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cover and rainwater run-off is high. It receives an average of
450 mm of annual rainfall. The temperature ranges between
19.2ºC and 32.9ºC in Sangamner. When the Community
Driven Vulnerability Evaluation tool, developed by WOTR, was
applied in representative villages, people highlighted delayed
monsoons, prolonged dry spells, droughts, unseasonal heavy
rainfall, increasing temperatures and prolonged summers as
climate risks. They also stated that market demands pushed
crops that were new to the region. In 2009 the majority of
agriculture was rain-fed and 54 per cent of households were
smallholder producers, dependent on agriculture for income.
In times of climate stress, people coped by turning to seasonal
distress migration for survival. Food security was met from
the public distribution system, with a little from their farms
and purchases when possible. During summers and in times of
drought, wells ran dry and water had to be supplied in tankers
for domestic purposes between February-March and June.
Leveraging WOTR’s expertise in participatory water-
shed development, the 16 villages were organized into two
clusters for better management. In each village the Village
Development Committee and women’s self-help groups were
capacitated and worked in close cooperation as the primary
stakeholders. WOTR moved to ecosystems-based adaptation
to help vulnerable communities build the resilience of their
livelihoods resource base, now threatened by climate change.
WOTR introduced a bottom-up, holistic and integrated
approach with appropriate interventions, towards adaptation
and resilience-building.
Farmers in the region are mostly dependent on seasonal
rains which are highly variable in time and space. Weather
events such as drought, storms and heatwaves have severe
effects on agricultural production. The impact of these events
on farmers’ livelihoods can be reduced if:
• farmers are able to align their agriculture with climate-
smart, sustainable agronomic practices
• they are able to access advance information about the
probable occurrence of these events, as well as the possible
contingency measures for their geographical locations.
Responding to this WOTR has developed and promoted a
locale-specific comprehensive package of agricultural prac-
tices. Through the CCA project more than 6,000 farmers in
the 16 villages were trained in the use of these techniques.
Applying these techniques improved yields, particularly of
traditional dryland crops like sorghum and groundnut, which
increased by 10-30 per cent, while reducing the costs of culti-
vation and promoting sustainable agriculture.
In response to the second need, WOTR installed automated
weather stations in project villages. Locals were trained to read
the meteorological data displayed on blackboards in the village.
Information is provided in the local language to the villages
through mobile telephone based Short Message Service (SMS)
texts, together with crop-specific advisories. Weekly forecasts
and advisories for the common crops are also printed on wall
posters. Agro-advisories are prepared by in-house agricultural
experts based on local soil conditions, crops currently grown in
the villages and forecasts provided by the India Meteorological
Department. The advisories place emphasis on organic and
sustainable farming methods and contain marketing advice
where appropriate. The objective of these locale-customized
advisories is to help farmers take informed decisions, which
in turn helps increase productivity, mitigate risks and reduce
losses. The SMS-based delivery system for the agro-advisories
allows WOTR to take advantage of the high degree of mobile
telephony penetration in the Indian countryside. To date
WOTR has sent approximately 300,000 SMS-based adviso-
ries to 6,612 farmers in Sangmaner and the adjoining block
of Akole. The intervention helped create awareness among
the farmers in the project and nearby villages about climate
variability and means to reduce the negative impacts on their
livelihoods. Further it serves as a platform to promote WOTR’s
package of climate-smart agriculture techniques. Increased
usage of organic manure and pesticides has been observed by
the villagers who received information from the Agro-SMS
services provided to them, while decreasing the application
of inorganic pesticides and fertilizers. All these efforts have
helped farmers ensure income even during low rainfall years
and improve overall crop productivity.
Under the CCA project in Sangamner at total of 4,180
hectares was treated. Besides this in the previous decade,
4,506 hectares in six villages had watershed development
Ecosystems-based adaptation: key features
Source: WOTR
Community-led: people-centric.
Local Institutions are strengthened
to be inclusive and to ensure that benefits reach all stakeholders.
Attention is directed to building the capacity of local communities to
participate in and lead interventions.
Ecosystems-based watershed development
as a means to reduce
risks, stabilize and enhance nature-based livelihoods, reduce the
impact of extreme meteorological events, increase productivity,
conserve biodiversity and improve quality of life.
Adaptive sustainable agriculture
promotes Low External Input
Sustainable Agriculture methods, use of indigenous seeds and
the system of crop intensification to increase crop and land
productivity and reduce costs of cultivation. This is combined
with agrometeorology and water budgeting to make agriculture
sustainable, efficient and adaptive keeping in mind food and
nutrition security, markets and income.
Automated weather stations and SMS-based agro-advisories
provide timely, locale-specific crop-weather advisories to farmers
so that agricultural activities are planned accordingly. Evidence
from around the world shows that texts-based advisories
and reminders have a positive effect on the adoption of new
technologies and techniques.
Water budgeting
helps communities visualize and plan their crops
based on water availability, their water needs and requirements,
ensuring optimum and efficient use of water, equitable sharing of
excess water, and informed decisions on groundwater withdrawals.
Biodiversity.
WOTR integrates biodiversity concerns and builds
awareness in the community about the importance of promoting,
conserving and protecting the local biodiversity; helps them
keep a record of it through participatory mapping; identifies and
sustainably promotes biodiversity-based economic activities; and
sensitizes local bodies to the likely adverse biodiversity-related
impacts of decisions taken by them.
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