Climate Change Adaptation has been the core mandate of BAIF ever since climate change started impacting the lives of various communities adversely. The resulting damage to the already depleting natural resources, fragile ecosystem and fast disappearing flora and fauna took its toll on the livelihood of Rural India. After assessing the vulnerability of rural communities for whom farming has been the only means of survival, BAIF adopted a climate-sensitive approach with focus on conservation of natural resources and restoration of livelihood, food security, stability and happiness of the rural families.

BAIF partnered with Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) – a Programme of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) for implementing various Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Smart Agriculture and Climate Research initiatives.

• Desert Development Programme: The desert-based livelihood programme in Barmer, Rajasthan and Kutchh, Gujarat, has demonstrated climate change adaptation by climate- stressed local communities through adoption of innovative water harvesting and conservation measures to cultivate drought tolerant native fruit crops, improved varieties of short duration crops and mixed farming system.

Desert Interventions

• Hill Area Development: In the hilly terrain of Champavat in Uttarakhand, the families have responded to climate risks by adopting climate smart agricultural technologies such as cultivation of high value vegetables in low-cost bamboo poly houses, floriculture, rejuvenation of old orchards, rejuvenation of the mountain springs, introduction of new apple variety requiring less chilling hours and greening of Van Panchayats, thereby fostering climate change adaptation.

• Climate Proofing interventions: The paradigm shift in BAIF’s sustainable water management approach from soil and water conservation to climate smart natural resource management, has been demonstrated through land degradation control, irrigation water management, introduction of short duration crops and ICT and GIS-based monitoring of more than 15 treated watersheds spread over 5000 ha in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka, enabling more than 3000 families to increase their crop yield by      50-60%.

Some common initiatives such as climate and agro advisories, climate data updates, strategic water reserves in the dryland areas, promotion of crop-livestock systems, training and empowerment and diversification of livelihood have been undertaken in the projects.

To reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases, BAIF has been working on Climate Change Mitigation measures through water use efficiency, soil health management, land degradation neutrality and food security and carbon sequestration through agroforestry. The work on renewable energy has also been accelerated in recent years. The exploratory work on methane emissions through dairy husbandry programme is also underway.

BAIF is a member of the international consortium of the “4 per 1000” initiative on “Soils for Food Security and Climate”, with a vision of “worldwide healthy and carbon-rich soils to combat climate change and end hunger”, within 2050. The Initiative was introduced, in 2015, at the UNFCCC CoP 21, as part of the Lima-Paris Plan of Action.