3. General information Mhasobawadi is part of Babhulwadi, Akole Taluka, Ahmednagar District, with several hamlets. It is located in a hilly region oft he Western Ghats at a height of app. 900 m above sea level. Number of families: 50 Population: 300 Economic situation at project start: All families in the project area are living below poverty line (based on UN levels, meaning that they are earning less than US$ 1.50/day; Indian levels are lower). Landless families: 8 Land under cultivation within project area: 80ha Project area: 180ha Number of cattles: 98(cows 36, bulls 35; goats 20, water buffaloes 7) Due to the increased work in watershed development already 31 out of 50 families could benefit from these activities. But the impacts will substantially increase in the third and fourth year when we can see the full interventions functioning as a whole. We intend to use the favourable mood and motivation of the people to speed up the water and soil conservation actiivities as fast as we can. Once people have more land of their own to cultivate, less labour will normally be available. Then we can concentrate on the other works (farm ponds, deepening of wells, etc.) in the last period of the project. 4.3 Climate impacts – changing rain patterns For most of the drought hit regions in Maharashtra the monsoon of 2016 was a real relief. After 10 to twelve years of weak monsoon most regions got good rains. But regions like Mhasobawadi that normally have something like 900 mm of rain – but fast run off – were hit with weak rainfalls on only 600 mm. The return monsoon didn’t reach the mountains anymore. The changing rain patterns were even more dramatically in other regions of India like parts of Tamil Nadu, 2015 hit by vaste floodings in December and now in 2016 they only got two days of rain in 2016! The changing patterns will increase the urgency for farmers to change their cropping patterns and agricultural systems as well. This will be a major task to create awareness among the farmers for these adjustments. 4.4 Demonetarisation – incredible impacts for small farmers With effect from 9th November 2016 the Government of India implemented the demonetarisation scheme which basically aimed at cutting down the corruption and the market of black money. All RS 500 and 1000 notes had tob e replaced and put on a bank account. Rigid restrictions on cash withdrawal from bank accounts and ATMs were implemented from one day to the other. What may have beenseen as a strong political action against corruption, the notorious black money in real estate business and money laundering has turned out to be a major burden for the rural samll farmers and the daily laborers. Their business is fully based on cash. In November the second crop is already ripening and their was no possibility for farmers to react properly on this situation. In our village Mhasobawadi where farmers went heavily on tomatoes due to the new availability of water for irrigation and improve soil conditions. All of a sudden the middle men who were keen on getting the highland tomatoes had no more cash. The market for the small farmers in those remote areas more or less collapsed and farmers with highly perishable goods were on the wrong side. Unfortunately this unforseen political decision has more or less destroyed the economical benefits of the additional land and the availability of water for irrigation as the rabi crop – where farmers normally make good money with tomatoes – gave only very little income for the families. Therefore this impact will be limited at least for this period. 4.5 Plantation of trees improved 12600 trees have been planted during the monsoon (cashew, 3 different types of acacia, eucalyptus, mangoes, custard apple, rain tree, kashid, and bamboo as well as 3 kg of custard seeds were planted along the farm bundings. The results of plant survival especially of the fruit trees – as we can say it up to now – were much better than last year even with less rain. The effects of the water storing capacity has been approved. About 75% of the planted trees are growing. We are constantly improving the training of staff and locals with more sophisticated planting techniques applied in other projects. 4.6 Group farming – more efficiency Under the leadership of a young village member – a newcomer in farming! – 5 different groups of small farmers were set up last year. After a few struggles at the beginning of the initiative, these groups started working together on their fields and and found out that they were much more efficient in planting, harvesting and slowly they are starting to plan and market together. Unfortunately the negative impacts of demonetisation has weakend their ambitions a bit but hopefully this will end soon. There is a need for more trainings for farmers in ecological farming and agroforestry. Especially the young farmers are more and more getting aware of these necessities. One existing open well was deepened and was completely full after monsoon. It has a fairly big storage capacity for irrigation. The two borewells have got a very good recharge and are now serving the community mainly for drinking purpose. Econimically and socially the impact of salaries paid for the work in water and soil conservation interventions have had a very big impact. The amount of Rs. 472969 in the reporting period were basically salaries paid to the farmers. As farmers spend this money mainly in the local market the amount has multiplied in the region. Socially we can state that having work available on their own land, these families didn’t need to migrate anymore. This has taken away a huge burden especially from women and children. The families can stay at home in the dry season. The integration of all families of the area has led to increased cooperations among them. First attempts for group farming are showing quite good results.