Life in the Himalayas is always tougher. The people living here struggle for a steady and assured income that could support the needs of their families. Due to limited resource, difficulty in commuting and relatively higher price for the goods and commodities, it becomes essential for them to assure regular income for themselves.

Anticipating the need, KAGAS stared the “Livelihood Improvement Project for the Himalayas”, an initiative that largely focuses on strengthening the women mass of the region through training them on various income generation activities.
The women were motivated to form Self-Help Groups, primarily saving and credit groups and trained on off-season vegetable production. The produce generated was channelized for sale through a federated committee of the cooperatives. KAGAS supported the women farmers at all the stages of marketing and input supply

Through this initiative, two cooperatives were formed, each of whom were able to generate saving of INR 3,00,000 AND INR 1,50,000 respectively. The women members of the groups could earn an income of INR 1500-2000 every month.

Technology has always easy human labour and increased efficiency in the process. In the hilly regions, the need is felt even more as people here spend lots of time, money, energy and resource to overcome the hurdles. To enable a technology-led, efficient and easy way of working and improve the income generation capacity, KAGAS introduced the project “Technology Intervention for the Upliftment of SC Communities”.

Through this project, KAGAS focused on skill development of the schedules cast youth and women mass of the community through training of off-season vegetable production, vermi composting, and rain water harvesting construction. Nine women including 35 families were benefited as they were able to earn INR 1500-2000 per month. 10 people of the community were trained as professional carpenters, who are now earning INR 700-1000 per day for the family. Through construction of 10 rain water harvesting tanks and two common water collection centers, the farmers are saving 2 to 3 valuable hours in water fetching from their daily schedule.

KAGAS motivated and sensitised every household of the community of Rajpura village to construct and use their own toilets. As a result, the village achieved the status of “Open Defecation Free” and recognised with “Nirmal Gram Award” by Government of India. The Village Panchayat received “Appreciation Certificate and INR 2,00,000 to encourage the efforts made.

Organic farming is a way of life, a way that is close to the nature and healthy living. The produce harvested through organic farming come under premium segment and fetch better value for the farmers. Recognising humongous potential in organic farming as source of improved livelihood, KAGAS mobilized the farmers of Uttarakhand for organic farming providing all necessary training of the trade and new agricultural technologies

The farmers are not only trained on the method, but also on the techniques like grading the produce, branding and promotion of organic product, establishing marketing channels and market linkages. Through this initiative, 16 groups of farmers were created who were could realize 20-25% increase in the income.