2004-2017 …caring for those who feed the nation

Andhra Pradesh | Maharashtra |Punjab | Sikkim | Telangana | Tripura

How can communities get ready to face

the challenge of Climate Change

Centre for sustainable agriculture

Head office: 12-13-445, Street no.1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad, Telanagana- 500 017
Contacts: http://www.csa-india.org, email: csa@csa-india.org, ph. 040-27017735
 Major Reasons
Economic
• Increasing costs of cultivation due to Crisis
– high input use
– increasing costs of inputs, and lack of access to productive resources
– decreasing subsidies
• Stagnating yields
– Soil fertility going down Ecological
Crisis
– Monoculture of crops
– Crops spreading into areas unsuitable for them
• Shift to water intensive crops leading to
– Ground water depletion
– Failure of tubewells Socio
Political
• Decreasing prices Crisis
– Lower MSPs
– Increasing price fluctuations after opening up of markets
 Climate variability

• Extreme weather events have

become common
– Heat and cold waves
– Prolonged dry spells
– Reduced number of rainy days
– Heavy downpours
– Irregular rains
 Impacts
• Yield losses, crop losses
– Dry weathers
– Low temperatures
• Human and Livestock deaths
– Heat and cold waves
• Shifts in the pest, pest incidence,
migration and viability thresholds
– Brown Plant Hopper is 17 times more
tolerant to 400 C than its predator
Cyrtorrhynus lividipennis
– Shift towards sucking pests, viral
diseases
Intensive Agriculture
Monoculture, Irrigation, Fertilizer and Mechazisation

Source: Government of India, 2009; RBI, 2009.

 Heavy dependency on chemical fertilisers
• Total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the manufacturing and
transport of fertiliser are estimated at 6.7 kg CO2 equivalent (CO2,
nitrous oxide and methane) per kg N
• 1.25 kg of N2O emitted per 100 kg of Nitrogen applied
• Globally, an average 50% of the nitrogen used in farming is lost to the
environment:
• as N2O to the air as a potent GHG (310 x CO2)
• as nitrate polluting wells, rivers, and oceans
• Volatilization loss 25-33 %
• Leaching loss 20-30 %
 Ponding Rice and GHGs

• Anaerobic conditions lead to emission of

methane (CH4) and possibly nitrous oxide (N20)
through inefficient fertilizer use.
• Emission of CH4 from rice paddies in India is
estimated at 2.4 to 6 Tg out of the world total
emission of 25.4 to 54 Tg from all sources and 16
to 34 Tg from rice cultivation.
• The average CH4 flux from rice paddies ranges
from 9 to 46 g/m2 over a 120 to 150 day
growing season

Tg (teragram= 1× 1012 g= 1 million metric tons or MMT)

Depleting natural resources

• Increasing dark zones due to

groundwater depletion
• Soil degradation and
increasing salinity
 Heavy mechanization and straw burning

Brown cloud formed on October 12, 2002

 Framework of adaptation
• reduce the risks and vulnerabilities with uncertain weather conditions and
degraded and limited natural resources in these regions, by adopting suitable
cropping patterns and production practices
• diversify the assets and income sources to sustain the livelihoods by integrating
livestock and horticulture into agriculture and promoting on-farm and off-farm
employment opportunities,
• conserve and efficiently use the available natural resources like soil and water,
and promote biomass generation,
• organise farmers into institutions which can help them to have better planning,
greater control over their production, help to access resources and support,
improve food security and move up in the value chain,
• build livelihood security systems to cope up with the natural disasters like
drought, floods and other climate uncertainties
 Key principles
• Sustainability: Shift towards local resource based agriculture
based on agro ecological principles
• Knowledge intensive: System to create local knowledge
generation and sharing
• Collective ownership: Community organised to manage their
resources, livelihoods and institutions
• Equitable sharing: Marketing system where profits are
equitably shared.
Agroecological approach
• Managing crop ecology
through Non Pesticidal
Management
• Integrated Soil and Moisture
Management
• Suitable Cropping Systems
• Open Source Seed Systems
Insitu water harvesting with grid locking, trenches and farm ponds

• 1 mm of rainfall in area gives

10,000 lit of water
• Most of it runs out of the farm
• Leaving 30% to evaporation loss
we can harvest 70,000 lit
• Even a conservative estimate of
half is conserved 2,50,500
lit/acre per acre in 5 cm rain fall
area is possible
• On farm conservation through
grid locking ridges and furrows
• Trenches to take the excess flow
with locking for every 10 mt
• Farm pond
Agronomic practices-Water harvesting, conservation and use
 17
Changing to multiple cropping systems
 Changing crop agronomy
System of Rice Intensification High density plantation in cotton
Integrated farming systems
 What model suits them?
 Maximise space utilisation
 Optimise time utilisation
 Minimise paid out costs
 Reduce risk
 Maximise food production and net incomes

Diversification and Integration as the key principles

But, unfortunately monocultures of crops with high external input use are promoted even in areas not
suitable increasing the risks and reducing the incomes.
 Black soils- Vertisols and associated soils

Shallow soil Medium deep soil Deep soil

About 3.0 m ha of rainfed cotton soils are either shallow (< 50 cm or medium deep (50-75 cm). Is Bt
cotton the solution for these soils?
 Building living soils

