Capacity building of Panchayat community leaders, farmers and other workers on the recent legislations pertaining to Biological Diversity and Farmer's Rights The purpose of the project is to address the issue of knowledge inadequacy of leaders of Panchayath Raj Institutions, Farmers and grass root leaders on the two Indian legislations -the Biodiversity Act 2002 and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001, specifically the privilege related to Farmers' Rights pertain to decision making on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing and seed management. The capacity building, it is hoped that will improve the grassroots efforts in conservation of biodiversity, natural resources management and protection of traditional knowledge.

Hon'ble Union Minister of Panchayat Raj Shri Mani Sankar Ayier launched this project in a meeting that conducted at MSSRF on 2nd June 2007. Four districts, namely Cuddalore, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur and Namakkal, which cover a total of 2119 panchayths were identified for implementation of the project in Tamil Nadu. The data on the number of block panchayats and panchayats were collected along with the names and addresses of all elected representatives including the district panchayat presidents. The ongoing project activities include Development of tool kits for training, preparation for organizing district level project launch meeting involving PRI at the headquarters of the Namakkal, Cuddalore, Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts, finalization of trainers trainees.

Development of tool kits for training
Preparation of training modules and pedagogic tool kits in English and Tamil on the two legislations to foster techno-legal awareness among Panchayat and community leaders, farmer representatives, NGOs and other institutions working with local communities and farmers is the most important component of the training. The tool kits required are the manuals on two Acts in English, translation of these manuals and the texts of the two Acts to Tamil, printing of these materials to meet the training demand, and development of posters, short videos and other teaching aids. During this report period work on this component is initiated. Tamil translation of Biological Diversity Act is already available. The translation of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights to Tamil is already in progress and hoped to be ready by the year end. Manual on one of the two acts is available in English and Tamil. Work on the manual of Biological Diversity Act is in progress. The project group is also working on other teaching aids like posters and videos.

Level-1 Trainee Identification
A hierarchy approach is to be followed for the training programme proposed under this project. This hierarchy aims to create a cadre of trainers at level-1, who in turn may offer level-2 training to more members of the communities and local institutions. The Level -1 trainee are to be identified and selected from panchayat representatives, NGOs and other local institutions working in the project districts and progressive farmers, school teachers, etc. Here identification of trainee trainers at Level 1 assumes high importance as the second level training depends on the quality of training accomplished on Level 1 trainees and their readiness to conduct level 2 training. Therefore, identification of Level-1 trainees needs to be carefully made with fair understanding on their strength for get trained and their willingness to assist in conducting the Level-2 training. During this report period, with the help of MSSRF staff working in these districts, efforts were made to collect and assemble information on the prospective Level-1 trainees from the four target districts. These trainee nominees comprised of elected representatives of the PRIs, representatives of NGOs or CBOs working on biodiversity, environment and livelihood related areas and progressive or award winning farmers and representatives of Farmers Associations. About 40 trainer's trainees are to be short listed from the identified candidates with appropriate representations to PRI, farmers, NGOs/CBOs and women.

Contact Details
Dr. S. Balaravi
sbala@mssrf.res.in