Sub Programme Area 402
Work during the year covered studies on assessment of climate change impacts on food production and livelihoods, followed by consolidating the key learnings from the different pilots focusing on potential adaptation strategies in building resilience among farmers to deal with the changes.
402.1 Climate Change Impacts and Vulnerability Assessment: Food Security and Livelihood
Following the detailed analysis of the impact of climate change on the productivity of rice and maize under both RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios at the state level in the near term (2030s), by mid-century (2050s) and end century (2080s) as well as the detailed district-level analysis of vulnerability to agriculture production, food security and livelihoods, the focus was on analysing the existing state-level action plan for climate change in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In addition, existing schemes and plans of the ‘line departments’ were also used in the analysis to understand how the development measures were tuned to address the impact on food production and livelihoods. The analysis finds the gap in mainstreaming climate change analysis based on inputs and results in the developmental plans especially in convergence across policy and practice levels.
402.2 Climate Information Services
The Agro-met advisories based on medium-range weather forecast have been helpful to the farmers in reducing the risk in farming by making changes in management decisions on different agronomic practices. During 2019–20, the Agro Meteorological Field Unit (AMFU), Kannivadi, has developed 630 bilingual weather forecast and agro-advisory bulletins based on crop status at biweekly intervals along with two special bulletins on extreme weather events. The Kannivadi AMFU is the nodal point to develop and disseminate agro-advisories in the southern agro-climate zone of Tamil Nadu, covering six districts: Dindigul, Madurai, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Theni. The advisories were disseminated to the farmers mainly through mKisan web portal of India Meteorological Department (IMD). During the year, 810 agro-advisories were shared to 188770 men and women on a biweekly basis. In addition, the advisories were sent as voicemails to 5547 farmers (male: 2145; female: 3402) and in text form to 550 farmers though social media (WhatsApp). During the past year, with an objective of increasing the spatial scale, IMD has initiated block-level forecasting system on pilot basis. Since July 2019, 420 block-level Agro Advisory System (AAS) bulletins have been prepared for Reddiyarchatram, Oddanchathram, Palani and Nilakkottai blocks of Dindigul district through the Agromet Decision Support System portal and disseminated to the farmers and agriculture officers of the respective blocks.
Apart from creating access to agro-advisories, awareness programmes were organized on different themes such as climate change and its impact on soil health, cropping systems, crop protection, natural resources and livestock management and use of seasonal forecasts. Such awareness programmes are a means by which the uptake of the forecast and advisories has been promoted among farmers. The training was organized using diverse methods, including face-to-face and remote methods, with information and communication technology (ICT) tools such as audio and video conferences and voice mails, and trained 302 (male: 84; female: 218) farmers. In addition, farmers have been engaged in conversation on issues related to impacts of weather and climate on crop cultivation, livestock farming and soil and water conservation on six different social media platforms. A total of 617 men and women farmers have formed a group and mutually share their experiences and pertinent information. To supplement these efforts in reaching more farmers on weather-based farming and to create an access to agro-advisory services, IMD established digital tools such as the mobile app ‘Meghdoot’ and farmers’ helpline services. At the field level, four farmer awareness programmes in Dindigul and Pudukkottai districts reached 278 farmers (male: 152; female: 126) and 70 undergraduate agricultural students to take it forward among more farmers.
402.3 Enhancing Adaptive Capacity of the Farmers: Nurturing Climate Risk Managers
To strengthen the effort of the adaptive capacity of the women farmers to meet the challenges of climate change, the team undertook a unique approach. The capacity-building initiatives were facilitated among all stakeholders in the whole chain starting from agro-advisory developers to user level, that is, farmers. Here four different sets of stakeholders played a critical role in educating the farmers about the appropriate climate information. Of this, 7 AMFU facilitators and 21 FPOs are at the organizational level, and 32 climate risk managers and 3000 farmers were involved at the grassroots level. The initiative was supplementing the activities of the AMFU-based climate information services and grounded in six districts, namely, Ramanathapuram, Theni, Dindigul, Pudukkottai, Sivagangai and Madurai. With this initiative, a network of women climate risk managers attached to different FPOs from six neighbouring districts were established and connected through social media platform to exchange new information, experiences and challenges from their region.
