05 August 2010
Helping farming communities in India adapt to climate change
Tunu's story
Tunu Sabar and his family are not afraid of hard work - the evidence is plain to see on his thriving and well-tended farm. His fields contain neat and plentiful rows of vegetables bordered by young mango trees, already flowering and promising a good crop of fruit.
Tunu takes a break from operating the foot pump which gives him access to the most valuable commodity and the key to life – the water which lies several metres underground. The technology seems basic but it works. In addition to the environmental benefits, the farmers of the area prefer them to more costly diesel pumps, as Tunu explains:
"I don't have to spend any money on diesel to operate the pump and I can repair it myself. I don't have to go to a mechanic. Earlier, I used local trees to help bring water from the well to my field, but I could only water a small portion. Today, my entire field receives water and my produce is much higher. My income has gone up significantly."
A route out of poverty
Anyone meeting Tunu and his family for the first time would find it hard to imagine the journey they have made from hardship and hunger to the life they now lead. It is a journey out of poverty which has been shared by many of Tunu's fellow farmers and villagers of Larki in the Indian state of Orissa.
The journey has been made possible by the state government's Western Orissa Rural Livelihoods Programme (WORLP), funded by UKaid from DFID. WORLP had a different approach to previous government projects: it focused on improving people's livelihoods rather than just soil and water conservation. It has been a great success - in four districts it has already helped 800,000 poor people, a number which DFID hopes will eventually rise to 1.5 million.
Tunu's wife sifts grain while their son studies his schoolwork. Picture: Diwakar Mani.
Today, thanks to WORLP, Larki is an oasis of flourishing agriculture in a dry and barren land. But just seven years ago, Larki was struggling to deal with a changing climate and the consequences of a 20-year drought. People's earnings were meagre, not enough to feed themselves. Entire families would migrate to other states in India in search of work. At the heart of their struggle for survival was water, or the unpredictability of it. Without water, the land was near worthless.
Tunu remembers those days:
"Hardly any work was available here. We couldn't irrigate our fields or grow crops. Most of us went to Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, even Surat to work in brick kilns or as labourers."
Empowering communities
While addressing the fundamental need for food and water, WORLP puts the community – small farmers and landless labourers – at the centre of its work. It was the villagers of Larki themselves who chose who benefited from the project. The poorest, like Jamuna Sabar (pictured right), a widow with almost no income, were given money to make a start on developing their land. She says:
"I got money from the project to dig a well, and they also gave us seeds and told us what crops to grow. Now we earn enough money. My son doesn't have to go to other places for work. He can stay here and look after the family."
Farmers like Tunu were given advice by WORLP on farming techniques, such as diversifying their crops to adapt to the changing weather, making them more resilient to climate change. The farmers of Larki are now self-sufficient and knowledgeable. They donate grain to a common grain bank which can be accessed by anyone who may need additional grain for their family. Hunger for many is a thing of the past.
Green and pleasant land
"These days the land is never left fallow. We know how to grow crops in small pieces of land," Tunu says.
From a dry brown, Larki's landscape today is a vibrant green. Four thousand hectares of land are under plantation in four districts. There are now 35 hectares of cashew trees and 15 hectares of mixed plantation on lands that were previously infertile. The land is criss-crossed with 60,000 water harvesting structures which help to prevent soil loss and recharge the ground water.
The impact on climate change has been overwhelming. The move away from diesel pumps and from burning cow dung, along with planting trees and building ponds and wells to recharge groundwater, has saved over 700,000 tonnes of carbon.
The bigger picture on the environment and climate change
Climate change is already beginning to affect the world's poorest countries and we are only a few degrees of global warming away from far more serious consequences, which will impede, or even reverse, development. Further climate change will prevent poor people from lifting themselves from poverty.
Although climate change affects everyone, it poses the biggest challenge to people living in the world’s poorest countries – despite the fact that emissions there are typically very low. For example, India's emissions are one fifteenth of those of the United States. This means that those least responsible for the problem are going to be hardest hit.
- Hurricanes and floods are likely to become ever more devastating.
- Higher temperatures will cause killer diseases like malaria to spread.
- Crops will fail as rainy seasons become shorter and fertile land turns into desert.
- Competition for land, minerals and water could lead to conflict.
A reliable climate and resources like forests and water play a key role in reducing poverty. Poor people depend on them for food, shelter, energy and medicines. About two in three people in Africa, and well over half the population in India, rely on farming, which makes them very vulnerable to disasters like flooding, landslides and drought.
Tackling climate change will need action on two important fronts: preventing and preparing for climate change. The international community must prevent dangerous climate change, by reducing emissions and building low carbon economies, and help poor countries prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Two greatest challenges of our century - climate change and poverty
When leaders meet in New York this September they need to tackle climate change and the MDGs in an integrated manner - the two cannot be treated separately.
To achieve the MDGs and halve global poverty by 2015, developing countries need to be are able to adopt clean energy sources and adapt to deal with the impacts of climate change.