Food, the bedrock of our human existence is under threat due to the growing population and climate change. The projected population of 2050 will cross 9 billion with more people to grow and even more to feed.

Over the last many decades, agriculture has unarguably served the needs of the people by providing food for growing populations. This scenario is fast changing due to the unsustainable use of natural resources, rapid Climate uncertainty and no additional support to strengthen the farming sector.

In this whole chain, farmers play a great role but if they are not assisted to meet climate change, the agriculture yield will decrease with an adverse impact on the global food system. The farmers will not be able to take this pressure and lose their livelihood.

In COP27 the spotlight was also on agriculture challenges and the prospective solutions in the face of Climate Change. The Goodwill Ambassador of UN International Fund for Agriculture Development even said that we need to help rural populations build their resilience to extreme weather events and adapt to a changing climate. If not, we only go from one crisis to the next. Small-scale farmers work hard to grow food for us in tough conditions.

Caritas India at the grassroots level has taken every effort to develop synergistic strategies to enable farmers to adapt and preserve production while providing promoting conservation efforts for mitigation.

Cross-learning has been an important aspect of promoting diversity and enhancing knowledge of best practices and innovation. U3 programme has taken this valuable step to upskill the knowledge and skill of their partners and community to secure their livelihood. FARM Northeast, one of the Climate Adaptive Agriculture and Food Sovereignty programmes has proved very beneficial in addressing climate change and building the resilience of the people in the region.

Mr. Prabal Sen, Incharge of FARM Northeast was called to share his experience, practices, and models of climate resilience with the U3 West Bengal partners. The two days learning platform served as a discussion and insightful avenue for scalable and replicable solutions.

He shared the Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) models and practices with the 21-partner staff during the workshop held at Jalpaiguri, West Bengal on 17-18 November 2022. He also presented the comparison between organic and conventional cultivation systems to convince people to show the possibility of making an income from organic cultivation.

The call is to harness the power of innovation to adapt agriculture to the changing climate and make it more resistant to adversity caused by climate change. The U3 programme complements by fostering and securing self-sustaining climate-resilient and adaptive agriculture and livelihoods.

The workshop helped in enhancing the understanding of organic manure preparation, bamboo plantation, paddy cum fish cultivation, zero energy cool chamber and community kitchen garden. Topics like ecological invasion and Jhum cultivation were also discussed with examples for better understanding. It encouraged the participants to blend science with tradition to develop the thematic intervention. The technology of SALT, millet farming, Seed bank, and Biodiversity walk was greatly appreciated.

Hands-on training on the new technology of bamboo propagation was demonstrated which is easier and more efficient than the traditional method. The participants experimented with preparing the zero-energy cool chamber under the guidance of the resource person. The participants gained insight into the threats of modern chemical-based agriculture and understand the need to restore indigenous & traditional knowledge & models.

The U3 programme in West Bengal decided to replicate the learning of Millet cultivation,  bamboo stalk plantation, apiculture, zero energy cool chamber, weed composting & local seed promotion and paddy cum fish model. The Phase III project also aims to increase the income of small and marginal farmers through the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices and climate-resilient farming practices. As the farmers get very low and meagre income from the current agricultural practices, the U3 programme focuses to bring changes in agricultural practices among the farmers for a better yield and income.

Similar training was organized on “Sustainable agriculture practices” on 17th & 18th Nov 2022, for the Karnataka partners facilitated by Dr. Haridas, Lead U3 programme in Shivamogga. The workshop emphasized community carbon collectives, pest-preventing planting patterns, soil moisture retention and seed prevention. The different aspects of pest-preventing planting patterns were also discussed such as tonal tonic, net surf, Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, tricho-card, traps, fish waste tonic, etc help the farmers to get good yield and protect their plants from pests. Importance was also given to growth-promoting aspects like fish amino acid (FAA), Jeevamruth, fermented amino acid (FAA), and vermi wash.

The participants mainly learnt about the different components involved in the community carbon collective such as solar energy, solar irrigation, waste management, organic farming, beekeeping, water conservation, planting drive, etc. Through Group exercise, the participants presented their understanding of the community carbon collective and clarify their queries about the community carbon collective. They are now confident to present models on community carbon collective and growth-promoting techniques learnt by the marginal farmers in the coming days.