Income generating activities for rural people in cold desert areas of the Western Himalayas, directed by GERES (Groupe Energies Renouvelables, Environnement et Solidarités)

Improvement of rural people livelihood
in cold desert areas of the Western Himalayas

LIGHT project
LIGHT project

PSH project
PSH project

Ecotourism project
ECOTOURISM project

International seminar
SEMINAR 2009

 

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LIGHT : fruit processing

Context

Apricots and apples are the main resources of lower areas of Ladakh, like Sham and Nubra Valley. The fruits are generally sun-dried on the roof of houses or on large stones then sold with low added value on local markets. Because of lack of hygiene, those dried fruits have a limited access to others markets. Sea-buckthorn or tsestalulu, is a little bush, well adapted to cold deserts areas, present in many villages of Ladakh. It is traditionally used for fencing or fuel-wood. Recent studies show that berries are very rich in vitamins.

Since tourism development in Ladakh its 30 years ago, an important demand has emerged for fruit based products, as juices, jams or dried fruits, consumed in Leh or on trekking routs. Moreover, those products benefit from an increasing demand on outside Indian markets, like in Himachal Pradesh Manali or Dharamsala. Those market openings offer new opportunities to villagers, in particular to women that have been so far excluded from all income generating activities.

 

fruit processing: Seabuckthorn berries

Seabuckthorn berries

Objectives and target group

This projects aims to valorise local potentialities and market opportunities on fruit based products by developing fruit transformation activities in the villages for commercialisation. As economical activities are often source of social differentiation in the villages since opening of Ladakh to market economy, it was chosen to work with groups -SHGs or Self Help Groups - gathering most of the families of the villages. The objective of this activity is to support those groups to reach autonomy in their fruit processing activities, in particular:

  • to enable SHGs on technical process, marketing, eco-finance and to help them to insert in sustainable product channel
  • to create income for villagers, in particular for women
  • to strengthen SHGs, give them self-confidence and impulse social innovative dynamic

As most of SHGs gather women, those objectives participate strongly to women empowerment, both on economical and social aspects.

 

fruit processing: Seabuckthorn juice   fruit processing: Seabuckthorn solar passive dryer

Seabuckthorn juice                                       passive solar dryer

A production & commercialisation strategy thought to be efficient and sustainable

In the mark of the project, 11 SHGs are supported, and gather in total 131 women and 4 men. Those groups, yet formed before project intervention, have showed their interest to work on fruit processing. Fruit raw material is produced in the villages and each member of the group contribute equally to collection. Transformation is done preferentially entirely on the spot, except if some steps of the process require specific hygiene norms or material, which imply transformation in Leh, in LEDeG -the resource NGO on Food Processing- training centre.

Depending on market opportunities in the villages -situation on trekking rout, tourist site, local market- and road access, products are commercialised by different products channels, from direct selling by women in the villages to exportation via middlemen on outside markets. Territorial strategy has been thought to favour short channels -to keep most of Added Value for women- with easily controlled and reproducible technologies.

 

3 examples with different territorial strategies:

  • Skiu-Kaya, little village in Markha Valley, located on a famous trek. Women sell their seabuckthorn juice in parachutes cafés they run collectively during summer to tourists.
  • Chamshen, village situated in NubraValley, beautiful valley visited each year by numerous tourists. Women sell their apricot jam and seabuckthorn juice both to local people and tourists through shopkeepers.
  • Ledho, village of Sham area, reputated for its apricot production. Women sell dried apricot and apricot jam in Leh to tourists and in Dharamsala, thanks to middlemen.

 

fruit processing: jam packaging   fruit processing: parachute cafe

Jam packaging                                       parachute cafe

Results and impact

  • Profit generated by the activities wavers between 1000 and 2000 Rs/woman, and is generally the only income for women, who can decide of their spending.
  • Work productivity for those activities is very high compared to local wages -150 Rs for day-labourer- it allow villagers to earn between 250 and 350 Rs per day of work.
  • Villagers -in particular women- gain self-confidence and skills:
    • in starting up economical activities and diversifying activities
    • in organisation, technical process, marketing, eco-finance
  • Fruits are better valorised:
    • added value of a Kg of apricot reaches 20 to 64 Rs respectively for dried apricot and jam, instead of 7 Rs/Kg for fresh apricot
    • added value of a Kg of seabuckthorn berries reaches 100 Rs for juice instead of 16 Rs for fresh berries

 

 

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