Imlisanen Jamir
At a time when the pervasiveness of climatic aberrations and the associated socio-economic vulnerability are widely recognised and experienced across the globe, action is required to integrate top-down government schemes and scientific innovations, with stakeholder needs to build lasting resilience in agriculture.
On January 19, the ‘Fostering Climate Resilient Upland Farming Systems (FOCUS)’ project was launched. The project, funded by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), entails an agreement for an initial period of six years (2018-2023) amounting to a total cost of Rs 612.42 Crores for Nagaland State.
The FOCUS project seeks to provide farmers with better jhum cultivation practices that will be both more productive and more sustainable, thus creating an ecological balance, increasing resilience to climate change, and enhancing farmers' income.
It also aims to assist ‘jhumia’ households to adopt alternative farming systems, particularly settled farming; and support improved market access and value chain development, as farmers move to more market-oriented production.
The project, to be implemented in Nagaland and Mizoram, has a total cost estimate of 168.47 million dollars for the two states, which will be financed by an IFAD loan of 75.5 million dollars, an IFAD grant of 1 million dollars, parallel financing using Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) funds of 27.51 million dollars, state government contributions of 31.92 million dollars, convergence funding of 26.27 million dollars, and a beneficiary contribution of 6.27 million dollars.
In Nagaland, the project seeks to directly benefit 1,37,000 households, which is more than double the number targeted in Mizoram. In terms of economic rate of return, the value is projected at 29% with a benefit cost ratio of 1:78.
The IFAD, in its project design report has called for project interventions to be sustainable. “Improved agricultural practices, if found by farmers to be useful and profitable will be sustained, provided inputs and markets are available. Interventions in the market access and value chain component (largely in the private sector) will aim to ensure this,” it prescribed.
With the Department of Agriculture as the nodal agency for implementation of the project in Nagaland, it is important to ensure that mainstreaming adaptation into the policy apparatus has the potential to improve the resilience of several development outcomes.
The approach demands coherence across multiple policy scales as required for developing possible synergy between micro-macro levels and addressing several cross-cutting issues. Moreover, this enables identification of several barriers that prevent up-scaling efforts and adaptation by farmers.
While the project is focused mostly on addressing the adverse effects of the jhum technique and improving economic/market elements, there is a need to foster a process which involves reshaping responses across both the micro and macro-level decision-making culture in the agricultural sector.
Corroborating traditional agri practices with climate assessments and climate resilient technologies can help towards using the FOCUS project as a tool to achieve both sustainable and profitable agronomic practices in Nagaland.
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