Six Maharashtra villages part of UN body’s case study on drought resilience

WOTR’s work in villages in Ahmednagar’s Akole and Sangamner blocks were the case studies from this country. The villages receive very little rain and the people are frequently exposed to drought situations. The initiatives by WOTR included building trenches, afforestation, tree plantation and institutional community building at the village level. The study shows how sustainable land and ecosystem management along with the watershed development leads to the improving land resilience. The report was launched on December 3 at the COP16 that is underway in Riyadh, with Marcella D’Souza, Director of WOTR Centre for Resilience Studies, participating in the event.

“We had worked with six villages – four from Sangamner and two from Akole—between 2010 and 2014. We also set up three control villages, where we had minimal interventions or none at all. For the UNCCD report, we compared the benefits of these interventions in terms of economic valuation. What is the benefit-to-cost to ratio of these interventions in villages versus that in the control villages where there is no intervention. Basically, this was to understand what is the cost of inaction? If we don’t take any action to build drought resilience, what is the cost? If we do take action, what is the cost of that?” says Vijay Solanki, one of the researchers of the project.

As the report reveals, “Soil erosion was reduced by 24.7% (in the villages that witnessed intervention) compared to a 2.8% increase in control villages”. As a result of the interventions that restored degraded water resources, some of the villages experienced a reduced need for water tankers while others did not need tankers at all through the year. “A unique element was that we introduced agro meteorological advisories to the farmers, wherein we installed automated weather stations into those villages and analysed temperature and humidity, among others. This empowered farmers to understand what is favourable for particular crops. We started disseminating these agro-weather advisories to the farmers. If rainfall is not favorable, don’t go for harvest or sowing. As a result, the farmers were able to reduce the damages or losses that could have happened. Farmers were able to adapt crop cycles to changing rainfall patterns and increasing yields while reducing water dependency,” says Solanki.

“The overall cost-benefit ratios of the interventions ranged from 1.15 to 1.19 of societal and financial returns for every dollar invested. Even though the project ended 10 years ago, the villages have taken ownership of the system and have continued it. Eventually, communities contribute to the project as a way of shramdaan or seva. They are doing it voluntarily for their development, for their village development,” says Solanki. “Due to these interventions on the ground, we can see the benefit 10 to 14 years later. We call this sustainable benefit,” he added.