MainDBNew: Climate Resilient Agriculture in Majuli District of Assam

Title: Climate Resilient Agriculture in Majuli District of Assam
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NWPGeographicRegion: Asia
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Good practices and lessons learned: Good practices:
 
a. An incremental signature in primary productivity of cash crops through hydroponics that can assure food security and also availability of feed and fodder for small ruminants during disaster.
 
b. Augmented social assurance and increased community resilience, as can be evaluated through attitude scaling, amongst beneficiaries
 
c. Women empowerment through capacity building, financial inclusion and community entrepreneurship
 
d. Comparative reduction in economic stress and migration of inhabitants as casual laborers in post disaster phase along with retention of animal assets and feed stocks
 
e. Women empowerment through capacity building, financial inclusion and community entrepreneurship
 
f. Enhanced community resilience to combat environmental disaster, post ante hazards and economic breakdown.
 
Lessons Learned:
 
a. This is a simple and calculated technology that doesn’t need big investment.
 
b. Not just climate resilience but this undertaking also supports food security and agro-biodiversity conservation.
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Date of submission: 21/09/2017
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Activities: Project Activities:

• The pre-project preparatory phase included meeting the stakeholders in Majuli district including the local level farmers clubs, developing partnerships with local NGOs about the nature of the interventions that need to be carried out.
• This was followed by identification of Study site after undertaking sociometric survey and topographic surveying of the villages. These sites were chosen on the basis of their location in flood prone areas, institutional capacity of the local community and the livelihood needs of the community. These three sites were Borghulla (100 households), Sonaribari (100 households) and Merikamula (36 households).
• Local market survey for the availability and demand of the local seasonal cash crops was made.
• 13 farmers were trained in the key facets of hydroponic agriculture and the idea was to develop hands on protocol in the development of these hydroponic raft beds. Capacity building of women farmers for seed banking and development of home nursery for supply of saplings was done so that this can be an additional alternative income.
• Six floating structure for rift farming was constructed with indigenous materials like seasoned bamboo sticks painted with coal-tar, strings made with coconut fibre, water hyacinth, jute geo-textiles and hydro-foam. Organic compost was also added as a layer of 3-3.5 inch over the hyacinth bed.
• High quality treated seeds are being used for the cultivation, which may either be placed directly on the compost layer or seedlings may be grown on coco-peat islets and then planted on the organic compost layer.
Adaptation element: Adaptation planning and practices; Capacity building; Communication and outreach/awareness; Education and training; Financial support; Impact assessment; Science and research; Socio-economic data and information; Stakeholder involvement; Technology support; Vulnerability assessment
Adaptation sector/theme: Agriculture; Food security; Biodiversity; Coastal areas/zones; Health; Ecosystem-based adaptation; Community-based adaptation; Adaptation finance; Disaster risk reduction; Gender; Urban resilience; Services
Climate hazard: Floods
Country: India
NWPDataSource: Partner portal
Description: Majuli district in Assam, India, is the largest river island in the world and a giant wetland broken only by embankments which house the primary human settlements and is in many ways the communication lifeline of the island. The two key issues faced by the inhabitants are the ever present threat of floods in the monsoon and the erosive capacity of the mighty Brahmaputra and the other rivers which are steadily eroding the island. In a changing world where climate related events are increasingly becoming common place the need of the hour is to increase the adaptive capacity of the inhabitants of such fragile landscapes in a manner which would contribute to their livelihood and preserves the social fabric of these communities. Therefore, the main aim of this project is to carry out activities that would fulfill the above stated need.
 
The climate smart method used in Majuli owes its origin to the farmers of Barisal, situated in Bangladesh where this has been an age old practice. Also conferred a ‘heritage practice’ by UNESCO, this TEK has been modernized by SAFE into ‘Hydroponic Technology’ for climate resilience.
 
The objectives of this initiative are outlined below.
 
• To standardise a stable & farmer friendly hydroponic tray cultivation method for sustainable primary productivity during periods of ecological hazards,
 
• To identify a set of local cash crops for sustained fail-safe growth in the hydroponic system that can suffice as food, feed and fodder
 
• To promote PEN & CAGE culture based integrated aqua farming towards wise utilisation of the nature resources and wetland-scape of the island.
 
• To accentuate process of technology transfer towards skill building in production and maintenance of hydroponic cultivation and as well aqua farming.
 
• To undertake strategic impact assessment over pilot-run phase in a community based participatory interface for scaling-up implementation.
 

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Further information: http://www.safeinch.org/temp-report.php?reports=861b1a83284e9cc9872eec8c2e735666

NWPGeographicScope: Local
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NWPPartner: South Asian Forum for Environment
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Target group: Communities
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NWPOutcome: • Standardisation of a place-based hydroponic farming system ready to use in flood prone areas for adaptive farm production. Each float will be providing 2-3 harvest cycles at an average in a span of 6-7 months, during which the area remains flooded and water logged.
 
• Acceptance of the hydroponic model of farming in more than 50% of the target beneficiaries as an adaptive alternative during disaster period.
 
• Selection and in-situ conservation of at least 10 cash crops, suitable for hydroponic farming and covering food, feed and fodder
 
• Technology partnership with 250 marginal farmers inhabiting in island floodplains and skill building in at least 10% of the beneficiaries (or 25 heads) who can train others.
 
• Successful model-run of hydroponic farming in at least 0.25 hectare (50 Sq Mt X 6 units) in the target area for demonstration
 
• Community preparedness in 5 villages on flood hazards, disaster response teaming and preparation of community helpline for flood victims.
 
• A complete documentation on strategic impact assessment study on the intervention through a participatory vulnerability analysis
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Implementing partners: National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development, NABARD partnered with SAFE to help realise the climate resilient agriculture and technology sharing in Majuli with the community. NABARD has actively participated in the monitoring and evaluation of every step taken to implement this endeavour. They have made visits with our team across the year to ascertain and verify the progress in Majuli.
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Created at 10/10/2018 14:30 by Serkant Samurkas
Last modified at 10/10/2018 14:30 by Serkant Samurkas
 
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