Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2011

Results

The results of the 2010 Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition are finally out!

Top 3 Cases:
1. BAIF: Transforming dreams into reality for rural India
2. Fishing for Innovation - The story of Samudaram Women's Federation, Orissa
3. Weaving strength with SUTA

The other cases that made it to the top 10:
• Aggregation of Traditional Fisherfolk in Gujarat Coast: Kutch Seafood Producer Group
• Chetna Organic: Environment…ethics…equilibrium
• Chirag's Market Linkage Program for Small & Marginal Farmers
• Enabling Aggregation through Institutional Framework for Farmers: Poompuhar Farmers Federation Model
• Enterprising Farmers forming Farmer Enterprises
• Fostering Farmers Organization with Business Rigour
• The power of Aggregation in Agriculture: A case study from Udyogini

Congratulations to all the winners! We will shortly contact all of you with further details.

Those whose cases did not make it to the top 10, please do not be disheartened. We will be sending you one invite each to attend the Livelihoods India Conference 2010. We will get in touch with your shortly.

 

Overview

After an overwhelming response in the last two years, ACCESS Development Services, in collaboration with the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) announces the “Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2011”. The case study competition has been designed to identify emerging models and practices that have significantly contributed to the livelihoods of the poor in India. Dedicated to Late Shri Sitaram Rao, mentor and guru of the Indian microfinance and livelihoods movement, the case study competition aims to bring together the collective intellect in the country and assimilates innovative solutions, breakthroughs, good experiences and best practices that can help change the poverty status in India. The 2011 case study competition is supported by Rabobank Foundation.

The competition is a part of the Livelihoods India Initiative that has been initiated by ACCESS to provide a national platform that enables research based documentation of, and emergence of a more nuanced discourse on, key challenges in promoting secure livelihoods for the poor. These in turn, are expected to trigger evidence based discussions on public policies and framing of more efficacious strategies of interventions, while helping to build a larger consensus within the sector. It is with these objectives that ACCESS has forged partnership with IRMA for a more robust initiative.

The shortlisted cases are listed in the table below

S. No.	Case Title
1.	Tribals Develop Fisheries in Dimbhe Dam
2.	Bhusura Traditional Fisherwoman Co-operative-Providing sustainable livelihood through collective Action
3.	Women's Collective Venture towards Revival of Animal Husbandry for Livelihood Security – A Case Study from a Village of Kutch District
4.	Energising Rural India through contract farming Integration Model in the Poultry Sector: The case of Suguna Poultry farms
5.	Jharkhand Women Self-Supporting Poultry Cooperative Federation Ltd.
6.	Fisherfolk and Livelihood: A Tryst with Siffs in Kerala
7.	Flying in a Flock-MPWPCL: A successful story of Collective
8.	Incentivizing Traditional Livelihoods

Sitaram Rao Livelihoods India Case Study Competition 2010 - Shortlisted Abstracts

