understanding and management of groundwater
  resources led to
• Farmer Water School as platform for groundwater
  farmers, men and women, for experiential learning
  of different cultivation techniques and cropping
  patterns linked to the use of the groundwater
  resource
• Crop Water Budgeting session at the start of the
  Rabi season as a decision-making tool for farm
  families to adopt alternative agricultural
  practices, suiting the availability of
  groundwater
• A competent technical support team has been
  built-up at PNGO and TST levels.

18
Result 3 adoption of alternative agricultural
practices (cont.)

• Training on Low External Input Agriculture
  (LEIA), inputs from the bio-agents production
  centre, documentation of best agricultural
  practices and Farmer Training Teams led to
• reduction of external inputs
• a pool of approximately 1000 farmer facilitators
  has been formed for potential up-scaling by
  Government and NGO programmes on groundwater
  management and LEIA

19
Result 3 adoption of alternative agricultural
practices (cont.)

• Areas for improvement
• Ensure that information about groundwater
  availability and water-saving cropping patterns
  are shared as widely as possible with rain-fed
  farmers, landless, labourers and other marginal
  groups in the habitations.
• More attention to maintenance of the AESA tool as
  a decision-making tool for IPM.
• More focus on agro-biodiversity, soil/land,
  drought, watershed and conflict management.
• More attention to facilitation skills of project
  staff.
• Adequate provisions have to be made to ensure
  that in future, farmers have continuous access to
  data provided by research institutions (crop
  water requirements water infiltration rates
  etc.).

20
Result 4 local institutions managing groundwater
resources

• Strengths
• GMCs and HUNs
• have equal representation and participation of
  men and women
• are able to independently take decisions
  regarding the management of groundwater
  resources
• are able to mobilize resources for their members
  from government schemes and programmes
• are able to take up other activities of interest
  to their members such as marketing.

21
Result 4 local institutions managing groundwater
resources (cont.)

• Areas for improvement
• GMCs are the building blocks of HUNs and may
  require more capacity building on participatory
  and inclusive processes and management.
• Support HUNs and GMCs with training according to
  requests, on topics such as Farming as a Business
  (FAAB), marketing, market linkages, post-harvest
  management, processing.

22
Gender issues

• Key factor for projects positive results
• Mainstreaming gender perspective effective at
  community level in activities and results.
• Womens participation and empowerment visible and
  inspiring.
• Contribution to and good potential for wider
  outreach of Projects capacity building efforts.

23
Social equity

• Good intentions, little results yet, challenges
  ahead
• Correct approach in Project Document.
• Concept of Right to water affirmed.
• NNGO and PNGOs strongly committed to social
  equity issues and some good signs visible.
• Limited scope for effective action by defined
  group of beneficiaries.
• Pathway to mainstreaming to be identified and
  tested .

24
Environmental sustainability and impact

• Good results and positive perspectives ahead
• Increasing numbers of farmers participate in CWB
  planning and adopt water-saving cropping
  patterns, which is leading to decreased
  extraction of groundwater.
• Reduction of overexploitation of groundwater
  resources will be conducive to improved state of
  the vegetative cover.
• Diffused awareness about positive effects of
  sustainable management of CPRs will be conducive
  to a wider diffusion of environmental-friendly
  attitudes.
• Diffusion of LEIA techniques leads to less use of
  chemical inputs, with beneficial effects for the
  environment and the health of the rural
  population at large.

25
Institutional sustainability

• Good results, positive perspectives, follow-up
  required
• NNGO and PNGOs have created a formal partnership
  network that will enable them more visibility and
  credibility, also as service providers for GoAP
  and other donors.
• GMCs and HUNs are young and thriving local
  institutions many with potential to develop into
  fully adult and solid Community Based
  Organizations.

26
Institutional sustainability (cont.)

• More support is required in
• expanding GMCs/HUNs membership to ensure wider
  ownership and fully transparent management
  processes, in particular in relation to financial
  autonomy and sustainability
• definition of the GMCs/HUNs roles as service
  demanders and providers in relation to the
  Government and to Panchayat Raj Institutions.

27
Extending results beyond project boundary

• Incipient good results, positive perspectives,
  follow-up required, risks exist
• Diffusion of APFAMGS model through international
  events and participation in programme formulation
  outside AP.
• GoAP adopting APFAMGS approach and planning to
  mainstream it in other programmes.
• External partners highly appreciative of the
  project, and use it as an example.

28
Extending results beyond project boundary (cont.)

• Concrete proposals already formulated, funding
  not approved yet.
• Project model should be used to inform policy at
  AP and GoI level.
• Modified adoption of the model, in particular by
  some organizations including government, may lead
  to loss of focus on key elements of the approach.

29
Project impact on direct participants

• Through the understanding of the water cycle and
  of the common property nature of the groundwater
  resource (capacity building, demystification of
  science and empowerment)
• through the experiential learning of different
  cultivation techniques and cropping patterns
  linked to the use of the groundwater resource
  (capacity building through NFE, FFS and FWS)
• through the involvement of women to bring in the
  learning process different perspectives, needs
  and knowledge (mainstreaming gender)

30
Project impact on direct participants (cont.)

• through the collection, analysis and
  visualization of scientific data through GIS maps
  (capacity building, demystification of science
  and empowerment)
• through the set-up of local institutions and
  platforms for common decision making at the level
  of the hydrological unit, (capacity building for
  management and individual and group empowerment)
• groundwater users, men and women, and potentially
  also rain-fed farmers, have increased their
  incomes, are managing sustainably the commonly
  shared water resource and can cope better with
  climate changes and other external threats

31
Recommendations for the short term

• Within current budget and extending project
  duration to March-April 2009, it is recommended
  that
• 1 The Project should develop a formal and
  crystallized APFAMGS model of intervention, to
  make it available for replication elsewhere as a
  complete approach and for informing national
  policy for the sector. Attention should be
  focused on the key elements required for the
  approach to be effective. The model could foresee
  a phased approach and/or modular form, if
  appropriate.

