MainDBNew: Integrated Aqua Farming in Inundated Coastal Areas of Odisha towards Alternative Livelihood & Climate Adaptive Community Conservation Program

Title: Integrated Aqua Farming in Inundated Coastal Areas of Odisha towards Alternative Livelihood & Climate Adaptive Community Conservation Program
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NWPGeographicRegion: Asia
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Good practices and lessons learned: Good Practices:
 
• Technology cooperation building on sustainable aqua-farming for fringe villages of Bhitarkanika in Odisha has augmented climate adaptive conservation and community resilience.
 
• Feedback review from the targeted villages helped SAFE to communicate and assist them in an improved manner.
 
• Plantation campaign for 500 mangrove saplings attracted affirmative attention from the stakeholders and community alike, it also furthered the collective aim towards a sustainable future of the area.
 
Lessons learned:
 
• Lack of awareness, deficit of marketing chain and desire for quick money to pay away previous debts is compelling the coastal villagers to opt for prawn culture in saline ponds, leading to the slow degradation of Bhitarkanika’s entire eco system. Therefore SAFE is proactively working to induce sustainable alternative livelihood opportunities for a better life and environment through various research & development oriented activities.
 
• Although Fish pen and cage culture did see instant success, crab fattening technology had to go through trial and error before it yielded positive results.
 
• More than 50% beneficiaries were concerned about the conflict of interest with the departments of forests and existing forest protection rules, since they inhabit in the adjacent villages. Community based sensitisation workshops on ecosystem protection & discussion with forest officials are helping to mitigate this matter.
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Date of submission: 21/09/2017
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Adaptation element: Adaptation planning and practices; Capacity building; Climate observations; Climate scenarios; Communication and outreach/awareness; 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; Services
Climate hazard: Floods; Land and forest degradation; Salinization; Sea level rise; Storm surges; Tropical cyclones/typhoons
Country: India
NWPDataSource: Partner portal
Description: One of the largest Mangrove Ecosystems in India, the residents of Bhitarkanika, Odisha depend mostly on aquaculture and agriculture, both of which is dependent on the mangrove ecosystem. A dramatic increase in the Shrimp farming has resulted in hectares of agricultural lands converted into saline ponds. This unsustainable practice is causing massive crop failures, further supplemented by lack of awareness and technology available in this climate vulnerable area, placing much of the coastal zones at high risk.
 
SAFE intervened in 7 villages and approximately 4000 households with sustainable livelihood alternatives. Cage & Fish Pen culture, crab fattening and collective algae culture are few of the initiatives undertaken with the communities. Additionally, SAFE had carried out a detailed study through surveys in the hamlets to evaluate the current status of the environment and the community for developing an action plan for improvement.
 
Intervention Objectives:
 
• Conduct sensitization workshops and capacity building in villages (Narayanpur, Garta, Keruapal, Uddan, Bhajaprasad, Sailendrasar, and Khasmunda) of Bhitarkanika and ensuring conservation of mangroves and forest.
 
• Analytical framework for planning & management of sustainable aqua farming for alternate livelihood of coastal communities.
 
• Capacity building and development of the coastal communities, ascertaining gender justice and preparing them for the disaster mitigation in the milieu of impending climatic catastrophes.
 
Project action plan:
 
• Livelihood dependence indexing, participatory vulnerability assessment and resource mapping done in all seven villages through sociometric survey and analysis for identifying households as direct beneficiaries.
 
• Sensitization programs organized in each village with the inhabitants for general acquaintance with place based integrated aqua farming.
 
• Feedback review and sensitization in each village.
 
• Two join liability Eco-clusters (JOLECs) in each village comprising 10 members in each are formalized as local institution in aqua-farming for training and marketing.
 
• Awareness on financial inclusion and bank linking of JOLEC members in each village.
 
• Community revalidated the ecosystem service through male & female in each village to get gender specific inputs for mapping.
 
• One stakeholder meeting in each village with line departments, fisheries, rural development, cooperative, blocks, environment & agriculture was done.
 
• At least two awareness workshops in each village with 50 heads along with representative from line department.
 
• Hamlet plantation campaign for 500 mangrove saplings done after every awareness workshop in the area by the village beneficiaries.
 
• Structural set up for pen-culture, float culture and crab culture in the identified pond was established and aqua farming is initiated by JOLECs.
 
• Comprehensive results are prepared, feedback is analysed and inputs from beneficiaries are collated for developing the framework document.
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Further information: http://www.safeinch.org/uploads/Climate-community%20Agriculture_SAFE.pdf

NWPGeographicScope: Local
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NWPInformationType: Case study
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NWPPartner: South Asian Forum for Environment
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Target group: Academics and scientists; Communities; Policy makers
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NWPOutcome: • The community members showed eagerness to build capacities for augmenting alternative economic opportunities in aqua-farming. Informed consent for engagement in training program was received from nearly 90% of beneficiaries towards this venture.
 
• General consensus in collective aqua-farming from above 65% beneficiaries was a strong indication of social cohesion and convergence to a common cause. This seeded the concept of joint liability and inclusive growth.
 
• Acceptance of newer technology like ‘alga-culture’ & ‘crab fattening’ by 43% of the beneficiaries paved easier paths to ensure climate resilience.
 
• Grounding of the intervention was largely welcomed by the immediate stakeholders like the state departments of Fisheries & Agriculture, National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development, local block administration, Central Institutes for Brackish Water Aqua-farming & Fresh Water Aqua-farming of ICAR. This would have futuristic impact on policy implications.
 
• A new interesting gender perspective got highlighted during the sociometric survey & Focused Group Discussions ( FGDs) with the men and women of the community. This has initiated further probe to identify the intricacies of the findings to help understand its effect on their environment and livelihood.
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NWPReferences: Please find attached herewith the link to a documentary featuring SAFE's Intervention in Coastal belt of Bhitarkanika, Odisha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwEpe9d4Pp8
Implementing partners: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) & Mangroves for Future (MFF) collaborated with SAFE for this venture. Showing much dedication to this concern, IUCN later added a separate ground based gender study of the area that yielded interesting findings for further perusal and interventions.
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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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