S.No.	ABSTRACT TITLE	SUBMITTED BY
1	Retailing - A Signpost as a Business Metric for a Cooperative - HOPCOMS	Mr. Debashish, Maitra
2	Fostering Farmers Organisations	Mr. L P Semwal
3	Environment - Ethics - Equilibrium	Mr. Siddarth Tripathy
4	SRIJAN's Soy Samriddhi Initiative: A Multi-Pronged Approach towards leveraging the Power of Farmers' Collectives	Ms. Priyanka Parmar
5	Seed to Market	Ms. Anita Rana
6	Agribusiness Micro franchises of Tribal Women Entrepreneurs: The case of Ujas	Ms. Vanita Viswanath
7	Mushrooming opportunities in Darlaghat	Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj
8	Harvesting technology for farming	Mr. Savitha suresh
9	Aggregation of Traditional Fisher folk in Gujarat Coast	Mr. D.Yeswanth
10	The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives for sustainable Agriculture : A case study of Heigrujam Gram Panchayat Level Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd.	Mr. Khundrakpam Bobby Singh
11	Dharamrajupalli Seed Cooperative	Mr. Papori
12	Facilitating Remunerative Market Access to Subsistence Producers: A case study of GRISERV - BAIF	Mr. Bhavani Shankar
13	BAIF : Transforming Dreams into Reality for Rural India	Ms. Raji M Ajwani
14	Endogenous development from indigenous systems: A Case on Krishi Prayoga Pariwara	Mr. Megha Y
15	Improving the livelihoods of 5,000 small salt producers across Gujarat.	Mr. Rajesh Shah
16	Weaving Strength with 'Suta'	Mr. Sushanta Kumar sharma
17	Buds of Hope: Promoting Livelihoods through floriculture in Mizoram	Mr. Barna Baibhabha Panda
18	Centre for Collective Development	Mr. Maitree Mukerji
19	Creating Stakeholders, Not Beneficiaries in business	Mr. Kailash Iyer
20	Broiler Poultry Farming- A Source of Income for Poorest of Poor	Mr. Jitendra Kumar Nayak
21	System of Sugar Intensification	Malay Harsha
22	Wastage to usage towards a New Green Revolution	SATHIABAMA.K
23	Fishing For Innovation: The Women Entrepreneurs of Samudram	Mr. Joseph Satish .V
24	"Vindhya Valley - Bringing Prosperity into the lives of deprived	Mr. Vidhi
25	Farmers Producer Cooperative Society: A suitable institutional arrangement for small scale farmers	Mr. Sandeep Khanwalkar
26	Enabling Institutional Infrastructure for Farmers: Poombuhar Farmers Federation Model	Ms. Kottaisamy.P
27	Use of Aggregation to empower farmers by TATA chemicals ltd.	Mr. Stabak Ghosh & Soumalya paul
28	Pot-in-Pot Aggregation	Mr. Harvinder Sodhi
29	Nature Fresh Milk	Dr. G.S.MADHU
30	Redefining Agri-Marketing - A Rural market linkage program by CHIRAG	Mr.Triveni, Sati

The final cases have to be submitted via email to casecomp@accessdev.org by the 5th of September, 2010.

Case Protocol

Case authors need to keep the following points in mind. However, these are just broad guidelines and need to be adapted according to the case study.

The 2011 theme of the competition is centered on “Collectives in the Agri-allied Sector”. For purposes of the competition, agri-allied sector comprises the dairy, poultry, goatary, sheep rearing, piggery, fisheries, sericulture and bee keeping etc sectors. The aim of the 2011 competition is to seek contributions on emerging collective initiatives across the agri-allied sector.

SUGGESTED THEMES FOR CASE WRITING

The case study should cover any combination of the following themes / issues:

• Conditions within which the collective action was initiated;
• Factors that contributed to the success of the collective action;
• Role of external agency, if any. Nature of facilitation/ intervention/ support;
• Key theme of collective action;
• Type and nature of external linkages;
• Parameters of success and results thereon;
• What innovations are associated in collective action;
• Critical challenges for continued success of the collective action.

SUGGESTED GUIDELINES FOR CASE WRITING

What is a Case?

A case is a story / snapshot taken at a particular point in time, written to serve a particular discussion or teaching objective. A good case has the following attributes:

1. It clearly presents the case problem / issue (s) and calls for resolution and action.
2. It puts the reader into the protagonist’s shoes to enhance involvement in the learning process.
3. Importantly, it is to the point and presents only essential and relevant facts to analyze the discussion problem. However, some amount of additional information can also be given within the case or in the annexure.

Case Structure

A case normally consists of three broad parts and the case authors can create section headings as per the requirements of the case.

I. The Opening Paragraph

The opening paragraph is considered as the most important portion of the case. In this paragraph, the case author presents the general picture and tone of the case. Please note that it is neither a summary of the case nor the abstract of a research article.

The opening paragraph should:

1. present a concise and interesting picture of the main issue(s) in the case;
2. describe the context within which the case occurs;
3. introduce the principal protagonist(s);
4. set the timeline;
5. You can also finish the opening paragraph with one or two overriding questions facing the characters/ organization in the case.

Thus, the opening paragraph should essentially provide a summary of these five questions:

1. WHAT is the nature of the problem / issue (s)?
2. WHO is the key decision maker? / who were involved or affected?
3. WHY did the problem occur /arise?
4. WHERE did the case take place (specify the organization)?
5. WHEN did the case take place (specify the time line)?

