Climate change is presently the greatest threat to global environment. Across the developing world, ensuring livelihood security is the topmost priority within the adaptation and mitigation strategies for the poor and vulnerable communities.

In this perspective, Development Alternatives (DA) has initiated a campaign called Shubh Kal towards providing local solutions to the vulnerable and marginalised communities of the Bundelkhand region. It is an effort to influence practice and policy towards securing livelihoods, and reducing the risks brought in due to the changing climate. The campaign will enable the rural women, artisans and farmers to respond to the changing climate, reduce the vulnerabilities and boost sustainable development processes.

The Sustainable Civil Society Initiative for Low-Carbon Pathways in Bundelkhand

Development Alternatives, within the ambit of the Shubh Kal campaign, is managing a three-year project for developing low-carbon economic models in Bundelkhand, in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The purpose of this initiative is to demonstrate models of economic growth for identified rural communities, while reducing the negative environmental impacts.

One of the most impoverished regions in India, Bundelkhand has been facing drought like conditions for the many years. To make matters worse, the frequency of recurring drought spells is increasing. There are indications of increasing temperature regime and shifting monsoon timings. Sudden and abnormal climatic phenomenon, such as hail, untimely rains and peaks in temperatures also play havoc with the already fragile livelihood base that is dependent primarily on subsistence agriculture and livestock.

The Shubh Kal project thus offers livelihood support systems and resource management models to those who are worst affected by climate change. The project targets three groups - farmers, women and artisans - and has adopted a strong strategic orientation towards influencing a change in the behaviour of these groups and facilitating a policy environment to promote low-carbon economic models for adaptation to climate change.

The dialogue process highlights:

• Promotion of sustainable agricultural practices and energy efficient irrigation techniques among farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase agricultural production; enabling the farmers to adapt to drought conditions

• Introduction of renewable energy such as bio-gas energy models is a livelihood option for women, which is one of best adaptation measures for climate change effect

Additionally, the project seeks to replicate and scale up activities, supported at the local level, by influencing state-level policies in favour of more ecological, economic and social security for rural communities.

Current Situation in Water Energy Consumption in Agriculture and Livelihoods in Bundelkhand

With this initiative, DA attempts to develop models for adaptation to climate change in the focused area of Bundelkhand, where the community’s ability to adapt to alternatives and adopt new practices/technologies to reduce vulnerability to climatic uncertainties is limited. The target region describes:

• Climate related stress – droughts, greater water requirements, reduced agricultural yields and low social capital, affecting adaptive capacity – poor access to reliable information, low capacity of regional institutions, low degree to collective action

• Degeneration of natural resource base and livelihood insecurity as a result of low agricultural productivity and stagnant industrial growth

The project clearly identifies the intricate link between issues related to water resources and energy supply that need to be addressed jointly. The data on the current status of water and energy availability, the associated technologies and the current usage patterns in the project area indicates depleting water resources, unreliable power and expensive diesel energy, increasing cost of exploring water, unsustainable exploitation of water resources, all adding to the vulnerability of the community.

Unreliability and lack of management of energy and natural resources have been identified as another significant cause of reduced off-farm economic opportunities specially impacting the womenfolk. Energy and fodder security are identified as factors that can enhance the adaptation capacity of families/communities with the help of the women who are engaged in economic activities, based on renewable energy services.

Several central and state government programmes and schemes reveal the apathy in groundwater and surface water management. Flooding is the preferred mode of irrigation, leading to loss of water and soil nutrients. Though multi-level institutions do exist, they operate in isolation from each other.

Bundelkhand not only has the lowest energy infrastructure development in the country (0-25%), it is also amongst the lowest in off-farm livelihoods, primarily because of the non-availability of energy to support manufacturing and services, thus increasing the load on agriculture.

Though 60% of the villages are electrified - as per the energy supply and reliability studies - they have extremely poor per capita consumption due to irregular and poor quality supply. Erratic electricity supply, especially during evenings or during the harvesting season severely affects the economy and quality of life, indirectly fostering urban migration. The worst affected are the women, who need energy for domestic purposes; the farmers, who need energy for tillage, irrigation and post-harvesting activities; and local enterprises/micro industries.

