neem powder intervention
in prawarda

Study by students of Xavier Institute of Development Action and Studies, Jabalpur

Across the globe, self-help group is an indigenous weapon used against poverty and social conflicts. PRAWARDA, which is an NGO in the Bidar district of the state of Karnataka, strives to make people's life better through the principle of self-help group. The organisation wants to initiate the "Neem intervention" as the availablility of Neem trees is in abundance in the project area, which will create means of livelihood to a large number of people of the project area. This organisation is planning to open a unit of making Neem fruit based organic product (Neem powder, cake, oil) that is used as manure in agriculture. This unit will be situated in "Bandenawazwadi" village of Basavakalyan Taluk in the Bidar district of Karnataka.

The unit will be run by the Self-help group of Bandenawazwadi village. The members of the group will get Rs. 40/- per head for 6-8 hours of work in a day. All activities will be coordinated by PRAWARDA in terms of techniques, procurement of technology, infrastructure and supervision.

Rationale of Study:

This study was carried out in order to find out the possibilitiy of collection, procurement and manufacturing of Neem powder. The Khadi Gramodyog Mahavidhyalaya trained the self-help group, which is involved in the manufacturing of Neem Powder.

The rationale of the study lies in the fact that the raw material (Neem fruits) are available in the area but has not been used for many years, even though organic cultivation has been showing a reasonable growth rate in the market, because the farmers are moving towards organic cultivation.

Objectives and Findings of the study