32
Recommendations for the short term (cont.)

• 2 The Crop Water Budgeting session for Kharif
  season should be added to the current planning
  exercises, to contribute to the sustainable
  management of the commonly shared water resource
  and to the decision making tools available to men
  and women farmers for coping better with climate
  changes.
• 3 The Project should ensure that information
  about groundwater availability and water-saving
  cropping patterns are shared as widely as
  possible with rain-fed farmers, landless,
  labourers and other marginal groups in the
  habitations.

33
Recommendations for the short term (cont.)

• 4 Advocacy work should be conducted at the
  Government level, to emphasize the need for
  continuous technical support (from PNGOs and, if
  funds permit, TST) to the pool of 1000 farmer
  facilitators.
• 5 Increased training to HUNS should be provided
  on request in the following areas marketing,
  market linkages, post-harvest management and
  processing. Wherever required, refreshment of
  leadership skills, management skills and
  financial management skills should also be
  envisaged.

34
Recommendations for the short term (cont.)

• 6 The Project should facilitate HUNs access to
  other key programmes such as WWF/ICRISAT SRI and
  Organic Cotton Marketing Programme (Chetna
  Organic/ETC India) and other GoAP programmes, for
  technical innovations, marketing and equipment.
• 7 Further uptake of good agricultural practices
  and reduction of spraying for management of pest
  and diseases should be ensured, through refresher
  training and monitoring of farmer
  facilitators/FWS, especially on AESA on
  pests/diseases and Long Term Experiments.

35
Recommendations for the short term (cont.)

• 8 The Food and Nutrition survey should be re-run,
  with adjustments brought to the sampling
  framework and questionnaire.
• Awareness should be raised on the potential for
  data collection to become a source of income
  focus should be on the need for high reliability
  and precision of data collected and on the
  realistic marketing potential of the activity.

36
Recommendations for the short term (cont.)

• Within the framework of its exit strategy, the
  Project should develop a light methodology for
  PNGOs to monitor the quality of FWS, GMCs and
  HUNs performance after the project ends. It
  should include tools and indicators for the
  monitoring process and a mechanism for taking
  remedial action insofar as possible.
• BIRDS, partner NGOs and their close associates
  should develop a vision, a strategy and a
  methodology for the work they intend to carry on
  in future as a network, to become a fully-fledged
  partner for funding organizations.

37
Recommended intervention model for the long term

• If budget will be available for intervention on a
  similar geographical scale until 2011
• Through the understanding of key natural
  resources cycles (water, soil, forest) and of
  their common property nature (capacity building
  and demystification of science)
• through the experiential learning of old and new
  techniques and approaches for sustainable natural
  resources management (capacity building through
  NFE and FFS/FWS model)
• through the involvement of women and all social
  and economic groups to bring in the learning
  process, different perspectives, needs and
  knowledge (mainstreaming gender and social
  equity)

38
Recommended intervention model for the long term
(cont.)

• through the collection, analysis and
  visualization of scientific and social data
  through GIS maps (capacity building,
  demystification of science and empowerment) and
• through the set-up of local institutions and
  platforms for common decision making at the level
  of the hydrological unit, (capacity building for
  management and individual and group empowerment)
• All users, men and women, improve their
  livelihoods, manage sustainably their commonly
  shared natural resource and can cope better with
  climate changes and other external threats

39
Other recommendations for the long term

• It is recommended that
• The membership and community ownership of GMCs
  and HUNs should be extended to include adequate
  representation of rain-fed farmers, landless,
  labourers and other marginal social groups,
  through sensitisation and visioning workshops, to
  facilitate the sustainable use of all natural
  resources.
• FWS revolving funds should be established to
  facilitate the potential expansion of FWS by
  HUNs.

40
Other recommendations for the long term (cont.)

• 14 Agricultural bio-diversity, soil/land,
  drought, watershed and conflict management
  sessions should be added to the Farmer Water
  School, to provide all users, men and women, with
  an experiential learning platform for managing
  sustainably their commonly shared natural
  resource and coping better with climate changes
  and other external threats.
• 15 Training to HUNs, GMCs and FWS should be
  provided in the area of Farming as a Business
  (FAAB)

41
Lessons learned

• Demystification of approach to groundwater
  resource management is an empowering tool for
  users.
• Mainstreaming gender issues contributes to the
  effectiveness and sustainability of an
  intervention.
• Crop Water Budgeting exercise is a community
  decision making tool for adaptation of cropping
  plans.
• Multi-cycle Training of Farmer Facilitators
  facilitators are better trained and build-up fast
  the pool of farmer facilitators.

42
Lessons learned (cont.)

• Locally well grounded and respected NGOs bring
  a strong added value to interventions at
  community level.
• SRI is being adopted by APFAMGS farmers because
  it allows them save water and increase yields.
• Last but not least although not new time is
  necessary and sustainable development requires
  investment and dedication.

43

• Congratulations for the excellent work you are
  carrying out and
• thank you for your attention
• The Evaluation team