Village: Jhumuka
Gram Panchayat: Kutuli
Block/District: Rayagada
Collective and planned initiative always brings success. This has again proved by the Village Action Team (VAT) members of Jhumuka village, Rayagada in Odisha.
Jhumuka village had one old and damaged pond which was not being used by the community people earlier. In June, 2015 the VAT members were decided to renovate the pond and will do fishing in their monthly meeting. It was decided that, Ekta through the SOUL project will provide fish and fruit bearing trees for demonstration of multipurpose farm pond. And the VAT members will mobilize community people for contribute their labour to clean the pond and planting trees around the pond. As per the plan Ekta provided fish from the fishery department, Jeypore and fruits bearing trees i.e. mango, banana, leman, coconut etc. from the Horticulture department of Rayagada in July, 2015. Similarly the VAT members also cleaned the pond and planted the fruits bearing trees surrounding the pond. The VAT members had taken responsibilities to take care of this.
After one year, in 27th June, 2016 the VAT members decided to harvest fishes from the pond and will sell in the local market. As per the plan they did and collected 60 kg of fishes from the pond. The fish weight was between to one to three kg per fish. The VAT members were sold it Rs 110 per kg in the village. People from different villages near by the GP came and purchased fish from the VAT members. The VAT members received Rs 6600/- from out of the sale. Although this is a very small amount they have collected but this initiative brought a great success in their mind. It helped to build up their self-confidence to work together to get success. They had contributed labour and Ekta spent only Rs 750 to purchase fish from the fishery department. Out of this small investment they are now able to get Rs 6600/- by doing this.
Now the VAT members are planning to keep the money in their VAT fund and will invest to purchase fish again from the fishery department. The VAT as well as the community members is very happy to this success. Now the people from other places are also demanding for provide support and technical guidance for fishing. We are planning to replicate the same in the newly constructed pond at Himarpodi village. In this regard we have discussed with the VAT members and Sarpanch of area.