Insights from India’s Heartland
 

Climate change has rapidly emerged as one of the most important global issues facing humanity. Impacts of climate change will hit the poor the hardest as their adaptive capacity is low. In order to respond to climate change impacts, the response needs to be multi pronged. While on one hand there is a clear need to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, at the same time it also needs to be recognised that there is already excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, due to which some impacts are inevitable. In order to reduce the impacts of climate change, it is necessary to adapt. Increasingly, it has been recognised that a joint approach which addresses the issues of adaptation and mitigation (adaptation + mitigation= admit) is the most appropriate one.

The Bundelkhand Context

Often called as the heartland of India, the Bundelkhand region of Central India comprises 13 contiguous districts, 7 in Uttar Pradesh and 6 in Madhya Pradesh, with a population of approximately 21 million. The primary occupations of the people in Bundelkhand are agriculture and animal husbandry. The rate of development is depressingly slow on account of sluggish economic activity, lack of surplus agricultural generation, low capital formation and inadequate investment in housing and infrastructure.

In the context of adaptation and mitigation, the rural areas of Bundelkhand region are characterised by the following two key aspects:

• Growth of carbon-intensive production processes such as irrigation, livestock rearing and manufacturing of construction materials

• High vulnerability to climate change due to climate-related as well as other stresses, leading to insecurity of livelihoods such as low agricultural productivity, lack of alternate livelihood options, lack of energy supply and poor access to information, technology, finance and markets

Response to the Situation

In order to respond to this situation, Development Alternatives (DA), with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has undertaken another major initiative. The objectives of the initiative are twofold: (i) to bring about a reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases from the agriculture, construction and energy sectors (mitigation); and (ii) to employ various means for helping the community to adapt to climate change. These twin objectives will be met by establishing Green Social Enterprises. These Green Social Enterprise Models will result in efficient resource use, enhanced incomes and reduced GHG emissions. Primarily, the social enterprises model promoted will be DA’s concept of the Community Carbon Clusters (C3) for initiatives with farmers’, women’s and artisans’ groups. The concept of Community Carbon Clusters (C3) implies that an agency brings the individuals from the community together and facilitates individual/community based measures through technology promotion and capacity building. The facilitating agency also packages measures to raise finances for the community through financial as well as emerging carbon markets.

Green Social Enterprises: Steps Taken and Lessons Learnt
Farmers Adaptation Cluster

The farmers have been clustered under the Farmers Adaptation Cluster to introduce various climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Bundelkhand is a drought-prone region and, in the last 4 years out of 5, there has been continuous drought. Thus, the farmers are aware of the importance of water for their agricultural practices. They are also aware of techniques such as drip and sprinkler irrigation and agroforestry. However, the farmers are reluctant about using them as they are expensive; there is lack of confidence in large-scale usage of modern methods of such techniques in the region. The farmers want to increase their profitability from their agricultural lands as the current profits are quite low and even negative if the labour costs are included. In order to increase their income, the farmers are open to the idea of agroforestry. Farming is the dominant occupation of the community; it occupies the largest proportion of human managed land use types and is the mainstay of the economy. Therefore, it is imperative to demonstrate to the farmers the success of the model in terms of increased profitability by either increasing the yield of the crops by providing drought-resistant varieties of the crops, or by reducing the input cost of agriculture.

Adoption of modern practices will lead to a reduction in the use of fossil fuel-based energy and greenhouse gases. At the same time, the crop yield will be stabilised and the input costs will decrease. Thus, agriculture will become profitable and a stable source of income.

Artisan Cluster (Tara Karigar Mandal)

The artisans are grouped into Common Interest Groups under the Tara Karigar Mandal (TKM). These professionals want to upgrade themselves from being just masons contractors and manage their own work. For this, they need the establishment of an institution, capacity building and promotion. The masons are unable to make plans; nor are they able to understand the drawings made by the engineers, which are essential for carrying out the construction work. The masons are also unable to convince the clients to adopt green building methods. Further, the artisans are indirectly linked to agriculture, as most of the clients are farmers.

In order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from the construction sector, training will be carried out in green construction methods. The techniques include funicular roof, micro concrete roofing options, arched panels and the Rat Trap bond method. Construction activities lead to emission of greenhouse gases in two different ways. Firstly, the embodied energy of the materials used in the construction is very high, which leads to emissions of greenhouse gases. Secondly, the houses constructed using such materials need a lot of energy to maintain optimum conditions. On the other hand, houses made using green building techniques use materials which have low embodied energy and stay warm during the winters and cool during the summer season. From an adaptation point of view, the houses constructed using green techniques will be better suited in the case of a rise in temperature due to climate change.
Women Energy Cluster

Women have been organised into Self Help Groups (SHGs) for the purpose of managing the cowsheds (Gaushala), biogas-based power plants, and the enterprises in the Women Energy Cluster. Though the women of Bundelkhand are under societal bounds, they are assertive within their households and contribute in no less measure. The women want to earn money for the betterment of their households as also for better education of their children. However, they are limited in their activities to the home and fields and have little access to the markets. They are also illiterate, which makes them vulnerable to being cheated. The women seek to establish and run their own enterprises and have very clear ideas of what they want to do and, in some cases, even know about examples where women have been successfully running enterprises in their region.

The women federations operate and manage the Gaushala. Operation and management includes growing fodder for the cows, feeding the cows, milking, dung collection, keeping track of the power plant, the power generated, the enterprises and marketing. The energy available from the biogas plant will be utilised for processing the materials and, thus, adding value to the products which will finally be marketed. The women have been educated under the TARA Akshar programme, which is designed for imparting reading and writing learning for adults.

Women have been traditionally looking after the cows in their homes. The Gaushala will serve as an entry point for women into the markets and gain access to funds. Livestock in India is known to be an important source of methane emission, which has 25 times higher global warming potential as compared to carbon dioxide. Utilisation of dung for power generation has multiple benefits. Operating a biogas plant leads to hygienic conditions, reduced water pollution, increased energy availability and reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.

Way Forward

There is a strong need for further replication in the case of farmers turning to resource conserving measures. Only when a larger group of farmers is available with sufficient land holding can a viable Clean Development Mechanism be possible. A set of two to three practices need to be promoted in the cluster so as to reach viable emission reductions and/or sequestration. In order to further reinforce the utility of efficient irrigation systems, demonstration plots will go a long way.

Skills of the artisans need to be upgraded so that they are able to procure and execute orders on their own. Proper linkages with Government schemes will serve to increase the share of eco-friendly measures in the local markets. Improved negotiation with customers by the artisans will lead to an increase in their incomes. As no standard methodology exists for a CDM project based on artisans, the immediate next step will be to develop one.

Although the women have been trained in a literacy programme, they still lack the entrepreneurial skills needed to successfully run an enterprise. Thus, they will need to be further trained for managing enterprises. A number of biogas-based projects have been registered under the CDM. The size of the existing CDM projects is either very high or these are bundled CDM projects. However, Programme of Activities (PoA) offers a new opportunity which is eminently suitable for projects such as the Gaushala. q

Mustafa Ali Khan
makhan@devalt.org
 

Back to Contents