Integrated systems approach for enhancing resilience of arid farming systems in South Asia

This paper aims to share the methods and processes of designing resilient farming systems to improve livelihoods under the drylands in South-Asia. The study is based on 250 randomly selected farm households along the rainfall gradient from Jodhpur- Barmer-Jaisalmer districts in Western Rajasthan in India. Our analysis demonstrates that the dryland smallholder farming systems occur within diverse agro-ecological and socio-economic environments and develop different livelihood strategies driven by opportunities and constraints encountered. Multiple livelihood assets determine different land use patterns and agricultural management practices in dryland systems in south Asia. Well-designed household survey on socio-economic and agroecological variables and statistical approach helped capture the diversity of livelihood assets to categorize households into homogenous farm types. The follow up FDG’s with farmers and stakeholder were equally important to validate farm typologies and prioritization of interventions. Engaging the innovation platform for identification of potential innovation options and their prioritization at district level; involving farmers for each farm typology, and ex-ante assessment of promising options led to the on-farm assessment of farm type specific most appropriate interventions in the action villages. Landscape and community level options were prioritized with the village development committee and proactive farmers. The institutional platforms experimented at village to regional level has strengthened the capacity of the community/stakeholders to innovate to improve the farming systems resilience and economic viability. An ex-post assessment demonstrates significant increase in farming systems productivity, household income and development of value chains as well as sustainable management of natural resource including common pastures. This study contributes to the understanding of how research for development through integrated systems approach can contribute towards stabilizing farm incomes, sustainable intensification and smoothening livelihood of resource poor farmers in vulnerable dry regions

Estimation of Economic Returns to Soil and Water Conservation Research – An Ex Ante Analysis

The economic returns to investment made in soil and water conservation research have been analyzed. Technologies such as conservation furrow, residue incorporation have been found to be economically viable under farmers’ conditions. The study has covered four locations, viz. Agra and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Kota in Rajasthan and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. The economic surplus analysis has revealed that when adopted on a large scale, soil and water conservation technologies generate significant economic surplus as reflected in high NPV and BC ratio. The share of producer surplus has been found to be higher in the total economic surplus generated from technology adoption. Thus, investments in generation and transfer of soil and water conservation technologies have been found be justified in terms of economic benefits. However, various constraints that hamper adoption of these technologies are to be addressed so that the potential benefits could be realized by both farmer and consumer.Agricultural and Food Policy,

How Indian agriculture should change after COVID-19

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the vulnerability of India’s Agri food system and accentuated the need for agricultural market reforms and digital solutions to connect farmers to markets, to create safety nets and ensure reasonable working conditions, and to decentralize Agri food systems to make them more resilient

Soil and Water Conservation Works through National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Andhra Pradesh — An Analysis of Livelihood Impact

The impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been studied on rural livelihoods and the nature of soil and water conservation (SWC) works. NREGS is under implementation in almost all the rural districts of the country with the major objective of enhancing livelihoods through productive works. Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the three states leading in scheme implementation with a large number of works, expenditure and employment. In Andhra Pradesh, soil and water conservation (SWC) works have accounted for over 80 per cent. The share of labour wages under the scheme has been 80 per cent with only 20 per cent for material, which is well within the prescribed norm of 40 per cent for the latter. The field study in the Ananthapur district has indicated that almost two-thirds of the beneficiaries are farmers. The scheme has brought down the migration levels from about 27 per cent to only 7 per cent in the study villages. The linear regression function has brought out that the number of family members participating in the NREGS is significantly influenced by income from other sources, family size and landholding. The NREGS earnings are being used mainly for food, education and health security. Although the scheme provides opportunity for 100 days of wage guarantee, the actual average employment is only for 25 days per household. Ideally, this gap needs to be bridged at least in the distress districts. The study has observed that SWC works in agricultural lands, especially in the rainfed areas need to be continued. However, some works require structural modifications for a better impact.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Labor force participation of rural women and the household’s nutrition: Panel data evidence from SAT India

This paper investigates the role of women’s labor force participation in the household’s dietary diversity and the value of home-production. Using unique household panel data from Semi-Arid tropics of India, empirical estimations from a household fixed effects model reveal a positive significant effect of workdays of women on dietary diversity (overall and home-produced) and home-production. Our findings highlight a significant heterogeneity in the effect by type of work—paid and unpaid. The results for paid work are driven by a greater decision-making power emanating from labor force participation of women. Unpaid work, on the other hand, operates through the self-consumption of home-produced goods. We show that correcting for endogenous labor force participation of women leaves our conclusions unchanged. The results suggest that interventions boosting female labor force participation in paid activities are nutrition enhancing for the household and work towards improving women’s bargaining power within the household. Moreover, we rule out deleterious effects on health indicators of women despite increased time burden

Experiment Protocol for WLE Activity on Exploring transitioning options for sustainable management of common property resources for enhancing eco-system services - comparative watershed studies from East Africa and South Asia

Experiment Place Experiments are carried out in coordination with Panchayat and the Watershed committee. Public places will be used such as meeting places, temple areas or schools. We chose a quiet place with little disturbance Choosing experiment participants Main target group of the experiment are managers of the watershed. As such we will invite in particular watershed committee members, members of the Panchayat, teachers, and religious leaders. Special attention will be paid to have a least three women in the group. There should be not more than one person per household participating. Overall ten people participate in each session. We have to pay attention to include different sub-groups of the village. An alternative setup is to let ten farmers play the game together who in real life manage/use one check dam together..

