Impact Evaluation of Joint Forest Management Programme in Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir State
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Date
2021-08
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Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu
Abstract
Joint Forest Management Programme (JFM) has been a major thrust area of forest management over the last two decades. The programme is operating with main objective of forest management and empowerment of local livelihoods through sustainable resource utilization and income generation opportunities. Total recorded forest area of Jammu and Kashmir is 20, 23,000 ha. Out of which 38,736 ha is under JFM. JFM involves sharing of responsibilities and rights of local communities and forest department (FD) as primary stakeholders in forest management system. It is also supposed to invoke active participation of local people and application of their traditional wisdom and knowledge in countering ecological and economic vulnerabilities in the form of soil erosion, drought condition, loss of soil productivity and scarcity of timber, fuel wood, fodder, plant leaves etc. Keeping in view the importance of JFM Programme, a study entitled “Impact Evaluation of Joint Forest Management Programme in Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir State.” was conducted. The present study was conducted purposively in “East Circle” of Jammu division because of having maximum number of districts. Multistage sampling plan was followed for the selection of respondents. Six ranges from East Circle having maximum number of JFMCs were selected purposively. Twenty four committees, four from each selected ranges of East Circle were selected through random sampling technique. Eight members from each JFMC were selected randomly for the study making the sample size of 192 JFM respondents. Two villages from each range (12 villages in total) were selected through random sampling technique. From each selected village nine non- JFMC members were randomly selected for the study making the sample size of 108 non-JFMC members. Overall sample size consisted of 300 respondents. The result of the study showed that, JFM programme played crucial role in conservation of forest resources. There was good network of JFMC in different forest divisions of Jammu, which are functioning successfully with certain exceptions. Education level of participants was very low and majority of respondents belongs to marginal category. Agriculture is still as major source of income of communities living in or close the forests. In addition to agriculture daily wage labour was the second best source of income after agriculture. Majority of the respondents had exposure of different training under joint forest management programme. Significant improvement was observed after the successive execution of JFM programme with respect to total number of trees planted, increase in forest cover and increase in different plant species. There was significant improvement in production of green fodder, grass production, crop fencing material and fuel wood in those areas where JFM successfully implemented. JFM programme had great impact on community asset creation in the rural areas which is indicated by the construction of Bowalies, Ponds, and Community halls. JFM programme had significant impact on the overall income of the households falling in its area of operation. JFM programme also shown noticeable impact on production of milk in the study area. Family size, area under trees, extension contact and social participation were the factors which significantly affected farmer’s decision to join JFM programme. It was found that among different independent variables, area under trees, area under pasture land and number of dairy animals significantly affected the total annual income from JFM programme. Overall respondents had favorable perception towards Joint Forest Management Programme. Lack of funds, delay in planting time, delay in payments of work, lack of awareness, lack of training programme and lack of knowledge of new plant species were the major constraints faced by JFMC’s members in JFM programme.
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Preferred for your work. Iqbal,T.2021. Impact Evaluation of Joint Forest Management Programme in Jammu Division of Jammu and Kashmir State. Ph.D thesis, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, India