After gaining years of experience working on the development of land based rural economies, GVT is today in the process of establishing a state¬-of the art National Livelihoods Resource Center (NLRC) on the picturesque locale outside the city of Ratlarn in Bhadwasa Village in Jaora block of Madhya Pradesh. NLRC is being positioned to serve as the first of its kind centre of excellence to engage with development practitioners in understanding the myriad implications of livelihoods challenges.
This flagship initiative of GVT will become a repository of GVT's experiences of the past two decades that it intends to share with a wider audience through an annual calendar of client responsive activities like interactive training, participatory research and appreciative inquiry into the intricate interlinked world of rural livelihoods. NLRC will remain flexible, outsourcing knowledge and expertise as it evolves into a dynamic institution that will remain rooted to the ground while keeping a watchful eye on the externalities of influences.
NIRC is in the process of evolution and seeks partnerships at various levels, to refine and further its objectives. The ultimate goal is to develop this national center into a one stop shop for understanding livelihoods, for diagnosing ground situations and to develop prescriptions for interventions.
The services on offer will be tailor made to suit the emerging needs of the donor projects, public private partnerships, government programs and last but not the least, local communities and their leadership.
"Learn, develop and disseminate strategies to deepen and strengthen sustainable rural livelihood safety net in farm and non-farm sector".
"Creating center for excellence to build capacities and empower people augmenting livelihoods by developing and applying low! cost appropriate cutting edge science and technologies".
Provide service with honesty and sincerely; Sustainability to meet interdependence among all stakeholders; Business acumen to derive gains imbibed with cultural ethos and moral values; Equity among unequal; Maintaining dignity to cherish Indian values;
KRIBHCO and DFID looking to the serious contribution of the GVT in the field of rural livelihoods have promoted a National Livelihoods Resource Institute (NLRI) at Ratlam in the state of ME Government of MP has allocated 10 ha land to establish the institute and has committed to collaborate with NLRI on various rural livelihood issues. The NLRI thrive to address following issues:
A sprawling campus spanning in more than 10 ha of land on the banks of a local River "The Malini", is an oasis amid the nude and highly degraded hillocks giving a total contrast to what scientific land and water management strategy could do. The water harvesting structure built by GVT retains enough water to instill the recharge zone, induce growth of natural flora, provides a sustainable source of water year round and adds to the aesthetics of the venue. The campus has a newly built institutional complex with a large conference hall to house over 70 person fully equipped with all modern gadgets to host discourses on contemporary rural livelihood strategies and impinge on the future course with compelling affirmative actions. To conduct group based activities and discussions, 3 fully furnished lecture theaters each accommodating over 35 participants.
A library cum documentation cell starting with over 2000 titles both in Hindi and English language on a wide array of subjects cross cutting the rural livelihoods, contemporary development philosophies, manuals and other contemporary literature . besides, huge amount of literature in grey (unpublished) shall acts as reference sources for the learners . To the delight of the learners over 75 quality journals chronicling the recent advances in participatory poverty and gender sensitive development actions across India and globally have been subscribes.
The virtual learning cell managed by communication and media lab to provide a technological edge over many such initiatives in the region provides a unique learning experience and connects cross section of community with development professionals through information technology enabled solutions. The communication and media lab provides a large collection of video audio documents on electronic media to facilitate experiential learning cycle.
A Research, Development and Demonstration Unit is set-up on campus to present the wide range of technologies and solutions in the semi-arid agro-ecosystem. The R & D Unit offers a unique opportunity to the visitors to verify the efficacy of the technological options. This acts as a laboratory to handle such options and learn practical aspects. The R & D Unit has two large shed-houses producing high value, high quality saplings of the fruits and vegetables, ornamentals and other important species. The saplings are available to the visitors on the cost price. The entire campus serviced by micro-irrigation system and micro-sprinkler system displaying the precision water application technologies on-farm. Small orchards of the new species of citrus, aromatic and medicinal plants, gooseberry, and custard apple are under plantation to encourage the small farmers to emulate the same. A seed farm is plan to be added soon. This will offer availability of quality seeds of important crops on one hand and shall provide an opportunity to learn scientific and legal aspects of certified seed production. Technologies related to organic agriculture with its legal obligations would be added soon.
The institute deploys seven core Faculties in the Field of:
1. Agriculture and Agribusiness Value Chain/ Supply Chain Management;
2. Watershed and Water Resource Development and Management;
3. Livestock Management;
4. Horticulture and Forestry;
5. Social Development;
6. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Systems;
7. Vocational Training and Education;
The core faculties are practicing development professionals with over 10 years of direct field based experience in their respective fields of expertise in the similar socio-economies and agro-ecologies. The proven record of accomplishment, academic innovativeness, up-to-date information of the contemporary development strategies with local, regional, national and global perspective add values to the institute. Besides the core faculties, a battery of over 50 well-experienced and trained development professionals working with GVT for last decade on various projects provides additional intellectual support to the institute and facilitates grass root learning to the visitors. GVT in its development projects have identified and trained a large number of para-professionals better known as "Janakars" and "Master Jankars" proves to be the linchpin of the endogenous initiatives and encourage community participation on all counts.
The Institute has identified and empanelled professionals and practioners both from GOs, NGOs, trade and industry to provide the intellectual support as visiting faculties. The outside experts provide a fresh independent view of the issues under debate and connect institute, its core faculties and learners to the worldview.
1. Participatory Project Cycle Management;
2. Community Based Organization Management;
3. Community Mobilization for Grass Root Actions;
4. Poverty and Gender Sensitization for Effective Implementation;
5. Market Orientation for the Collective Commercially Viable institutions development and management;
6. Micro Enterprise Development and Management;
7. Micro-finance/Rural Financial Service Management;
8. Community Based Knowledge Systems Management;
9. Developing Commercially Viable Service Providers in both Farm and Non Farm Sectors;
10. Community Extension Service Management;
11. Conflict Resolution and Management;
12. Participatory Watershed Development and Management;
13. Participatory Water Resource Development and Management;
14. Participatory Irrigation Management;
15. Common Property Resource Management;
16. Renewable Energy/Bio-energy Development and Management;
17. Farming Systems Management;
18. Agribusiness Value Chain/Supply Chain Management with Special Emphasis on Small Holders Agriculture;
19. Seed Systems Management;
20. Organic Farm Management;
21. Legal Literacy for the Seasonal Migrant Labours;
22. Legal Literacy for Certification of Quality Standards of the Farm Produce;
23. Small Holders Livestock Management;
24. Vocational Marketable Skill Development for Seasonal Migrants Families;
25. Minimal Processing of Perishables from the Small Farms;
26. Customized Courses for the Elected Representatives of the PRIs, Cooperatives and other Civic Bodies;
27. Financial Management for Non-finance People;
28. Theme Based Farmers'Field Schools