Jaitpur’s Emerging Model of Climate Resilience

Making agricultural and rural development climate resilient is a growing challenge. What is of crucial importance is that sustainable rural livelihoods, particularly of small farmers should be protected and in fact strengthened further in the course of villages progressing towards climate- resilience.

In this context the experience of a project being implemented in 50 villages of Jaitpur block of Mahoba district, Uttar Pradesh, is valuable as this project, implemented by SRIJAN voluntary organization with the support of HDFC Bank’s Parivartan initiative, has involved a very thoughtful combination of strengthening sustainable livelihoods and climate resilience.

Several of these initiatives can be seen in Sugira village where 20 small orchards and 6 multi-layer vegetable gardens using natural farming methods have been supported. Natural farming has been promoted in several other ways including in the form of several demonstration plots. The base for this has been created in the form of supporting water conservation works particularly water channel storages. The impact of these efforts can be seen in the form of improving livelihoods of several farmers using climate resilient pathways.

 Ashok Kumar Kushwaha and Himlesh are very initiative taking, enterprising farmers of Sugira village. While they have 5 acres of land on their own, they lease in much more land. What has particularly attracted attention is the progress achieved by them on their nearly one acre of land of vegetable cultivation. Ashok Kumar says that he has been able to increase his annual sale of vegetables from this field from about 30,000 rupees to nearly 150,000 rupees in a relatively short time. This is a big source of hope for small farmers, and this is being talked about at the local level with much appreciation.

This success story is based mainly on three vegetables grown in various seasons– cucumbers, radish and peas. In addition they also grow several other vegetables for family consumption in a kitchen garden.

What is even more remarkable is that Ashok and Himlesh have achieved this success in vegetable cultivation on the basis of natural farming. While even earlier they were using bio-fertilizers mainly in the form of cow dung, after coming into contact with SRIJAN voluntary organization and Parivartan development initiative they could use bio-fertilizers in a more scientific and productive way, preparing jeevnamrit and ghan jeevnamrit. In addition they could get good advice also on various other aspects of vegetable cultivation, adding to the traditional wisdom that the Kushwaha community has in the context of vegetable cultivation. One big improvement was also made by the availability of sprinkler irrigation with the equipment needed for this being provided by SRIJAN and the Parivartan initiative. Ashok is all praise for this method of irrigation, saying that this saves water, helps in keeping soil more porous and reduces the harm caused by pests.

Ashok and Himlesh grow a wide diversity of crops and fruits and they hope to move more and more towards natural farming for other cultivation also, not just vegetables. They have created a nice shelter on their farms and several family members were present here at the time of my visit here. Some sugar cane is also grown here and one person was preparing gur or jaggery from sugarcane juice in a huge cauldron. This is a farm family very keen to take forward new initiatives and they work in very creative ways.

Farmers like Ashok need a strong base of water conservation and one important way of increasing water conservation is to dig standardized storages in rainwater flow channels so that water can be conserved in these for a much longer period. A typical doha is about 20 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2 to 1.5 meters deep. In Sugira village 16 such dohas were created last year with a storage capacity of 1296 cubic meters which can provide irrigation water to about 70 bighas of land belonging to 15 farmers.

At a wider level these dohas help to raise the water level in the wells and more generally in the nearby land area. The silt that was taken out while digging these dohas was used to level and stabilize village paths near the water channel. As a local farmer Sunil said, the path has improved significantly now while earlier it was very uneven. This silt can also be useful for creating or improving bunds in nearby fields.

Sunil said that the dohas have helped to improve his farm production by a quarter, but under ideal conditions this can be more. Torrential rain has damaged some dohas and after the planned repair work, their contribution will increase further, he said.

Another significant contribution of the dohas is that these help to quench the thirst of a significant number of farm animals, stray animals, wild animals and birds. As Aman, a senior team member of SRIJAN said, earlier the rainwater remained in smaller quantities only up to November while now it is likely to remain up to April  next year in the dohas.

Improving green and tree cover is a very important component of climate resilience. An important way of increasing dense tree cover in a relatively small area is based on the famous Miyawaki model which is being promoted here under the name of Tapovan. A typical tapovan tree plantation consists of about 1000 trees grown in a 30×30=900 square meter area although the tapovan plantation in Sugira village is a little smaller. This consists of about 1000 trees of about 20 indigenous species. These include canopy trees, other trees, sub trees and shrubs. The tapovan in Sugira was planted about ten months back and already the growth is very encouraging. This tapovan was grown with the involvement and support of village community members who contribute in crucial ways with the maintenance. The tapovan here has been planted close to a temple where villagers keep coming and hence can take better care of trees. Iron fencing has been provided by SRIJAN. The tapovan plantations are based on the famous Japanese Miyawaki concept, adapted here to local conditions. Nearly 24,000 trees have been planted under this project so far with a very high survival rate.

Sugira also has a small agro- tool blank from where farmers can hire implements like power tillers. Power tillers are more suitable for small farmers particularly when they also have small orchards and multi-layer gardens on their small farms. These and solar pumping sets also help to reduce the burden of fossil fuels in villages. Nearly 20 small farm tool banks have been set up and nearly 14 solar water lift pumping sets have been installed under this project in the covered area of 50 villages. Thus a combination of increasing tree cover, improved soil and water conservation, spread of natural farming, reduced farming costs, solar pumping sets and reduced use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is helping to reduce the burden of fossil fuels and at the same time improving climate resilience of farmers. Several kitchen gardens have also been promoted under this project. Thus both climate mitigation and adaptation are being advanced.

Newly cultivated land in villages like Nagara Dang is also helping to improve sustainable livelihoods and climate resilience among farming communities. In this village substantial parts of land, including patta land, was considered to be uncultivated land. However SRIJAN saw the potential of making this cultivable. Hence substantial work of land levelling and preparing bunds for field was taken up here. Some of the boulders found here were also used creatively to check erosion. The result is that a lot of this land has become cultivable today. Farmers like Yogendra Yadav  and Raj Bahadur Pathak have benefited in very significant ways. So far nearly 49 acres of land could be reclaimed or improved for about 45 farmers here, and some of the remaining farmers are hopeful that more such work can be continued to help them too. Land improvement work has been taken up over about 529 acres of land under this project so far.

Several small farmers are contributing to the wider initiatives of improving the possibilities of natural farming, thereby reducing costs as well as fossil fuel burden. Shuklal and Hirawati are dalit farmers in Rangoliya Khurd village who are involved in an important experiment on growing crops in accordance with the recommended natural practices of SRIJAN and comparing these with the crop grown using agro—chemical based methods. A visit to their farm revealed that the growth of their wheat crop looks much better compared to the growth of the crop in a neighboring field which was planted at the same time and has used agro-chemicals extensively. It is hoped that their crop can be used to establish the more healthy growth of the natural farming crop before more local farmers, as well as to obtain better quality seeds. Both Hirawati and Shuklal are taking a keen interest in their new approach and hope to move more and more towards natural farming.

The existing initiatives can be taken forward to create villages where fossil fuel burden can be minimized and net zero emissions can be achieved and at the same time sustainable livelihoods can be improved in significant ways.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food, A Day in 2071, Man over Machine and Planet in Peril.