IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi was quick to wish good luck to IFFDC. He tweeted on Thursday “Best of luck 2 # Indian Farm Forestry Development Cooperative 2 win @timesofindia Social Impact Award @TOI MyTimes short listed in Environment Category.”
The Times of India Social Impact Awards are an attempt to honor the activities of thousands of people who are not satisfied with sitting back and watching, who have taken the plunge and worked for delivering such essential needs to our compatriots as education, healthcare and decent livelihoods. These Awards will also recognize work towards saving the environment and empowerment of people, claims its website.
Enumerating its reasons behind short-listing cooperative body IFFDC, the website says IFFDC’s cooperative forests hold significance because revival and regeneration of 26,000 ha. of salt-affected, ravines and waterlogged wastelands of which 12864 ha. has been developed through cooperative efforts made by the small and marginal communities of Uttar Pradesh, who are as much the drivers of the ecological change as much its beneficiaries.
Engaging communities in creating forests is unique as it offers unaccounted benefits for ecosystem services not only to the communities who have nurtured the canopy in particular but to the ecosystem in general, it adds.
The co-operative farm forestry model which has about 37% women participation has two significant features: one, communities revere the forests like ‘sacred groves’ and two, they pursue economic activities based on the extraction of non-timber products, fuel wood and mature trees.
Besides tangible products, the farm forests provide non-tangible outputs like clean water and air. These Cooperatives are also helping to create livelihood of their members through providing credit facilities, input supplies, and technical support to established micro enterprises. The model also provides plate-form for women for addressing their practical and strategic needs.
The website of Social Impact Award also mentions the number of persons who have benefitted from the activities of IFFDC in past 3 years as more than 39 thousand persons.