Developing climate-smart agricultural practices in South Asia
Project description
This project is developing, refining and testing climate-smart agriculture practices within the Climate-Smart Villages to develop sustainable intensification of smallholder and vulnerable farming systems in South Asia. From the outset, this involves careful analysis of the productivity, resilience and adaptive capacity of the different commodities and agro-ecological zones within the region. However, farmers’ perceptions on climate change and climate adaptation vary.
Therefore, this project uses participatory approaches (combining seasonal climate forecasts, historical weather analysis, and crop/soil modelling) to identify adoptable and gender sensitive climate-smart agriculture practices. Portfolios are designed around a wide range of indicators including food security, economics, adaptive capacity, gender and social equity, and mitigation indicators. They are tailored to the needs of individual Climate-Smart Villages in different regions of South Asia.
The key objectives of project are to develop and mainstream fully validated climate-smart agriculture portfolios across a diversity of farming systems and to implement those portfolios within CCAFS Climate Smart Villages. The project aims to increase the capacity, knowledge and skills of nearly 200 key decision-makers by generating and disseminating evidence-based knowledge of the impact of climate-smart agriculture. The project targetsto assist one million smallholder and low income men and women farmers in targeted regions to increase the productivity of irrigated and rain-fed farming systems by 15 percent while reducing costs by 20 percent and carbon footprints by 10 percent.
Project activities include:
- Science-based, scalable evidences for climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) identified & implemented through Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs)
- Framework for targeting adoption of CSAP portfolios by a diverse farm household types within CSVs
- Verification of CSVs as indicators of improved income food security livelihoods over non-CSVs across agroecosystems (until 2015)
Outcomes
Participatory Scaling of Climate smart Villages across 38 districts of Bihar: Further mainstreaming CSAPS undertaken by sub-national government of Bihar using CCAFS-informed practices and the Climate-Smart Village for scaling across 38 districts, covering atleast 100 villages per year. The gender and youth integrated approach undertakes evidence based interventions for scaling given the investment plan. Collaborative work targeting CSAPs portfolio framework to ensure policy level adoption of sustainable intensification techniques by stakeholders is targeted.
CIMMYT-CCAFS Initiative Develops 500 New Climate-Smart Villages in Haryana, India: State government of Haryana,India is using CCAFS-informed policy approaches and the Climate-Smart Village concept for upscaling climate-smart practices wherein they have taken a policy decision for adoption of 500 climate smart villages. Through CCAFS enabled evidence from 50 CSVs across IGP and enhanced capacity of development organizations, the CSAPs are mainstreamed.
Outputs
Field outputs of CSA interventions in Haryana, Bihar and Punjab (videos):
- Scaling Climate Smart Agriculture- Voice of Stakeholders
- Smallholder precision nutrient management:
- Direct seeded rice
- Residue management using Happy Seeder technology:
- Empowering gender through climate-smart agricultural practices:
- A story on CSA by the Voice of America: Indian Farmers Battle With Climate Smart Agriculture
Journal articles:
- Conservation agriculture-based wheat production better copes with extreme climate events than conventional tillage-based systems: A case of untimely excess rainfall in Haryana, India
- Bio-energy, water-use efficiency and economics of maize-wheat-mungbean system under precision-conservation agriculture in semi-arid agro-ecosystem
- Conservation agriculture in irrigated intensive maize-based systems of north-western India: Effects on crop yields, water productivity and economic profitability
- Long term effect of conservation agriculture in maize rotations on total organic carbon, physical and biological properties of a sandy loam soil in north-western Indo-Gangetic Plains
- Smallholder farmer perceptions on the Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices in Bihar, India
Media campaigns:
- BBC: India's farmers beating climate change with technology
- Taipei Times: Climate-smart farmers turn to tech to save India's breadbasket
- Voice of America: India's 'Climate Smart' Villages Target Sustainable Agriculture
- IPS News: U.N. Pushes Climate-Smart Agriculture – But Are the Farmers Willing to Change?
- Press Club of India: Karnal farmers get climate-smart
- India Climate Dialogue: Climate smart villagess how how to adapt, and make money
- The Hindu: Karnal farmers get climate-smart
- The Hindu: Everyone has weather updates on their fingertips in this village
Training events:
- Nearly 200 training events organized involving both men and women.
- Participation of around 10,000 participants across years involving approx. 4000 women
Students:
- 7 PhD students worked on CCAFS project
- 15 interns worked on several short-term assignments for project work
Partners
- International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
- International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
- Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR)
- Farmers’ groups
- International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
- International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
- International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
- State and local government partners
Gender
The project involves participation of at least 40 percent women and other socially-differentiated groups in project activities through specific targeting, gender-responsive capacity building and demonstrations of the climate-smart agriculture portfolios. Promoting and mapping gender equity with emphasis on CSAPs contributing to the improved livelihoods, food security and environmental sustainability.
Further Information
For further information, please contact Project Leader, M.L. Jat (CCAFS-CIMMYT) at m.jat@cgiar.org.