In 2007, the Utthan Centre for Sustainable Development and Poverty Alleviation, one of the World Agroforestry Centre’s key partners in India, was awarded the prestigious Alcan Prize for Sustainability, worth US$1 million. The prize recognized Utthan’s remarkable achievements since it was founded in 1996. “The agroforestry and livelihoods projects initiated by Utthan have benefited at least 100,000 people, many of them among the poorest inhabitants of degraded tribal areas in North India,” explains Pal Singh, the World Agroforestry Centre’s Regional Coordinator for South Asia.

When announcing the award, Rio Tinto Alcan and the International Business Leaders Forum, managing partners of the Alcan Prize, cited two of Utthan’s agroforestry projects among its major achievements. One has involved the widespread planting of Jatropha curcas, whose seeds are used to make carbon-neutral biofuels; the other has helped to reclaim large areas of degraded land. Utthan has also been involved in health and education Its health programmes have led to the immunization of 600,000 children against six preventable diseases, and its literacy and adult education work has benefited around a million people in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

The World Agroforestry Centre provided technical advice for both agroforestry projects. In one of these, some 750 hectares of degraded land, belonging to 735 ‘scheduled caste’ families, were reclaimed using superior varieties of Jatropha. The initial investment amounted to around US$650 per person. By the third year, the beneficiaries were earning US$1,200 from the sale of Jatropha seeds. “The project helped to improve the environment and lift the families out of poverty,” says Singh, who helped to identify and source the ‘super clones’ of Jatropha and develop better agronomic techniques for early fruiting and higher nut and oil yields. As a result of this project, Jatropha has received widespread attention and Utthan believes that its cultivation on 30 million hectares of wasteland in India could produce 60 million tonnes of biofuel a year, thus saving US$20 billion of oil imports.

The second of the two agroforestry projects has led to the reclamation of some 85,000 hectares of degraded land and directly benefited 90,000 families who have planted bamboo, ‘babool’, Jatropha and various medicinal plants.The project has dramatically increased tree cover, improved soil fertility and crop yields, and provided fodder for livestock and fuel for cooking. Once again, the World Agroforestry Centre provided technical advice and helped Utthan to source superior varieties of seeds.

Utthan will use the Alcan Prize to extend its agroforestry programmes, especially on degraded land in areas with high levels of poverty. “The funding and recognition is very significant for us,” says Dr D.N.Tewari, President of the Utthan Centre and a member of the World Agroforestry Centre’s Board of Trustees. The money associated with the Alcan Prize will allow us to do so much more for disadvantaged communities. But, perhaps even more importantly, the recognition of our efforts on the international stage will lead to learning and partnerships that we might not have been able to access on our own.”

For more information,
contact V. P. Singh,
v.p.singh@cgiar.org