• Management based on soil type

• Soil as living media
• tank silt application
• Biomass of at least 4 tons/acre
• Promoting Azolla in Paddy on large scale – Slow release of
Nitrogen – reduces succulence and pest incidence
• Application of dung based inoculants like
panchagavya/jeewamrit
• Research on various dung based products
• Crop diversification including legumes at e least once in two
years
• Mulching and Cover Crops
 Non Pesticidal Management

– Integrating management practices to prevent

insects from reaching damaging stage /
proportion
– a natural ecological balance will ensure that
pests do not reach a critical number in the field
that endangers the yield
– nature can restore such a balance if it is not
meddled with too much, hence no chemical
pesticides at all.
– understanding the insect biology and crop
ecology is important to manage pests – it is not
enough if reactive sprays are taken up during
outbreak.
 Backyard Biotechnology

Using Biomass Botanicals Microbial solutions

Solutions/Extracts • Fermented products

Composts • Aqueous or other suitable • Panchagavya,

Leaves and other plant solvent • Amruthajalam,
Crop residue/ material • Jeevamruth
animal waste • Chilli-garlic extract
Digested Green mangnuring • Neem extracts
• Insitu
Aerobic: NADEP • Bund plant Decoctions
Anaerobic: Compost, Biogas • Collection and application • Boiled in water and filtered
• Nux vomica dec
vermicompost • Tobacco dec
Traps
 Apna Beej
Open Source Seed Systems
• Conserving, revising, using and marketing
traditional seeds
• Cataloguing Value for Conservation and Use of seed
varieties in organic growing conditions
• Community Seed Banks
• Farmer Producer Organisations engaged in Seed
Production and Marketing
• Participatory Plant Breeding to evolve Maize and
Cotton Hybrids
• Seed Production and Marketing in Paddy, Soybean,
Wheat, Bengal Gram, Red Gram, Green Gram,
Vegetables
• Establishing Open Source Seed Network
Millets for health and diversity
Trees for sustainability
Organic Pesticide Free Natural

http://www.sahajaaharam.in

Sahaja Aharam
Producer Company
Linking farmers Ltd
to markets
 Sahaja Aharam Producer Company
Processing units Food processing
Farmer Group A Seeds
Bioinputs
Producer Co-op-1
Farmer Group B Producer Co-op-2

Farmer Group C
Other farmers and
Sahaja Aharam farmers groups

Market place Producer Company

Direct to resellers
• Capacity building
• Institutional building Direct to Home
• Investment support Retail Stores
Whole sale to traders • Healthy food
• Brand building • Affordable Price
Mobile Store

• Quality Management • Max share to farmers Online Store

Bulk buyers • Fair Trade
 Multinodal Hubs and spokes
Naguladinne
Kurnool
Boddham
Vijayanagaram

Dorli Kallem
Wardha dist
Warangal dist
• Enebavi Coop • Harita Coop
• Adarsha Coop • Brahmalingeswara Coop
• BROMACS • Giri Coop
• Swayamkrishi PC
• Kisanmitra coop
• GreenDunia Kallem Boddham
Hub Hub

Dorli Naguladinne
• Tungabhadra Coop
Hub Hub • Kadiri Coop
• Palabavi Coop
• Naisargic Sheti Beej •Rayachoti coop
Producer Company •Baghyalaxmi coop
• Punnami Coop
• Gayatri Coop
• Mydukuru Coop
 Coverage
• Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra
• No. of Farmers: 5000,
– Organic: 2500 (1000 ICS certified, 1500 PGS certified)
– NPM: 2500
• Cooperatives 30
• 50% of members and management are women
• Two exclusive women cooperatives
– Gayatri women organic farmers cooperative, Vempalli, Kadapa dist
– Bhagyalaxmi women farmers cooperative, Penugonda, Anantpur dist
 Vegetable production
Group January February March April May June July August September October November December
Palak
1 Palak Bendi Brinjal Cow pea
2 Potato/Beans Cluster Bean Ambadi Potato/ Beans
3 Onion Amaranthus Green Chillies Onion
4 Cluster Bean Ridge Gourd Amaranthus Radish Cluster Bean
5 Cabbage Palak Tomato Cabbage
6 Tomato Bhendi Green pea Tomato
7 Carrot Green Chillies Cucumber Carrot
8 Bhendi Tomato Cabbage Bhendi
9 Cluster Bean Palak Cauliflower
10 Palak Cowpea Cluster Bean Brinjal
11 Bhendi Cow pea Capsicum
12 Methi Cluster Bean Onion Methi

• Round the year supply

• Basket of vegetables minimum 1 ton/day
• Each farmer also has at least 4 vegetables at any point of time to distribute risk
• Organic/NPM Practices
• Better harvesting,
• Procurement, grading, handling
Sahaja Aharam Stores

•Hyderabad
•Tarnaka
•Sainikpuri
•Jeedimetla
•Kharkana
•Kukatpally
•Vishakapatnam
•Gopalapatnam
Food processing
Creating Livelihoods
For diversifying incomes and assets

• Developing Livelihoods Plan

• Building the capacities
• Green Enterprises for Bioinputs
• Providing linkages
Decentralised
cotton spinning and
weaving
Sericulture

Backyard Poultry

Honey Production
Azolla
Composting
http://www.csa-india.org
http://www.krishi.tv
http://www.agrariancrisis.in
eKrishi whatsapp: 083 3385 9702

Ph. 040-2701 7735, mobile : 090 0069 9702

csa@csa-india.org, ramoo@csa-india.org
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CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE