Since 2015, DRCSC (www.drcsc.org) has been developing climate adaptive capacities for 5,000 climate-impacted families across 40 villages in two of the driest districts in the state of West Bengal –Purulia and Bankura. Funded by the Adaptation Fund Board (www.adaptation-fund.org) and supported by NABARD (www.nabard.org), this program over the past five years has encouraged collective stewardship of soil, water, and green cover, driven the adoption of diversified, integrated farming practices, and strengthened food and livelihood systems for the marginalized tribal communities. This is through the introduction of climate smart technologies, nature-based solutions, and strong program design principles.
As a result, today, 84% of the target households are practicing agriculture for at least two seasons now (as compared to only 2% in 2015), and 86% of the target households do not experience any hunger period (as compared to only 2% in 2015). While no households were practicing fisheries and nutrition gardens before, today 62% and 68% of the target households practice them, respectively. Furthermore, hyperlocal weather advisory services, one of the key interventions in the program areas, have helped reduction in farm input costs by 35% among the target households.
These impacts are a direct result of carefully designing, piloting, iterating, and gradually scaling up innovative practices, which are potential lessons for policymakers, practitioners, Governments, and institutions in maximizing their impact. As DRCSC’s knowledge partner, Re-emerging World (www.re-emergingworld.com) has synthesized these learnings into a lessons learned report distilling eight key lessons as inputs for policy considerations while implementing similar programs.
On Friday, 22 July 2022, the consortium partners organised Sanlaap2022: A National Conclave in Kolkata, India to disseminate these eight key lessons which have emerged from the program. The conclave participants witnessed three thematic expert panel discussions, experience sharing by adopter farmers, and the launching of the lessons learned publication. You can find the conclave agenda here: https://bit.ly/conclaveagenda.
This report shares key highlights, perspectives, and takeaways of the sessions from the conclave.