II. Body of the Case

The body of the case is where you can discuss the whole story of the case. It is usually written in a chronological order. It can contain general background of the organization, its business environment, and the details of the specific issue(s) faced by the organization.

Preferably, adopt the following guidelines for the main body of the case:

1. To ensure a logical flow you can -

1. start with antecedents on the issue, starting with environmental, geographical and situation information, in that order.
2. describe the situation/ problem in its complexity.
3. what are the available alternatives and their constraints to address the problem.
4. provide rich data related to alternatives, in exhibits.
5. what decisions were reached and what ‘considerations’ (criteria) compelled particular decision. Alternatively, you can raise questions on what decisions to be taken.

2. Preferably have data for analysis.

3. Tables, figures or graphs related to case should be in the main body while background tables/figures/data in annexure.

4. In general, the case should be information rich.

You can also include more than one side of the story to enable readers to think about other compelling alternatives. You can use quotations from interviewees or stakeholders of the case. Quotations can also be cited from published news articles with full references.

III. Concluding Portion of the Case

In the last portion of the case you can provide a summary of the case reiterating the main issues. Going forward, the future scenario can also be presented. In addition, you can raise new questions.

GENERAL WRITING PRINCIPLES

1. Use simple and clear English.
2. Use neutral language.
3. Present factual information/ data.
4. As a case writer, you should play the role of an honest reporter without “taking sides”. Avoid presenting your own viewpoints as this might lead to author bias.
5. Write in past tense.

Applicants

• The competition welcomes entries from Indian as well as foreign nationals.
• Applicants may be management professionals, practitioners, teachers, researchers, or students.
• Case entries may have more than one author, but the submission will be considered as one only.
• Each applicant(s) may submit one case only.
• Employees of ACCESS and IRMA and their relatives are not eligible to participate in this competition.

Theme

The 2011 theme of the competition is centered on the "Collectives in the Agri-allied Sector". For purposes of the competition, agri allied sector comprises the dairy, poultry, goatary, sheep rearing, piggery, fisheries, sericulture and bee keeping etc sectors.

Livestock in general and dairying in particular play a vital role in the Indian economy. The value of output from livestock and fisheries sector was 27% of the value of the total output from the total agriculture and allied sector in 2008-09. According to NSSO’s latest survey (July 2004 to June 2005, NSS 61st Round) the proportion of workers in animal husbandry and fisheries put together is 7% in rural areas.

Animal husbandry, dairying and other livestock activities provide the much needed stability to household earnings. In fact livestock related activities act as a regular vocation for the small and marginal farmers and other fringe populations in rural and transitional areas. Women constitute about 70 percent of the labor force in livestock farming. As the ownership of livestock is more evenly distributed among landless laborers and marginal farmers, the progress of this sector results in a more balanced development of the rural economy.

The agricultural policy objective of the Indian government, as in most developing countries, has evolved from one of concentrating on achieving self-sufficiency and food security concerns into one of enhancing the sustainable development of a competitive agriculture. In keeping with this, changes have also been occurring within the agricultural sector, with fish, meat and dairy products gaining importance and increasing attention has been directed toward the agri allied sectors such as livestock and fisheries. Given past and projected trends in the demand for animal protein, investments in the agri allied sector promises to nurture a pro-poor, market-oriented and sustainable growth of agriculture.

Targeted support to small-holders, either through the provision of support services (vaccination and health services, extension and credit), improved husbandry and feed practices, building on collectivization allows small farmers to pool/aggregate their inputs/ outputs to achieve economies of scale that enables them to access inputs and services and negotiate for better price of their outputs. Participatory institutions of collective action for small scale farmers facilitate market linkages and also allow them to get vertically integrated with livestock processors leading to significant improvements in food, nutrition and income security for the rural poor.

The aim of the 2011 case study competition is to seek contributions on emerging collective initiatives across the agri allied sector. The case study should cover any combination of the following themes/ issues.

• Conditions within which the collective action was initiated;
• Factors that contributed to the success of the collective action;
• Role of external agency, if any. Nature of facilitation/ intervention/ support;
• Key theme of collective action;
• Organisational arrangement for the collective action;
• Type and nature of external linkages;
• Parameters of success and results thereon;
• Critical challenges for continued success of the collective action.