402.4 Building Resilience through Sustainable Intensification and Agroecological Approach
Another approach of building resilience to the changing climate pattern among small-holders is through sustainable intensification and agro-ecological farming systems, which is being tested in field locations in Assam and Odisha. The capacity-building and knowledge management initiatives were facilitated through five VKCs, which developed a partnership with the consortium members, line departments and stakeholders in the respective locations. The programme adopted a ‘Meet the People’ campaign, a unique awareness approach in all the project villages to introduce the services of the VKCs. Efforts have been made for the sustainability of the VKCs by attempting a model in which KVK/FPOs in the region take a lead in facilitating the activities right from the planning to the execution phases. Continuous efforts have been made to build the capacity of the farmers on climate smart agriculture (CSA) technologies using diverse ICT tools (Table 1). The plant clinic model has also been extended based on our past experiences from Tamil Nadu, and 20 plant doctors were trained by the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, New Delhi. At the field level to promote farmer-to-farmer learning, 730 champion farmers from the field sites were identified and trained on CSA technologies and practices such as new submergence-/drought-tolerant varieties of primary crops, alternate wetting and drying as well as system of rice intensification methods of paddy cultivation, micro-irrigation technologies, crop diversification with short-duration vegetables and pulses, use of farm machinery services in transplanting, harvesting and processing, eco-friendly pest management practices and value addition in perishable products. The ICT platform has picked up well in disseminating need-based information, programmes and advisories on pertinent CSA technologies to the farmers, including women.
| S. no. | List of ICT tools | Number of programmes | Male | Female | Total |
| Audio advisory | 440 | 4179 | 1121 | 5300 | |
| Helpline | 1760 | 1364 | 396 | 1760 | |
| 502 | 170 | 56 | 226 | ||
| Phone-in programme | 12 | 351 | 177 | 858 | |
| Video conference | 4 | 75 | 77 | 152 | |
| Audio conference | 23 | 397 | 223 | 620 | |
| Video-based learning | 30 | 525 | 343 | 868 | |
| Plant clinics | 19 | 283 | 115 | 398 | |
| Demonstrations | 85 | 2315 | 1323 | 3638 | |
| VKC users | 5 | 1471 | 629 | 2100 | |
| Total | 2875 | 11130 | 4460 | 15590 |
Table 1: Overall reach of farmers in Assam and Odisha (taken together) using different ICT tools and demonstrations
Stakeholder support is important to address farmers’ and users’ queries and to reduce the gap in agriculture extension services. In view of this, two stakeholders’ workshops were organized and their support was ensured for the appropriate services of the VKCs. Towards this, a writeshop was organized with the support of line department experts and 35 need-based content was developed, which is updated continuously based on the demand from the farmers. So far, 275 text and 600 audio contents have been developed and disseminated. In order to assess the usefulness of the voice SMS initiative, which is one of the regular ICT services accessed, a structured survey was conducted in all the field sites. The study has shown that 89 per cent of the farmers expressed it to be very useful and relevant to them and 59 per cent confirmed that they practised the information received in their field and were benefitted.
Efforts are on to mainstream gender in the different overall project activities. Towards this, a gender-sensitization workshop for all the project partners was organized for 3 days in September 2019. Subsequently, efforts have been made to sensitize the field functionaries, knowledge workers and VKC management committee members on integrating gender approach and prioritizing their action towards women farmers in view of their marginalization in accessing productive resources despite their contribution in agriculture production. Gender analysis was conducted in all the project villages, and it helped to understand the key gender gaps and constant efforts to involve both men and women in project activities. Because of the continuous efforts, 29 per cent of women are actively engaged in project interventions.
Apart from the above two themes, MSSRF has conducted a detailed value chain analysis in all the four field sites to understand the scope for public-private partnership to promote entrepreneurship in the areas of seed production, vegetable processing and aggregation of products for collective marketing. In the past year, it promoted a buyback arrangement for paddy seeds of two flood-/drought-tolerant varieties and vegetable marketing in Assam
402.5 The Gender Factor in Political Economy of Energy Sector Dynamics
With the partnership of ENERGIA, efforts were taken to disseminate the key findings of the project through webinars among researchers and policymakers, both at national and international levels, supplemented with a policy brief. Two papers are under peer review with journals.
402.6 Water Security and Climate Adaptation in Rural India
Water Security and Climate Adaptation in Rural India (WASCA) is an Indo-German programme carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Jal Shakti, government of India, with the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (GiZ) to improve water resource management for achieving water security and to adapt to changing climate. As part of this project, water resources management is enhanced through an integrated approach at national, state and local levels and is operational in five states – Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. MSSRF is the technical agency in the state of Tamil Nadu. Here, Thiruvannamalai and Ramanathapuram are the two districts selected for deeper study and action based on the district-level vulnerability ranking done by GiZ and Anna University, Chennai. MSSRF’s role is to build the capacity of the field functionaries in preparing a CWMP at the gram panchayat (GP) level by providing scientific inputs using spatial and non-spatial data in GIS platform. It is working towards developing a plan for 438 and 849 GPs in Ramanathapuram and Thiruvannamalai districts, respectively. The Foundation is also engaged in providing inputs for identified hotspots such as mangrove and wetlands restoration, improving cropping systems and water use efficiency, springshed (a method of groundwater management in the mountain regions) and four waters (ground, surface, soil moisture and rainfall) concepts and so on as pilots in addressing site-specific challenges.