India is the second-most populous nation in the world and has 60.45% (as per World Bank 2016) of land that is used to agriculture in India. Agriculture in India is still rain-fed, and a farmer’s future and the future of their family still depend on how merciful the Monsoon will be for the country. With climate change, the lifeline of agriculture has become more erratic. Monsoon has stopped following a regular pattern.
In these days of uncertainty where everyone is concerned and is leaving the farmland to migrate to the city even if they have to work as domestic help, drivers, construction workers or daily wagers, they are willing to do so. Unfortunately, in India where seventy percent of the population is engaged in agriculture a mere sum of Rs 6,000 or $81 is what a household gets as their monthly income. In the case of smaller holdings, this is even lesser, there are more mouths to feed but less to earn. Incidentally, India hosts a staggering number of marginalized and smallholder farmers, almost eighty per cent of them.
As climate change continues, livelihoods of farmers have become more vulnerable to economic shocks and environmental stresses. Information on the upcoming monsoon season, along with advance warnings of dry spells, heat shocks, sudden winds, or changes in temperature can be extremely helpful for farmers. However, making location specific climate information available to farmers is challenging. In India, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has partnered with Skymet Weather Services Private Limited for a unique project on “Partnership in Climate Services for Resilient Agriculture in India (PCSRA)”. The project aims to digitalize climate services for the Indian farmer and facilitate crop insurance to improve their resilience and adaptability in the face of climate change. The project uses a combination of Indo-American technologies to make weather forecasts and agro advisories available on the mobiles of more than 85,000 registered farmers across 31 districts in 9 states in India. The target states and the respective districts were selected on the basis of historical evidence showing the degree of vulnerability and losses caused by weather vagaries.
PCSRA focuses on four pillars of intervention for the roll-out of climate services:
- Provide location-specific weather and climate information
- Issue ICT-based location-specific crop advisories
- Facilitate crop insurance
- Develop a ‘Community of Practice’ on climate services
Skymet has been associated with USAID for the past five years. In these years, not only have we done some path-breaking work but have also created new benchmarks. Skymet transmits time-sensitive and location-specific advisories across multiple geographies by using digital agricultural extension services in the form of SMS, WhatsApp, Voice Calls, and the SkyMitra app. This effort is complimented by the presence of field staff and crop experts to engage with farmers and stakeholders to nurture a ‘Community of Practice’.
What is a ‘Community of Practice’ or CoP?
When the project started five years ago, it was not easy to win the trust of farmers. They could not understand why they were being approached by Skymet as there were a lot of apprehensions about the motive behind the project. Farmers were reluctant to share their mobile number- a basic requirement to ensure delivery of weather forecasts and agro advisories. Gradually, after meeting farmers and village level officials the project team started gaining acceptance and a ‘Community of Practice’ took shape.
‘Community of Practice’ or CoP is a platform or means of engagement developed by the project to share information, experiences and lessons learnt on best agricultural practices. A ‘Community of Practices’ brings farmers as well as stakeholder under one umbrella, so that awareness and knowledge reaches the right person at the right time.
This community comprises of not just farmers and stakeholders but also of Skymet’s field-based staff across project districts. Skymet has trained and placed 40 field staff across 9 states of India. Each state is managed by a state coordinator who supervises a team of 3-4 area in-charges for stakeholder engagement and farmer interactions. The state team members meet registered farmers bi-monthly and organize village level meetings monthly.
Farmers come together to reflect on their observations, share learnings and council each other through discussions facilitated by the project team. Skymet has deployed a dual approach of farmers learning from experts and scientist from the Department of Agriculture, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) and Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA); but also, from fellow farmers to develop a common understanding on climate variability and adaptation. This two-way flow of information during farmer meetings or ‘Kisan Sabhas’ encourages peer-to-peer learning amongst farmers on the one hand and augments this by making technical expertise accessible through meetings with scientists and agricultural experts. This is very empowering for farmers as it makes them look beyond traditional farming practices to new farming technologies and practices.
Apart from discussions on crops and climate variability, government officials disseminate information on flagship national programs and state level programs on natural resource management and livelihoods generation, which is of great interest to farmers. These discussions forums don’t have a defined format. In fact, often what is discussed is suited to the needs of a particular district in keeping with its relevance for a particular cropping season. Discussions could be on zero till farming and prevention of stubble burning in Punjab, to new rice varieties in Orissa, and honeybee rearing in Andhra Pradesh.
The ‘Community of Practice’ links farmers to the larger eco-system of knowledge and options that may be useful for them. There have been several instances of village level meetings between scientists and government officials which have resulted in farmers being invited to attend government trainings, exposure visits to research stations, or to field visits in other villages. For instance, in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, after a Kisan Sabha with KVK officials, 16 registered farmers in the project attended training on mushroom cultivation. Similarly, in another case, Dharmendra Kumar, a registered farmer from Bihar attended a meeting organized by the project and learnt about the government run ‘National Horticulture Mission’ which aims to improve the income and resilience of farmers through improvements in horticulture. After the meeting, Dharmendra approached the project team to help him out with paperwork and bank documentation for construction of a poly-house. The project team guided Dharmendra with documentation and compliance. With support from stakeholders in the eco-system and the project team, Dharmendra has switched from conventional farming to poly-house cultivation. Earlier, he used to grow paddy on 0.5 acre of land. Now he grows capsicum in a poly-house which has increased his income three-fold.
