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Subject: Agricultural Extension Education × Author: Das, Usha × End date: 2024 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Climate smart agriculture interventions for rural livelihoods: An exploratory study in Odisha
    (G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-07) Das, Usha; Ansari, M.A.
    The global climate targets like Paris Agreement are set to argue that transformations are required for the survival of humans with the onset of climate change in a sustainable manner on this planet. Here, climate change adaptations and climate smart agriculture (CSA) interventions will act as a shield against such changes. And a systematic evolution in the production, resilience and mitigation pillars are required as a mark of such transformations. CSA in any agro- ecosystem is one such protean approach. It revolves around re-routing the farm livelihoods to new directions, de-risk these livelihoods by secured early warning systems & adaptive safety nets and climate informed advisories and finally restructure, realign and reform the policies through social, financial and innovation movements to build more resilient and sustainable rural livelihoods. With a rising emissions of methane, mostly from agricultural production, falling groundwater levels, rise in tropical cyclones, concurrent floods, post monsoon droughts, India in general and Odisha in particular is under constant climatic distress. To address such climatic issues in India, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) introduced National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. Odisha, being the third most vulnerable state to climate change with a vulnerable coastal as well as non-coastal ecosystem inclusive of NICRA adopted study districts was the locale of this study. Three dominant livelihood groups considered for the study were crop farmers, livestock farmers and crop+livestock farmers. Following an exploratory and descriptive research design, the study was conducted in two purposively selected districts, i.e. coastal district of Kendrapara and the non-coastal district of Dhenkanal. The study sample comprised of 200 famers from three distinct livelihood groups that were selected through purposive sampling with proportional allocation. The study concluded that the two climatically vulnerable districts differed with respect to attributes of farmers, asset holdings, climate knowledge level, vulnerability & resiliency to climate change and perceived effectiveness of various CSA interventions unique to their settings. The overall livelihood status of farmers of both districts was below average, and of all the five assets, natural assets were lowest contributing to the overall livelihood status of the farmers due to its lengthy time lapse for recreation in post climate malady. The crop+livestock farmers’ livelihood group had better performance in every attribute thus indicating that livelihood diversification is a key for survival during climatic hazards. Those CSA interventions given by NICRA which were need based and location specific were perceived to be effective along with various institutional & organizational push factors. The study also revealed that involvement of KVKs in implementation of NICRA had better impact on the farmers. An output framework for prioritizing and up-scaling CSA interventions was also inferred from the study. A number of inferential/relational statistical analyses like correlation, regression, path analysis, factor analysis, structural equation modeling were carried out to reveal various drivers of adoption of CSA interventions. The barriers like inefficient governance, lack of timely information, lack of market and credit support etc. were ranked highest. Some plausible solutions to these barriers were also documented in this study. Thus, the study outcomes suggest that climate smart agriculture policy should consider the differential, location-specific, demand-driven and need-based prioritization of CSA interventions so that they are a part of sustainable development for rural livelihoods. Thus, the study entitled “Climate Smart Agriculture Interventions for Rural Livelihoods: An Exploratory Study in Odisha” will enable the policy makers in developing a strategic framework to address such aforementioned needs.