Case Protocol

Participants who will be submitting Case Studies need to keep the following points in mind. However, these are just broad guidelines and need to be adapted to the Case Study according to the participant.

INTRODUCTION

The introduction should include a paragraph highlighting the present scenario of the subject of the Case Study Project (Organization/person). The context of the project should also be specified and since when has it been in existence

THE RELEVANCE OF THE CASE TO THE THEME

How can it be explicitly stated that the study espouses the theme "Power of aggregation: Poor in agriculture"

THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE CASE

Under this, the following themes can be looked into:

1) People

• Why did people aggregate, what were the reasons which prompted this? What is the advantage from aggregation that the group didn't avail of earlier?

2) Organization/ Intervening Agency

• How did the Organisation decide this as best course of action, what was the catalyst idea and who was the catalyst? Did it fit with their mission? Approach?
• What is the form of the organization? Its governance structure?
• Is there any element of PP partnership involved?

3) Human Resources

• What was the investment on HR involved in this process? Did the community participate as beneficiaries or stakeholders in the process? Did the aggregation happen on the impetus of the community or the organization?
• Community studied-did they have access to land and forests? Education levels? Health conditions? Gender practices? Presence or absence of entrepreneurial spirit? Openness to outsiders and new ideas? What was the level of economic activity within the locale and its interface with the market? Incidence of petty business? Incidence of small enterprises? Sale of farm produce to dealers in high volumes? Services for agricultural sector such as input dealers and market agents?
• How did these socio-economic, cultural and economic characteristics of the people and the locale influence the interventions choice? Why?
• Does the intervention plan given attention to bringing changes in these characteristics?

4) Social Resources

• How did the social relations and institutions influence the livelihood opportunities of the communities?
• Does the impact of the intervention include changes in this sphere of social relations either directly or in an indirect fashion?

5) Physical Resources

• How is the availability or lack of infrastructure providing opportunities/imposing barriers for promoting livelihoods? Irrigation infrastructure? Road and Rail connectivity? Telecommunication and Transportation facilities? Power supplies? Social infrastructure such as educational institutes and hospitals? Market infrastructure such as warehouses, cold storage facilities for perishable goods? Or any other?
• How does the intervention plan to negotiate/has overcome these bottlenecks in achieving its objectives?

6) Financial Resources

• What are the institutions (formal and/or informal) of credit available in the locale and for the target community in particular? Banks? MFIs? Moneylenders? Social networks? Government subsidies?
• Did the intervention work to alleviate the bottlenecks in the credit market in order to achieve its objectives? How? Subsidized credit from grants? Establish MFI? Promote SHGs? Demand Disbursement to Poor by nationalised banks and/or other public commercial lending institutions? Linkage with Govt. subsidized program etc?

THE IMPACT AND OUTREACH

• What is the envisioned impact of the intervention? Will it affect a miniscule or a large section of the population of the area?

THE SUSTAINABILITY ASPECT

• What are the threats to the sustainability?
• How is the target intervention building on these/using these to promote opportunities for the target community?
• Is the intervention sustainable from a business point of view?

THE REPLICABILITY

• To what extent is this intervention replicable in other contexts/ geography/ target population in India? Will it help organizations/communities in improving their own models / of interventions?

THE INNOVATIVENESS

• To what extent is the intervention innovative in the Indian context? What is the unique feature/aspect of the project/initiative? What is the value added idea - Does it bring to practice and discourse totally new inputs or is it a modification of previous successful ideas?

