Climate changes are adversely and seriously affecting agriculture sector. With farming being a chosen means for rural majority, they threaten their livelihoods. Moreover, climate aberrations raise uncertainties in farm productivity and incomes, both at household level and beyond.
While climate is a given factor, farmers need to manage their natural resources better – be it water, soils and bio-diversity. For instance, they must harvest water and use it judiciously. Similarly, they need to be prepared to deal with excess water and erratic rainfall patterns, damaging crop productivity. Soil health has to be improved with increased emphasis on improving soil biota and moisture retention. Diversity is Resilience. With diversity, risks are minimised, smart crop combinations ensure reliable food supplies and sustainable incomes. Suitable crop combinations besides providing food and improved incomes, help in rejuvenating the soils and also in dealing effectively with biological crop protection measures. Increased biodiversity, On farm and around the farms, works as an effective coping mechanism as well as enhances carbon sequestration. Communities have been farming for centuries. Their traditional practices and cultural practices rooted in age old wisdom and belief systems, also need to be recognised. Lastly and most importantly, the role of women needs to be suitably encouraged and supported, as they are the key drivers in promoting agroecological transformation to cope with climate challenges.
In this issue, we have tried to showcase few examples of how communities are handling the climate challenges through innovative measures.
Water management is one of the key strategies followed in managing climate change effects. It could be handled at the landscape level (watershed programmes), or at the farm level through effective traditional practices and measures of water conservation. Water use efficiency should be aimed in every activity. (Jacob Jose, p.6). Also, choosing the right type of plant species is important to address land degradation, for example the Salix (willow) species, which prevents evapotranspiration losses. The agroforestry-based model that integrated Salix plantations with leguminous intercrops and high-value horticultural crops served as a practical and climate-resilient solution for degraded land reclamation in Himachal Pradesh (Shikha Bhagta, et.al., p.22). Application of mulch to retain moisture and avoiding water guzzling crops enable the resource to be used better. Increased humus in the soils is a key factor in increasing moisture retention in the soil.
In terms of improving soils, one factor which needs to be recognised is that they are ‘Living Soils’. The effort should be to improve the soil biota through various measures. This is enabled through Natural Farming practices to enhance soil’s biological health. (Monidipta Saha, et.al., p.25). Application of organic inputs like Harithakashayam, green manures, traditional fermented liquid formulations etc., improve soil structure, enhance microbial activity, increase nutrient availability and promote water retention, contributing to overall soil fertility and resilience. (Jacob Jose, p.6). Organic farming practices enhance soil biodiversity and soil organic carbon. The quality of organic inputs plays a crucial role in soil carbon sequestration. Organic manures such as vermicompost, biodynamic composts do help improve soil health substantially. Concern for soil and biodiversity conservation is not new. It is a key traditional and cultural practice, based on local wisdom. (Harela). Indiscriminate use of chemicals has destroyed soil health. Instead, use of natural biological concoctions viz. Panchagavya, Sasyagavya, Jeevamrut, Ghanjeevamrit, Beejamrut and kunapajala hasten the soil microbiota amplification. (Monidipta Saha, et.al., p.25). All these measures are doubly helpful – in rejuvenating the soils and reducing use of chemical inputs resulting in harmful emissions.
Diversity is one of the most critical requirements to deal with climate change. Farmers in Kodiguda village in Odisha, grow local varieties as they are more resilient and support better pollination mechanisms.. They have taken up revival of hardy, nutritious traditional millet varieties, to add more options to their food basket. (Bichitra Biswal and Anil Lima, p.12). In Himachal Pradesh, Mr. Ankush, a progressive farmer grew Willow clones to restore his degraded land. Willow clones a rapidly growing tree species with its extensive root network helped in preventing degradation while intercropping with leguminous intercrops improved the soils. Judiciously selected crop combinations helped in enhancing farm incomes, reducing risk from monocrop failures, besides improving soils through leguminous species (Shikha Bhagta, et.al., p.22).
Natural Farming is advocated to be agro-ecology based climate resilient farming system. Better management of natural resources is the core principle in Natural Farming and Organic farming practices. It increases the crop yields, reduces cultivation costs, improves ecosystem through replacing the agrochemicals with biodegradable alternatives. It promotes climate resilient techniques viz. limited uses of fossil fuel, reduced tillage, natural resource conservation and utilization, crop diversification and ecological integration. Similarly, Organic farming practices based on agroecological principles, promote non chemical farming, while sequestering carbon into the soils. Organic certifications not only contribute to biodiversity conservation, soil health, and reduced chemical inputs but also provides economic incentive and stability to farmers. (Jacob Jose, p.6; Monidipta Saha, et.al., p.25).
For addressing climate change, integration of various practices and processes is the key. For this to happen, farmers should realize the importance of combining judicious use of natural resources and chemical free farming practices. Spices farmers in Idukki district in Kerala followed multi-tier agroforestry, revived traditional water harvesting methods, incorporated water neutral production in their processing center, restored soils following intraspecies and interspecies diversity in their crops. By following organic farming practices, using organic manures, they improved soils. They promoted native species, suitable for pollinators. Most importantly, they transformed the communities through institutionalisation to pursue organic certification and better incomes, thus reinforcing their faith in following agroecological practices (Jacob Jose, p.6).
In these transformative processes, women play a critical role in ensuring food security as well as ecological security. For instance, with little training and encouragement, the tribal women in Karanja emerged as role models. They not only revived vegetable cultivation but raised community nutrition gardens. Small scale vegetable cultivation, pioneered and popularised by women farmers scaled up the basket of healthy and nutritious options for the community. They raised capital from their SHG groups to promote innovative measures like solar fencing to safeguarding their crops in over hundred acres. They formed a Farmer Producer Company handling end-to-end value chain services to the producer members, developed village-level crop production plans and established critical linkages with markets.(Sivaram and Dyansamantara, p.32).
Improving ecosystems will contribute to better farm productivity, enhance resilience, reduce risk and uncertainty. Diversity based farming systems not only improve healthy food choices but also farm incomes. Backed by social organisation and institutionalisation, enabling aggregation and value chains, farming communities can create new ecological pathways for transforming livelihoods as well as mitigating harmful emissions.
