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Centre for Collective Development (CCD) started with a key objective to enhance the income of small and marginal farmers dependent on agriculture by creating institutions, primarily cooperative societies, owned and managed by farmers themselves.

They work in three districts namely Adilabad, Anantapur and Chittoor. These districts were selected because: a) they received very low & scanty annual rain fall; b) they had a large population of small & marginal farmers; c) agriculture was largely dependent on rainfed conditions (only one cropping season per year); and d) the districts are among the poorest in India.

CCD work involves two aspects. The first is social mobilization in the villages which includes meeting potential new members in new villages, holding meetings, discussing the benefits of forming cooperatives. Once they agree to come together into a cooperative, CCD conducts intensive training programs on cooperative education and on business. The Cooperatives in each District are organized into District level Federations. Each Federation owns and runs a food processing unit at present. The second aspect of the work is related to business development. CCD continuously studies the markets for the four commodities it works with, soyabean, groundnut, Bengal gram and Tur dal. CCD achieved a remarkable milestone by setting up a Cooperative Dal Mill which is the first ever mill in the tribal areas of India. The Mill has provided employment opportunities for the nearby villagers and it has been found that after the value addition of the raw products, it provided an additional Rs200-250 to the members. Some of their projects are:

• ‘Wadi’ or ‘Maa Thota’ Project: This project is operational in 2 Mandals (Jainoor and Indravelly) of Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh. Under this project 12 villages were covered to grow different types of plants in the CCD Project area.
• Watershed Development:  Under this project the main focus areas are soil and moisture conservation and providing loans for livelihood interventions for the poor, and agricultural productivity enhancement of small and marginal farmers.