District Level Consultation Meeting for Serchhip District was held at DC Conference Hall, New Serchhip on 3rd May 2019 at 11:00 AM. The meeting was hosted by Ms. Rosalind Lalawmzuali, Technical Officer of FOCUS-Serchhip District. The District Commissioner, Mrs. Sangchhin Chinzah was the Chief Guest and many government officials from line departments and Village Council Presidents and Secretaries attended the meeting.

The District Project Manager, Mr. C.Lalnithanga delivered a welcoming speech by welcoming the Village Council Presidents, Secretaries representing their respective villages, Officers from line departments and the officials from Project Management Unit for attending the meeting. He explained the project’s mission and objectives, various sectors which it would concentrate such as- Improved Jhum Cultivation, Value Chain Development and Project Management. He mentioned that the Deputy Commissioner is the head of the district and all directions and authority rests with her discretion. He also mentioned that the villages covered by the project in Serchhip district was 42 villages, where in actual was 51 villages s as per latest Village Council data gathered by the DPM.

Mrs. Hmangaihzuali delivered a speech regarding the project scope and areas in a broader sense. She gave a brief report on the setting up of the project from the scratch and the progress it had achieved till date. The project covers four districts- Champhai, Mamit, Serchip and Kolasib and aims to cover 64500 households.

She explained that FOCUS is a project of United Nations on climate change which is funded in India by International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for a period of 6 years. In Mizoram, it was started from 25th Jan 2018 and is implemented through agriculture department as a nodal department and its allied sectors with a total budget of $ 79.30 million which is around Rs.539.282 Cr. The total project is borne by IFAD ($ 35.3 million) in contribution with the Government of Mizoram including CSS & Convergence ($ 44 million) as a State Matching Share. She continued her speech by saying that UN does not request to stop jhum cultivation but advice for improvement. She also mentioned that fisheries will be included in the project and will be undertaken in areas where it is feasible.

She also highlights the need for cooperation from the people and is not a place for political involvement where in which only deserving and hardworking people will benefited from this project. All activities will be undertaken from the Farmers Interest Groups (FIGs) and will be transparent through regular monitoring. All possible convergence from CSS will be integrated with the project and requested all line department officers to cooperate with it.

 Mr. Lalengliana, Subject Matter Specialist, spoke about the staffing and startup of the project across PMU and DMUs. He stressed the need to obtain FPIC as soon as possible from the villages where the project will operate. He also said that funds required to undertake activities are already in place but cannot be disbursed as of yet due to certain compliance regulation from government regarding external aided projects which will be sorted out soon.

He also mentioned that ‘Arhar’ was introduced at Serchhip with the help of specialist and line departments which was very successful and will be practiced across other districts wherever possible. The project will also focus on water conservation and irrigation facilities in areas where it is necessary.

Mrs. Sangchin Chinzah welcomed all the members present in the meeting and expressed her gratitude of this meeting. She said that she was excited from the first meeting when the District Project Manager explained about the project. She continued by saying that the   government had initiated many schemes in the past for the welfare of the people where in which some are successful while some does not prove much success. She motivates the members by saying that the real success lies in the people who are the real beneficiaries and had to give maximum effort and cooperation to these schemes. Not only this, everyone including the government has to work accordingly with mutual trust and dignity. She advice and ask the village councils to influence their villagers to cooperate wholeheartedly with the project activities and not take it for granted. She further comment that this project is different and special that it is completely focused to developing the society as a whole.

She also highlights that she was very happy that IFAD has chosen us to help us in improving farming system and climate change.

At the end of the meeting, the District Project Manager, wrap up the session by informing all the invitees present in the meeting that by the coming week, the Village Level Workers assigned for different villages will most likely visit their respective villages for collection of data for the preparation of detailed Baseline Survey and he requested the Village Council President and Secretaries of all villages to provide them proper assistance and guidance to meet their requirements. He also motivated the VCPs to achieve the highest level of success of this project in Serchhip District so that they can be a good role model for other the other three Districts where the project has been implemented.

The meeting came to an end with a Vote of Thanks from Mr. James Zosangliana, Asst. Finance Manager, DMU Serchhip.