FSC Environmental Education

Project Focus

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Walking down a street in India, the music from "Who wants to be a millionaire" blares out from a café. Although here, a million in rupees is only worth £15000 this would make a huge difference to the winners life.

But only one person wins!

On the other hand an FSC project in this same country has been much more effective in raising living standards - with many more winners! The Samvardhan Project, run by FSCs long term partners in India CEE, will soon be coming to an end is now seeing real positive benefits to the lives people in the 15 project villages in the State of Gujarat

The core of the project involved developing new curricula for the Rural Higher Education Institutes that integrated sustainable development Part of the new curricula involved students working in villages on practical sustainability based projects.

Examples of these include -

Training and introduction of chaff cutters.

A chaff cutter can reduce animal food waste by 25% and hence increase the feed available. This has commensurate benefits on milk production and an animal health which finds its way back to the farmer and his family. Chaff cutters are relatively cheap and through the education programme other villages are now thinking of purchasing the technology.

Vegetable Seed Distribution

The poorest families find growing enough food a problem and so the project has provided nearly 2000 families with seeds to grow more food for their families and also to sell any excess. Most families can earn around 150 Rupees a week in the market from their produce. The education programme ensures that the families build up a seed bank.

Vermi wash and Vermi compost Units

The village based production of fertiliser and pesticide from the vermin wash and vermin compost units has decreased the dependency on commercial and chemical products - an economic benefit - as well as an environmental one. Both technologies. The project has supported the cost of the units and provided training and one farmer has invested in a larger unit to support commercial production! A litre of Vermi wash can bring in 400 rupees - not bad when the average monthly income is around 1000 Rupees (or around £15)

Micro Credit Scheme

The establishment of village micro credit scheme has been a huge success. Farmers cannot get credit from a normal bank because they do not earn enough money! Families save around 15-25 rupees a month and currently the scheme has around 20000 banked - and has made its first loan to a farmer wishing to invest in seeds.

All these, and many more micro projects, were based on the villagers assessment of their own needs.

Samvardhan is supported by the Lottery funded "Community Fund"