Promoting climate resilience among women farmers in Rewari, Haryana and Alwar, Rajasthan India.

The region identified for the proposed intervention encompasses the districts in the southern part of Haryana state and north-east part of Rajasthan in India. The region falls under the National Capital Region (NCR) and forms a part of the Aravalli hills ecosystem and both region falls under the boundary periphery of each state.                            

The continuous deforestation has resulted in extensive soil erosion, loss of topsoil, silting up of river channels and reservoirs, reduced land fertility and lowering of the groundwater table. The entire Aravalli Range has become ecologically sensitive and critically fragile thanks to the undue development works (mushrooming of Real Estate business, Industrial zone etc). The situation is exacerbated with illegal mining and reduced forestland and encroachment of existing commons.

The region has shown a sustained decline in rainfall, for example in Mahendragarh district, the average annual rainfall has gone from 696.5 mm in 1983 to 368.0 mm in 2017. Also, as per the vulnerability atlas published by the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, the region is one of the most vulnerable areas as far as Climate Change is concerned. The ground-water too has been constantly depleting in the district, with the rate of depletion being as high as 2m/year over the 2004-2014 period in some of the regions.

The project is focused on tackling the adverse impacts of climate change by empowering local physical systems; hence the vision is to establish a snowball impact of knowledge dissemination and awareness generation among the communities to develop resilience against the imposed hazards. The program will cover:

1. Finalization of villages - Villages will be identified based on the current scenario and vulnerability associated with climate change and its adverse impacts.
2. Selection of village-level coordinators: 2 eligible and motivated Coordinators will be screened and enrolled in the program based on their intent and interest.
3. Conducting TOT: TOT for Coordinators on climate-smart and sustainable agricultural practices which will be a mix of theory and practice to equip them with the desired level of knowledge.
4. Awareness generation and capacity building: Training of farmers on best practices related to climate and sustainable agriculture by forming groups of farmers (training with each group covering a total of 400 farmers covering 35-40 batches).
5. Plantation drives: Plantation drives to promote green cover and horticulture in the area.
6. Ensuring the adoption: Adoption of above-shared practices by farmers via one-to-one household visits and mentoring on best practices on climate resilient farm practices.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of the extreme weather and climate events that are affecting all countries. However, because of their geographical location, reliance on climate-sensitive natural resources and development gaps in general, developing countries, and low-income countries in particular, are at the greatest risk of climate hazards. Left unattended, climate hazards are likely to increase poverty, worsen inequalities, exacerbate food insecurity and cause health problems, among other hardships, which may reverse years of development progress in some countries. The intervention will cover 400 farmers and the following impact is anticipated from the program activities

1.   Empowered Coordinators (Climate resource person) who will act as a catalyst of change in their respective villages and help others with the adoption of best practices related to climate-smart and sustainable agriculture.

2.   Increased awareness and knowledge on climate resilience, agroforestry and sustainable agriculture within the community that will lead to decreased number of climate prone hazards.

3.   Increase in green cover within the villages by horticulture promotion which will also result in increased livelihood for the villagers.