Apart from meetings with scientific institutions and government departments, Skymet invites representatives from the Gram Panchayat, agriculture input companies, banks and insurance companies. Farmer meetings organized by the project has received extensive coverage in regional newspapers. Over the years, the project team developed strong bonds with several government institutions and as a result of which they get invited to meetings, agriculture fairs, and road shows, to share project activities with a wider audience.
Women are the silent workforce behind a successful agricultural output. When we started work on this project (PCSRA) we knew how vulnerable women are but never realized that women in rural areas hardly have any rights or say unless they own a piece of land and till it. We are lucky to work with such women in uplifting them. One such effort was a Kisan Goshthi, organized in Aurangabad (Bihar) to bring small & marginal farmers as well as female farmers. During the meeting, the benefits of PCSRA were discussed with the farmers with emphasis on rapidly changing climate and its adverse impact on the women farmers and their income. Another farmer meeting was organized at Dholpur (Rajasthan) to create awareness about the importance of crop advisories and weather forecasts for the sowing of the crop, especially for female farmers.
Not only did we work in enlisting farmers, but we also took regular feedback from them so that they would become our champions and use words-of-mouth to encourage new farmers to use services like the weatherboard and advisories that we provide to our registered farmers.
The project has partnered with several farmers collectives and village-based grassroots organizations by enrolling men and women farmers from NGOs, FPOs and SHGs from nine states in India. Often farmers associated with FPOS and SHGs have better market linkages as they are engaged in crop specific value chains. After receiving weather forecasts and crop advisories from Skymet, these FPOs and NGOs have optimized use of inputs to grow high value horticultural products.
Skymet remains in touch with farmers through mobile based features like SMS and voice calls and applications like WhatsApp and SkyMitra to give them relevant weather information and agro advisories. These digital ‘Communities of Practice’ are extremely critical when in-person meetings cannot take place. India is currently under a lockdown due to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite the nation-wide lockdown, Skymet continues to transmit time-sensitive and location – specific climate services on the mobiles of 85,000 farmers in India. Additionally, WhatsApp is being used to share information on government notifications, social distancing and best practices while harvesting the ‘Rabi’ crop, and information that may be of relevance to the farming communities.
Community Participation:
There is no linear path of engaging with communities and it is equally hard to define ‘who’ all comprise of a ‘CoP’. Innovative strategies of engagement have evolved over time. Realizing that farmers not enrolled in the project are also a part of the eco-system, PCSRA has tried to share information with them as well. It has placed 93 weather boards in 31 project districts, usually in high footfall areas like the ‘Panchayat Bhawan’ or the milk collection center, to make information accessible to those farmers who don’t own a mobile or are not enrolled in the project. As enrolled farmers get timely services on their mobiles, they are more prepared and hence more productive. Farmers as a community share common interests and keep their neighbors informed about information and updates. Unseasonal changes in weather, like thunderstorm, hailstorm, heat wave, cyclones or gusty winds could be devastating for the farmer as an individual and community as whole. In several locations’ farmers have devised their own innovative strategies to broadcast alert on extreme weather events through religious places and institutions including temple, mosques and churches using their loudspeakers. This way farmers pay attention to mobile based information and becomes pro-active.
Impact of CoP:
‘Community of Practice’ facilitated by the project helps in capacity building of farmers and created awareness about private and public run programs in the district that they can access to build resilience. Timely information is a boon for farmers as it helps them plan better. It has established regular communication between experts and farming communities to enhance the uptake of sustainable and innovative farming practices. Now farmers have started complementing their information gathering activities with on farm experimentation.
The thought behind creating CoP was to leave a legacy behind; this legacy will be carried forward by exchanging views in the community. Community of Practices not only makes the farming community and associated stakeholders more informed and aware about the latest trends, technology, and policies in the agriculture sector, but it also helps to develop stronger networks within the community. Farmers and stakeholders can leverage those networks to develop business models and enterprises for livelihoods and revenue generation.
All these years that we have been associated with these farmers, they have become a part of our extended family. For them the farmers have become a family on their own, they share their best practices, ask questions, and get answers by experts. They have become self-reliant in the use of digital technology, take time sensitive decisions, and understand the importance of using scarce resources sparingly- all in an effort become more resilient in the wake of climate change. We have been a catalyst in creating a lasting change.
Skymet Weather Services Private Limited is India’s largest weather monitoring and agri risk solutions company. The United States Agency for international Development (USAID) is a part of the United States federal government that is primarily responsible for providing foreign aid and development assistance. For more information on the Skymet-USAID partnership; please logon to the project portal: http://projects.skymetweather.com/USAID/
Project Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_4Chh-jKOg
USAID PARTNERSHIP: PAVING THE WAY FOR CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURE IN INDIA, SKYMET CTO, VIVEK SINGH: https://www.skymetweather.com/content/agriculture-and-economy/skymet-usaid-partnership-paving-the-way-for-climate-resilient-agriculture-in-india-skymet-cto-vivek-singh/
Previous Project Articles:
THE MAKING OF A TECH - SAVVY "KISAN": https://www.skymetweather.com/content/agriculture-and-economy/the-making-of-a-tech-savvy-kisan/
USAID AND SKYMET BRINGS AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION: https://www.skymetweather.com/content/weather-news-and-analysis/usaid-and-skymet-brings-agricultural-transformation/
USAID VISITS SKYMET WEATHER, HELP THE FARMER IN FULL SWING: https://www.skymetweather.com/content/weather-news-and-analysis/usaid-visits-skymet-weather-help-the-farmer-in-full-swing/