The initiative is located on the Deccan Plateau of India. The climate is semi-arid in the north but tropical elsewhere. The majority of the farming population own less than one hectare of land and live and work in fragile environments, with little capital for investment and few off-farm employment opportunities. The major economic activity in these areas is agriculture, with around 40% of families dependent on income through agriculture and allied activities.

The initiative is supported by Agriculture Man Ecology Foundation (AMEF), which has successfully promoted Low External Inputs and Sustainable Agriculture methods of farming and Participatory Technology Development. The organisation helps farmers to adapt and sustain their livelihoods despite challenging climatic conditions through better management of natural resources by making better choices of crops, cropping systems and farming systems and enable them to adopt the ecological agriculture practices. The initiative strives to foster local-level farmer institutions and develop their capacities to sustain the adoption of ecological agriculture.

The systematic combination of in-situ rainwater management, soil fertility improvement and crop and cropping practices is supported by activities like generating and recycling manurial biomass and resource conserving methods like the System of Rice Intensification and have been adopted by farmers in irrigated paddy, rain fed paddy, finger millet and red gram production. Farm families have integrated supplementary income generating activities into their livelihood strategies, achieving greater sustainability. The approach and methods that have underpinned the transformation of the production systems include guiding farmers through season-long Farmer Field Schools (FFS) building the capacities of rural youth in sustainable agriculture, enhancing the capacities of other NGOs in Sustainable Agriculture and FFS to enable scaling up of agroecological approaches over a broader area, and wider dissemination of field experiences on ecological agriculture.

The initiative aims to empower small-scale farmers in ecologically degraded drylands by improving their livelihoods, addressing gender and social equity issues, and promoting agroecological alternatives.

This fact sheet is produced as part of the Avaclim project, which aims to create the necessary conditions for the deployment of agroecology in dryland areas. The international solidarity association CARI coordinates the Avaclim project while the Gosavi Bahuudeshiya Sanstha (GBS) is in charge of its implementation in India.