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Introduction : The economy of the district is predominately agrarian where 70% of the population is engaged in agricultural activities. However, farmer continues growing traditional crops like wheat, maize rice etc. The diversification towards other cash crops is very little. As the land holding of  the farmers is shrinking day by day, the traditional crops no longer yield good profit to the farmers. The low diversification towards other cash crops cultivation is partly due to lack of infra-structural facilities and partly due to lack of awareness and motivation   of farmers. In order to develop necessary infrastructure in the district and to provide technical know how to the  farmers  living below  poverty   line  a  special Project named “Gold mines” under SGSY was sanctioned by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India  vide letter No. 5-24015/21-2000-SGSY-V- Sl. No. 1 dated 27-9-2000 to the  tune of Rs. 840.35 lacs. Out of  this grant of Rs.  327.76 lacs is to be shared between centre and state Governments  in the ratio of 75:25.  Rest of the amount   i,e Rs. 512.59 lacs will be in the shape of Bank loan which will benefit 900 farmers of this district under the project. Activities   identified under the Project are as under :-

Floriculture

Mushroom  cultivation

Sericulture

Activity-wise detail of beneficiaries and  financial projections

Sr. No.	Name of Activity	No. of  beneficiary to be covered	Project Cost
1.	Floriculture	200	235.39
2.	Mushroom Cultivation	200	234.80
3.	Sericulture	500	370.16
Total		900	840.35

Floriculture :- Under this activity , 70 farmers each will  take up  the growing of carnation and Gladiolus  flowers and 60 farmers  will grow  Chrysanthemum   flowers. Gladiolus is grown under open air conditions whereas the other two  species  are grown under poly-house or green houses and for that special infrastructure  is required  to be developed by the farmers.

Performance under activity :- Component  wise performance are as under  :-

I. Infrastructure Development :- Under the Project , three demo- farms  will be set up for which provision of Rs. 37.29 lacs have been  made. At present  , one  demo-farm  is being set up at Makri Markand with a total cost of Rs. 12.43 lacs and already an expenditure of Rs. 9.50 lacs has been incurred so far. For setting up of  remaining  demo- farms, sites at Nihari and Badowa have been identified where the work is likely to start very soon .

II. Marketing Support Infrastructure :- Two collection  cum cold storage centers will be set up under the project   for which a provision of Rs. 44.00 lacs has been made. At present work of one collection- cum- storage center at Makri Markand and another one  at Namhol (Sosan)   have been under taken . The work of Makri center is in finishing stage, while at Namhol , work of super structure is in progress for which an expenditure of Rs.4.887 lacs have been made. HPSIDC  has been assigned  the construction work of cold store at Kandrour. Preparation  of estimates and tender work is in progress which is likely to be completed by mid August of 2002.

III. Training :- A provision of Rs. 4.30 lacs has been made in the project. So for  loan cases of 21 trainees  are sanctioned by Banks. For  these , awareness –cum-  orientation camps were organized at Demo-farms Makri as well as at block headquarters. Besides this ,an awareness camp for the BPL  families was organized at Namhol in which 272 farmers participated. Aim of this  camp was to generate awareness in active farmers about the project and its activities.

IV. Physical/Financial Performance :-  200 farmers will be benefited under the activity . At present , 48 cases have been sponsored  to banks for loan, out of which , 20 cases have been sanctioned  . A loan of Rs. 6.646 lacs is advanced so far against  which, subsidy of Rs. 4.079 lacs have been released to banks.

CONSTRAINTS :-
I. It being a land based  activity, the bankers are finding it difficult to create charge against the land because generally  the land is in the name of the head of the family  whereas the beneficiary is some other member  of that family.

II. As the activity is not covered under the “crop insurance  scheme” , neither the beneficiary is willing to take any risk nor the bankers are assured of recovery of loan.

III. The scheme is targetted   to cover only BPL families, Due to small   land holdings and non- availability of irrigated land  the BPL beneficiaries are not ready to take  risk on diversification. To make the scheme popular  some of the APL families may also be allowed to be included in the activity.

