Context
Climate change presents India with major challenges. In the course of the 20th century, the average temperature in the country increased by 0.6°C, and the trend continues upward. Rainfall is becoming less frequent but more intense, which is increasingly affecting the use of natural resources and agricultural production. At the same time, 60 per cent of the agricultural area where yields could be increased are given over to rain-fed agriculture.
The approximately 700 million rural inhabitants in the affected areas of Central and South India are ill-prepared for the consequences of climate change. Smallholder farmers and households that depend primarily on income from rain-fed agriculture are particularly badly affected. They suffer more than others from damage caused by extreme weather events resulting from climate change.
So far, the farmers have received insufficient information on how they can adapt their agricultural activities to climate change. Differing and even contradictory information is often disseminated through a variety of platforms and vendors. No network exists through which to provide updated information in a fast and effective manner to farmers and farmer organisations, policy makers, agricultural extension services and land traders.
Objective
A climate change knowledge network provides information that is increasingly used by relevant actors in agriculture at national, regional and district levels.
Approach
Together with the Division for Rain fed Agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, the GIZ project is using an innovative ICT-based knowledge platform to improve the processing and sharing of information on agricultural production, agricultural markets, climate, weather and extreme weather events. The project involves important institutions that can contribute their own information to the platform regarding the climate adaptation of agriculture, while also benefiting from it. The project reinforces the existing extension systems and local networks in order to provide locally relevant information on climate change adaptation, that is both timely and of high quality. Concepts and practical experiences gained from developing this network in the pilot areas of the three states, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Odisha, will provide a foundation upon which to expand the knowledge exchange network throughout India. The target groups are rural women and men threatened by climate change in the three selected states.
The consulting firm GOPA supports the implementation of the project.