KEY INSIGHTS

• Any additional insight that the participant can share to bring a managerial perspective to this Case Study, such as
1. Problems faced during the intervention and the action taken to solve these problems and any suggestions for individuals who want to replicate this livelihood initiative.
2. Scale aspects
3. Cost efficiency
4. Time period taken to come up with the model and innovation

Process

• All participants are requested to send enter the abstracts of their case studies (maximum 400 words) by 24th June in the registration form. The abstract should provide an overview of the aggregation model and its challenges and learning.
• Abstracts will be reviewed and a shortlist will be announced on 11th July.
• The shortlisted candidates will be requested to send the full case study, not exceeding 5000 words, by 5th September.
• To help the candidates write their cases, a Case Protocol will be shared with them post 11th July.
• Once the final cases come in, they will be reviewed and a final shortlist of about 25 cases will be passed on to the Jury comprising of eminent sector experts.
• The best 8 cases have been shortlisted.
• The authors of the shortlisted cases will be invited to make a presentation before the Jury on November 22, 2011 at New Delhi.
• A pre-set scoring criteria has been developed, based on which the Jury will then mark on the all the shortlisted cases.
• The scores of all the Jury Members will then be collated to arrive at the top 3 Cases.

Assessment Criteria

The screening of the case study will be based on the following criteria:

• The relevance of the case to the theme
• The novelty of the case (The entrant must either describe a case that has not been documented earlier or in case describing a case published earlier, must ensure that some new perspective not recognized earlier is brought out)
• The process/ unique features of the case
• The impact and outreach
• The sustainability aspect
• Key insights

Jury

Raji Gain                   General Manager, Natural Resource Management Center, NABARD 

Dr. Sunil Ray            Professor, Institute of Development Studies

Sukhpal Singh         Head, Agricultural Economics Research Unit, Institute of Economic Growth 

Mukul Kumar           Professor, IRMA   

Ajit Kanitkar             Program Officer, Development Finance and Economic Security, The Ford Foundation  

G R Chintala             General Manager, New Delhi Regional Office, NABARD  


 

Awards

• First Prize: Rs. 1,00,000
• Second Prize: Rs. 75,000
• Third Prize: Rs. 50,000
• Best 10 entries (including the top 3) will be given citations.
• The best 10 will be invited to the Livelihoods India Conference to be held on December 14 & 15, 2011 at New Delhi.
• A compendium of the 10 best cases will be released at the Conference.

Rules

• All entries should be submitted in English.
• The case study must not exceed 5000 words (excluding tables).
• All entries should be submitted in a word document, with font Times New Roman (size: 12), line spacing (1.5) and margins (1” on all sides).
• All submitted cases must be accompanied by a scanned or hard copy of the declaration form, with the signature of the authors..
• The cases should pertain to experiences which are at least 3 years old.
• The cases documented must relate to an Indian experience.
• All cases must be based on real life situations.
• Applicants should avoid cases already written about extensively.
• In the event that the case being documented is based on a practice of any institution/ organization, the applicant must take written permission from the concerned institution/ organization and provide a copy of the same.
• The case must be unpublished at the day of submission and should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere, even in a slightly modified form.
• All cases submitted will be the copyright of ACCESS Development Services and may be published as a compendium/ book with due acknowledgement to the author(s).
• All entries will be screened for plagiarism.
• The veracity of the cases may be checked.
• The decision of the Jury will be final and binding.

Important Dates

• 24th June - Submission of registration form with abstracts
• 5th September - Submission of final case studies
• 22nd November - Jury Meet
• 2nd December - Case Study Workshop
• 15th December - Awards Distribution on day 2 of the Livelihoods India Conference 2011

Forms

The registration and declaration forms can be downloaded here.

Registration Form
Declaration Form

Previous Competitions

2009 The Poor and the Private Sector Public Private Community Partnerships	2010 Subsistence to Sustainable The Power of Aggregation in Agriculture

Winners of 2011 Case Study Competition

First Position	Dr. Sunil Garg & Mr. Nishant Kumar Flying in a Flock
Second Position	Mr. MV Ashok & Mr. Pawan Ojha Jharkhand Women’s Self-Supporting Poultry Federation
Third Position	Mr. Anand Kapoor & Mr. Budhaji Damse: Tribal develop fisheries in Dimbhe Dam

Further Information

Paankhuri Mathur
Livelihoods India Secretariat
ACCESS Development Services
28, Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi – 16
livelihoodsindia@accessdev.org

or

Prof. Girish Agrawal & Prof. Vanita Yadav
Institute of Rural Management
ACCESS Development Services
Post Box – 60, Anand - 388001
girish@irma.ac.in, vanita@irma.ac.in