IV. It is difficult to pursuade a group of 10-15 farmers in a single village for the adoption of any activity  under this project, amongst BPL families , due to their scattered population.   Besides, adverse climatic conditions in the district, unorganized  marketing structure   , easily perishable  produce and  fast growing competition  from the bulk growers of neighbouring states  are the possible threats to the growers.

Mushroom Cultivation :- Under this activity, 200 farmers are  proposed to be covered. One compost unit is being set up at Kandrour   to supply compost to the Mushroom growers. Besides, technical guidance will be provided to the growers for effective implementation through department of Horticulture at Demostration Mushroom cropping room at Block Head quarter Sadar  Bilaspur .

Performance Under Activity : Component   wise performance is as under  :-

I. Infrastructure Development :-Under infrastructure development one compost plant and one Demo – Mushroom cropping room are being constructed  under the project , a  provision of Rs. 99.26 lacs has been made for setting of these units. The work of compost plant at Kandrour is in progress  and so far an expenditure  of Rs. 20.85 lacs has  been made . One demo- growing room  is being established at BDO office Lakhanpur and expenditure of Rs. 0.597 has been incurred  so far . Compost unit is likely to be commissioned by November,2002.

II. Training :-   Under this activity  there is a provision  of Rs. 4.30 lacs for the training as well as capacity  building organizing to the beneficiaries into SHGs , whose cases  have been sanctioned from the bank . So far ,training to 27 farmers of Ghumarwin  and Jhandutta   block has been imparted  at NRCM Chambaghat ,  District Solan HP.

III. Physical Performance :- So far 97 cases  have been sponsored  to various banks of the district under  the activity . Out of this , 29 cases have been sanctioned  by the banks. An amount of Rs. 27.767 lac have been disbursed by banks as loan against which subsidy to the tune of Rs. 7.25 lacs has been released to banks.

IV. Cause of Delay :- Setting up of compost unit was delayed due to Administrative problems/Court Matter. Land proposed   to be acquired was disputed land which delayed acquasition   of the land and starting of work. Consequently, bank   loan cases for Mushroom growing units were delayed by the    bankers.  Now land has been   acquired and the work is under progress and unit is likely   to be commissioned by  Novemeber  2002. Bankers have also  assured  for speedy sanction of the cases sponsored  under the activity.

Constraints :- The problem being faced in floriculture activity are identical for to that of Mushroom growing activity.

Sericulture :- Bilaspur district already stands at number one in the state in cocoon production . Agro, climatic conditions and soil characteristics of the district  are favuorable for mulberry plantation  Farmers of this district adopted the activity  about 60 years ago but they are not fully trained to meet the pace of modern techniques to get  large quantity of cocoon. The proposed activity through production of quality bivoltine  silk in district will involve total  budget outlay of Rs. 370.16 lacs. The Project will be implemented  in two stages . In first stage, rearing of silk worm will be undertaken by Self Help Groups of 15-25 farmers as well as individual farmers covering five hundered  farmers.  They will be financed by the Banks for  raising  mulberry    plantation  on their land and for purchase of  rearing equipment  and construction of rearing huts. In IInd stage, three new technical  services stations will be set up  and for marketing support infrastructure, it is proposed to set up two cocoon collection -cum -marketing centers, one reeling Unit and one weaving Unit  under the Project.

Constraints :- Non availability  of large chunk of barren land with BPL families for the  purpose of mulberry plantation restricts bulk  cocoon production . Secondly, sudden fall in the prices of cocoon from Rs. 310 to Rs. 218 within a span of one year has created an obscurity  in the minds of beneficiaries. The other constraints are same as explained supra, under the activity of floriculture.

Constraints :-
1. Land based activity, problem of charge creation  is faced during the sanction of the  case. Most of the times, land on which charge is to be created is in the name of family member other then beneficiary. As a result, bankers do not sanction the loan proposals.

2. Land dispute at hatwar  delayed setting up of TSS .