Agricultural implement support for flood affected farmers

Stambardo village is located in Khaltse block of Leh district. Several residents of the village were badly affected by the flash floods in 2010, with many houses severely damaged and the belongings of several households having been washed away. The village is extremely remote and the floods had also washed away the road leading to the village. As a result, the village received very little attention for relief and rehabilitation, from the local authorities, and households affected by the flood have had to, by and large, fend for themselves, and deal with the destruction caused by the floods.

Tashi Angchok (age: 44 years) is a resident of Stambardo village. He is a small farmer with a land holding of 12 ‘canals’ (around 1.5 acre). Tashi’s house was badly damaged and most of his agricultural tools were washed away. Since his livelihood and incomes were severely affected, Tashi could not purchase any replacements of the tools he had lost. Throughout 2011, he had to depend on tools borrowed from other fellow farmers for attending to his farm work. This however meant that he seldom received the tools at the right time for farm operations, since the farmers owning the tools could spare them only after they had completed the farm work in their own fields. This had meant a decline in his crop production. Some farmers had also charged him a small amount for the use of their tools, thus cutting into his agricultural incomes.

In the year 2012, the agricultural implements provided by Pragya under the project have been of great help to Tashi. Tashi says that now he no longer needs to depend on tools borrowed from other farmers and he can attend to farm activities at the right time and can expect a good crop.

(More about Pragya's work on Disaster Management)