Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
programme in India, is an example of such an institution. This institution then forms
an extended part of the management organisation. The roles of any two bodies of
this composite organisation should be complementary. It must be ensured that the
communities do not remain merely consultative. Most of the decisions arrived at
should be participatory, giving preponderance to the opinions of the community.
The supervisor who assists the community organisation and acts as a link between
the community and the forest department (or the programme-executing agency) be-
comes a key person in this modified form of organisation. He should preferably
be a graduate with some experience in organisational management and possess
special skills in personal communication,
conflict resolution and participatory
decision-making.
A substantial part of the responsibilities of the supervisor can be taken over by a
person from the local community. This person, let us call him 'volunteer' for want of
another title, records the attendance of the workers, oversees the day-to-day progress
of work, and measures and records daily work output on-site. He should ideally be
a graduate or a matriculate with basic math abilities. It is clear that in this modified
form of participative management, the working capacity of the programme-executing
agency increases considerably. The supervisor no longer needs to be present on-site
everyday and hence can manage 3-5 plantation sites simultaneously. The overall
work output, thus, can be as high as five times what it is in case of a non-participative
agency-centric approach.
Building skills of the community in organising itself to work collectively and
jointly can take considerable amount of carefully planned work. It certainly requires
much greater competence on the part of the programme-executing agency to extend
itself to the community and take advantage of the energies and talents of the local
people.
Community volunteers who do not have experience in execution of afforesta-
tion programmes should be trained in the technical aspects of afforestation work.
Such training programmes should be comprehensive—a duration of at least one
month, possibly in weekly episodes—and mostly cover practical knowledge and
skills. The first five chapters of this topic—modified, simplified and presented in the
vernacular—may form the basis of such training. This could also be used as induction
training for the supervisors, but by no means the only one. Training must continue
on-site as they learn and refine their knowledge and skills from experience.
Community organisation is another field in which skills training must be im-
parted to the community members and the field staff responsible for implementation
of the afforestation programme. Constituting committees and subcommittees, fram-
ing rules and regulations, opening and operating bank accounts, making consensus
decisions, sharing resources on a community-wide basis, and other related topics,
including participatory action planning, should be included in such training.
Supervisors and unit managers are supposed to possess some prior experience
in execution of afforestation works or have a professional degree in agriculture or
forestry. Even so, for a particular afforestation programme, an induction or orienta-
tion training must be organised to acquaint them with the basic aims and objectives
of the programme and its salient features, such as the technology to be used, the
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