Climate risk, vulnerability and resilience: Supporting livelihood of smallholders in semiarid India

Using panel data from 256 smallholder households from 2006 to 2014 in three semiarid regions India, this study develops a framework for quantifying vulnerability and resilience by accounting for a smallholder household’s ability to adapt and respond to climatic risk. Findings indicate that although smallholders with smaller landholdings are more vulnerable to climatic risk (drought, in our case), they are also more resilient than their counterparts. Results reveal that cropping intensity and crop risk increase the vulnerability of smallholders to climatic risk, but large farms are less vulnerable. Diversification in on-farm enterprises, like livestock units, and off-farm income sources, play significant roles in increasing smallholder households’ resilience to climatic risk. Other drivers of resiliency include the choice of cash and risky crops, borrowing capacity, liquid investments, and the ability to regain yields

Institutionalizing Systems Approaches for Improving Agricultural Livelihoods in an Arid Ecoregion of South Asia

The arid agro-ecosystems of South Asia are affected by severe resource degradation, low and unstable farm-based livelihoods and persistent poverty. In these environments, a major research program, the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) Dryland Systems, is underway that utilises multi-disciplinary and systems approaches that build on the indigenous coping and adaptation strategies. The objectives of this study were: to identify relatively homogeneous farm typologies among dryland farmers in the extensive to intensive agricultural systems of Indian Thar desert to target context specific technologies for increased impacts, and prioritize interventions across different farm typologies and facilitate appropriate institutional machenism for future trajectory development for resilience building and or intensification

Institutionalizing governance arrangements for sustainable management of community based silvi-pasture systems in arid ecoregions in Rajasthan, India

In arid parts of Rajasthan rural households heavily depend on Common Property Resources (CPRs) especially community silvi-pastures systems. Such common grazing areas have, however, become severely degraded making in particular the rural poor more vulnerable. While efforts have been made to improve management and rehabilitate community pastures, post-project sustainability remains uncertain due to cumbersome social dynamics, neglect of communities involved and institutional arrangements. This study seeks to understand how common property institutional arrangements can result in efficient use, equitable allocation, and sustainable conservation of pasture resources. It also facilitated the community to design and pilot governance arrangements for sustainable management of common silvi-pastures to provide evidence based policy options. The institutional analysis was structured on the basis of the SES framework as well as the design principles for self-organization. On the basis of multiple methods (e.g. literature review, PRAs, field-surveys, transect walks, and key-informant interviews) critical SES second tier variables have been identified. Data was collected on a list of both social-economic and bio-physical variables. Farmers perception on role and potential of CPRs were also recorded. The study was undertaken 2014-2015 in three representative village clusters in three arid districts: Govindpura/Jodhpur, Dhok/Barmer, and Damodara/Jaisalmer. The study was implemented as action research encouraging the community to design and experiment with governance arrangements for sustainable management of CPRs. Analyses of SES second tier variables and indicators for design principles for self-organization reveal that the lack of clarity of boundaries, poor monitoring, inflexible rules, very-low productivity, inequity in access, heterogeneity of group interests and lack of involvement of smallholders and women were major factors for poor management of CPRs. Different users had different perceptions on different SES variables influenced by social dynamics and property rights regime hampering community cohesion. Poor governance resulted into a situation which is close to open-access eventually leading to over-extraction. The study created awareness amongst key stakeholders for the challenges in the CPR management. Improved germplam of native grasses (Lasuirus scindicus, cenchrus ciliaris) and trees (P. cineraria, A. Senegal, Z. rotundifolia) were adopted into CPRs. New collective choice rules related to management decisions were agreed upon. The communities designed rules which gave every sub-group of the community equitable but restricted access and use rights to the land. The scale of decision making was decreased to the hamlet level. New rules related to cut and carry system were introduced. Overall, the institutional-changes improved cooperation and eventually the state of pastures

Multi-criteria analysis and ex-ante assessment to prioritize and scale up climate smart agriculture in semi–arid tropics, India

The strategies that integrate food security, adaptation and mitigation options in agriculture are of high importance to manage the increasing risk of climate change in vulnerable semi-arid regions for the livelihood security of poor agriculture-dependent people. To address the growing problems of food security and climate change, multiple institutions and programs have demonstrated evidences for developing Climate-Smart Villages (CSVs) across regions which can act as a sustainable model for adapting to changing climate and improve farmers’ welfare. However, it remain a major challenge to upscale CSV approach. This paper presents a framework and evidence based designing of a strategy for scaling up Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Telangana State of India. Climate risk and vulnerability mapping at disaggregate level; Inventory of CSA practices and respective technical coefficients; multicriteria analysis for participatory prioritization of location specific CSA practices and identification of barriers and incentives; ex-ante impact analysis of potential adoption and investment and infrastructure needs to implement CSA practices at local level and strategy for CSA integration into district level plans have been the key steps of this CSV approach. Local level vulnerability assessments and participatory prioritization based on index calculated for climate smartness and ease of adoption for each proposed practice, formed the basis of prioritizing CSA interventions suitable for particular location. Further the ex-ante impact analysis of selected climate smart interventions in different regions of Telangana was the next step. We also generated relevant geospatial maps for irrigated as well as rainfed major crops under vertisols and light soils. These maps helped in identifying context specificity of CSA interventions. Based on participatory prioritization, five CSA practices such as Ridges and Furrows, Broad bed and furrow for soil and moisture conservation and drainage, Farm pond for critical/supplemental irrigation, Crop residue management (cotton) and drip irrigation system were considered for ex-ante assessment considering district wise actual area and yields of major crops and rainfall level for 5 years from 2010-11 to 2014-15. The proposed framework and different tools help to understand the district wise potential for promotion of CSA practices/technologies, public and private investment needs, economic impacts of the interventions to enable informed decision making for climate smart agriculture. Stakeholders’ consultations during different stages of this process was very important for integrating their perspective and creating ownership. Piloting of evidence based scientific framework guides investments and policy making decisions on scaling up CSA in Telangana state