There are technical solutions for small-scale decentralised energy generation, like bio-energy sources. However, the local population is largely unable to access and manage bio-resources to sustain such renewable energy generation and supply services.

These bio-resources are further threatened by the changing climate scenario. Thus, it becomes even more important to regenerate and manage them. The economics of the local micro industry that provides economic benefits to climate-vulnerable groups, such as women, should also be understood. Additionally, it is important to tap the capacities of women groups to manage the bio-energy services and livelihood enterprises model. Efforts should be made to synergise the isolated government schemes and programmes to promote access to land and energy resources to women and community groups and help develop the livelihood potential based on such renewable energy.

India currently has the second largest number of registered Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, 60% of which are based on energy. However, individual Renewable energy based Decentralised Distributed Generation (ReDDG) projects are usually not viable for CDM projects. Small, economically viable low-carbon models can also be clustered to promote replication of such models and reduce vulnerabilities to a large extent.

Similarly, effort should be made to reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural activities through an integrated and comprehensive set of actions, demonstrating efficient water use linked to energy. The efforts to conserve energy through mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions become eligible for CDM projects. A large number of such initiatives can be clustered to develop a feasible project, eligible for financial support, using the route of Programmatic CDM. This would assist in mitigating the risks associated with the change in practices towards low-carbon agriculture and promote large-scale change in behaviour/practices in water and energy use in the agriculture sector.

Scientific Analysis in Source Development and Quantification of Water and Usage Planning Based on Data

Very little is done to set up a mechanism for quantification of the available water for various applications, irrigation, eco-systems, etc. Agriculture plans and other schemes that depend on water as a primary resource should rely on timely and authentic data from reliable sources. Easy access to such data can correctly determine cropping patterns and enable the concerned districts/regions to plan for water augmentation and source development.

For example, the watershed level planning at the Hivre Bazaar village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra is based on quantification of water availability. The village prepared a water budget and planned relevant activities based on data, derived from hydrological surveys and validated by field surveys on water levels in open wells and tube wells at different locations and altitudes within the village. The data enabled the village to plan for source development through afforestation, groundwater harvesting by check dams and increasing the surface storage by de-silting and developing tanks, thus simultaneously working towards source development and conservation, along with annual decisions on cropping patterns, ban on water intensive crops and promoting drip irrigation, surface water irrigation and limiting the size of pumps. Going by the Hivre Bazaar example, planning should be done at the village level and detailed micro-plans should be developed annually with capacity building and technical supports for the Panchayats to plan at the village level.

Contextualisation, Inclusion and Application of Local Knowledge

It is important to interlink scientific methodologies with local knowledge to understand the seasonal fluctuations in the water tables or allocating check dams. The local communities should be involved in handling scientific data and taking decisions based on their local knowledge. The first level of planning should be done at the village level. The issue of what should be subsidised must be addressed by the local population.

From Mobilisation to Market Linkages and Viable Services Delivery

Ground implementation of programmes and service delivery at the village level is a major concern. The SEWA Urja, a not-for-profit organisation based on the Gujarat experience has demonstrated that community mobilisation by a sarpanch or a community leader is at the base of all successful processes. The key priorities of a community must be linked with other development processes of the village. Mobilisation and prioritisation need to be connected with resource mobilisation for action and finally to market linkages and viable services delivery.

Once these issues of basic needs services are resolved, the womenfolk can afford to spend more time and effort on village development and community issues. For instance, women teams are engaged in hand pump repairing, and taking annual maintenance contracts for village hand pumps.

Mainstreaming Sustainable Models Through Policy for Large Scale Replication

The initiative taken in Bundelkhand provides models that can influence policies and may be streamlined through policy processes. It is, therefore, useful to examine the existing policies and programmes where water and water services are impacted. q

Rizwan Uz Zaman
ruzaman@devalt.org

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