ADATS and the village Coolie Sangha Units have been discussing the need to switch over from risky and timely-rain dependent Field Crops to hardy Tree Crops. For the past 12 years, from 1996 onward, they have tried to do so with their own limited resources. ADATS could only supply them with tested saplings, and an odd bullock cart to haul water. No financial assistance was provided for watering the saplings. Each family had to fend for themselves to find sources, haul and hand pour with pots and buckets.
885 Coolie families who owned a total of 4,453 acres participated in these ?pilot efforts? (237 of them women headed households where wives/mothers take decisions on agriculture). They planted 92,312 saplings on 1,574 acres, with an aim to convert a third of their holdings to Tree Crops. Results have been mixed. Coolie families have been able to "Establish" trees on only 4% of their total landholding (i.e. ensure a Survival Rate of over 50% for more than 2 years, on each and every plot of land) and not on their ambitious target of 33%.
- Overall Survival Rate is 63%.
- Though Tamarind saplings thrive better, with a Survival Rate of 66%, Member Coolie families seem to prefer Mango saplings which has a Survival Rate of only 55%.
- But the Growth Rate of Mango, measured by girth and height, is much more.
- Upper caste Coolie families who own more than 5 acres of dry land seem to be doing better, with more than 70% of the planted saplings surviving.
- There is absolutely no difference in the performance of male and female headed households - women with decision making powers do just as well or as badly as men.
- Bagepalli taluk has the highest Survival Rate at 73%, while Chickballapur has the lowest at 51%.
- The Timeline shows a great variation in the Survival Rates of saplings planted in different years, with 1999 being the worst and 2000, 2001 and 2005 being the best.
This "pilot project" of sorts had a demonstration effect. It not just shows that growing trees is possible on arid dry lands, but convinces sceptics that they too can do it, provided they possess a positive audacity. They have to stop whining about the drought and break out of a defeatist mindset.