Restoring soil and land health in Andhra Pradesh with a landscape approach

For many years, India’s Andhra Pradesh State – which sits in its southern coastal region – was known for its lush fields and high agricultural productivity. Indeed, seventy percent of the state’s population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture and related livelihood opportunities. Recently, however, things have taken a turn for the worse in the state once known as ‘India’s rice bowl’. Decades of poor soil management have resulted in land degradation, poor crop yields, and impoverished farmers.

In response, the Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced the Community-Managed Natural Farming model as a way to address these multiple crises. In line with this, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), in partnership with local non-profit Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), began working together in 2020 to implement an engagement landscape approach, which seeks to scale natural farming through exemplar landscapes and improving soil health. Engagement landscapes are geographical locations where concentrated, long-term work is carried out to support transformation and enhance resilience, while exemplar landscapes are smaller geographic areas within the engagement landscape where focused work takes place.

In 2021, three exemplar landscapes were established in Ananthapuramu, West Godavari, and Alluri Sitharama Raju districts, as part of the From fields to landscapes: establishing the resilient productivity of Andhra Pradesh Community-Managed Natural Farming project, which was funded by RySS, ClimateWorks, and the Climate and Land Use Alliance. The exemplar landscapes brought together multiple stakeholders. “We aim to build a robust scientific evidence base showing where and how climate and livelihood resilience can be achieved, ensuring context-specific adaptation and innovation through co-learning with multiple stakeholders,” explained Leigh Ann Winowiecki, Global Research Leader of Soil and Land Health at CIFOR-ICRAF.

Why Community-Managed Natural Farming?

Natural farming is a holistic approach based on the principles of agroecology. It is farmer-centric, follows a farmer-to-farmer extension system, and is driven by farmers’ innovations. In Andhra Pradesh, the practice was initiated in 2016, with aims to reach six million farmers across the state. Through this project, the majority of agriculture in Andhra Pradesh is expected to transition to climate-resilient Community-Managed Natural Farming.

Alluri Sitharama Raju District Facilitator (at the center) conducting meeting
with farmers to discuss the challenges and opportunities in
practicing natural farming. Photo credit: CIFOR-ICRAF/Sonia Sharma

A key project objective is to facilitate co-learning and adaptation through policy dialogues and an online decision dashboard. To that end, earlier this year, CIFOR-ICRAF organized district workshops across the three landscapes. Ninety-one stakeholders came together to: review and discuss the evidence from the various exemplar landscapes; share insights on natural farming in the exemplar landscape; receive feedback from stakeholders on stakeholder mapping and evidence generation; strategize on how to address the challenges to scaling natural farming in the exemplar landscape; and develop a map of current projects and interventions in the exemplar landscapes. The participants consisted of farmers, district facilitators, and representatives from government departments and community-based organizations.

During the highly interactive workshops, stakeholders discussed the challenges and opportunities for scaling natural farming, primarily focusing on current gaps. It was a highly productive exercise as all of the relevant stakeholders discussed the lessons, barriers, and potential of natural farming. Some of the opportunities cited were community-level planning and input preparation, grading, processing, and certification of produce and policy level changes. Challenges included a lack of inputs and awareness, and incorrect mindsets towards natural farming.

The participants also interacted with the data generated from the project through an interactive evidence wall. This proved to be a great tool, as it led to open dialogue and discussions on the meaning, relationships, relevance, and implication of the data and information regarding the current state of the farms. Stakeholders were able to share ideas and exchange notes on what, how, and where to adjust based on the research results. “This is the first time that data collected from our fields has been shared back with us for discussion,” said Kama Raju, a farmer from Alluri Sitharama Raju District. “It is a very informative and empowering session for us.”

Left: A farmer expressing her views during Alluri Sitharama Raju district workshop. Centre: Ananthapuramu District Facilitator interacting with farmers during the data wall session. Right: Stakeholders group discussion during West Godavari workshop. Photo credit: CIFOR-ICRAF/Sonia Sharma

Not only was this exercise important for the farmers, but it also offered an important tool for the project implementers to monitor progress and course-correct if necessary. In addition, stakeholders mapped the current projects and interventions implemented by the various organizations in the exemplar landscapes and adjacent regions.

Since natural farming depends heavily on farmer-to-farmer extension services, these workshops are critical for gathering new innovations and discussing current challenges in natural farming: they operate as hubs for knowledge exchange. “Farmers should find solutions to the problems that they are facing in the field through discussions at community level” said Zakir Hussain, Thematic Lead for Climate Change and Livelihoods at RySS.

Many farmers were invigorated by the discussions. “In this workshop, I have learned how to plan for the different seasons, as well as conservation techniques such as 365-day green cover,” said Satyavathi, a farmer from Alluri Sitharama Raju. “Natural farming is sustainable farming – since we use natural products, our land will become healthy and productive again,” said another farmer.

Over the last two years, a range of activities have been conducted in the exemplar landscapes, including stakeholders mapping, the establishment of demonstration plots in sixteen villages across three landscapes, and enrolment of farmers for testing the premises of natural farming through planned comparisons. The principle of the participatory approach sits at the core of the design and implementation of all these activities and was also reflected in the stakeholder workshops.

The data generated at each step has been shared in the form of various outputs; currently, the project is moving towards the generation of final outcomes. CIFOR-ICRAF is also developing an interactive dashboard for landscapes, which will be crucial for communicating data and information quickly and easily to key users and decision makers.

AUTHOR
Ann Wavinya, Sonia Sharma, Christine Magaju
SOURCE
Originally published on worldagroforestry.org
PHOTO
© CIFOR-ICRAF/Sonia Sharma