Under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, a national flagship programme, ARAVALI got an opportunity to
engage in decentralised planning process in eight districts of Rajasthan. An intensive effort were made
to evolve the structure, process, and mechanisms for undertaking the Decentralized Planning for
Agriculture and Allied Sector across eight districts of the state with the Department of Agriculture.
The biggest assumption on this front was that Decentralized Planning, as a function, was something the
district functionaries were sensitized or skilled for-it was never the case in practice! The engagement
allowed us to develop insights and appreciation about the bottlenecks that constrain the growth of
livelihoods in the farm sector across the different regions of the state.
Through this engagement ARAVALI was able to evolve a comprehensive framework for
decentralised livelihood framework. ARAVALI's Contribution to Decentralized Planning were on the
following:
- Evolved a livelihoods framework for community level planning
- Value Chain based assessment of community livelihood needs
- Community segmentation based on livelihoods activity and resource base
- Derivation of critical capital constraints to livelihoods strengthening for community segments
- Segmental capital strengthening through sectoral interventions
- Manual for Decentralized Planning for Livelihoods for departmental functionaries
- Institutional Livelihoods Entitlements in the form of Panchayat, Block and District Plans for
Agriculture & Allied Livelihoods
Based on this experience of ARAVALI, a comprehensive manual on Decentralized
Planning Process has been prepared and published by ARAVALI.
