Work in India currently focuses on biodiversity important for
food and agriculture in the drylands of Andhra Pradesh. Village
level dialogues have been carried out and agreements for joint
work between local farming communities and IIED have been reached.
The host research organisation in Andhra Pradesh is the Deccan
Development Society in tandem with the Krishi Vikas Kendra (KVK)
for the Telengana region - a State government unit for R&D
on natural resource management.
The National
Learning Group that will ultimately use the research findings
and outcomes to influence policy is in the process of being
constituted.
In-country dialogues and planning have endorsed
the overall objectives of the action research project. However,
local partners have particularly emphasised:
- Expanding
an alternative Public Distribution System
The
Public Distribution System, has played a key role in averting
large scale famine in independent India, by purchasing surplus
grain for transfer to food deficit areas in both and rural
contexts. The Indian government has thus been able to distribute
food at affordable prices to low income segments of the
population. However, having evolved as part of market driven
and irrigation centred agricultural policies, it is based
on wheat and rice. The PDS values these crops over diverse
crops suited to local environmental situations, and encourages
monocultures. It has also led to loss in food security as
area under coarse dryland cereals and associated legume
intercrops.
Women farmers involved in the IIED project have set up a
decentralised community managed PDS based on coarse grains
that are locally produced, stored and distributed . One
resarch priority is to carry out comparative assessments
of the impacts of the Government and the community run Public
Distribution Systems on biodiversity, food systems and livelihoods,
based on local indicators. Complementary local level and
external evaluations will be carried out, to analyse the
degree of integration achieved between gender equity and
food security, autonomy and capacity of local groups, recovery
of agricultural biodiversity and degraded lands, and sustainability
in the alternative PDS.
- Deliberative
Democracy and Food Futures
The early phases of the IIED supported action research in
India included the use of participatory methodologies to
broaden democratic deliberation and decision making on the
future of food systems, environment and livelihoods in Andhra
Pradesh. This included policy analysis on these issues.
The need for participatory assessments of development policies
and their anticipated impacts on biodiversity, food systems
and livelihoods was identified as a key priority by local
and State level actors. The full report on this Citizen
Jury, Prajateerpu is now available
-
Strengthening Women Farmers
A
focus on strengthening the indigenous knowledge, management,
capacities and rights of women farmers involved in biodiversity
conservation and use in dryland environments (on farms and
common property lands).
-
Linking rural producers and urban consumers
The
Prajateerpu process and its outcomes (above) emphasised
the importance of a fair access to local markets to sustain
diversity and livelihoods in the dryland areas . This has
led to action research that aims to understand how and under
what conditions can the environment (including biodiversity),
rural producers and urban consumers benefit from more localised
markets. Activities so far have focussed on organisation
of urban consumer groups and low external input/organic
producers with the aim of promoting more direct forms of
marketing between food producers and consumers.
- Farmer
to farmer exchange and training
In the course of this project, it became soon apparent that
the different farmer and indigenous people groups had much
to learn from each other on food systems, agricultural biodiversity
and livelihood strategies. An unforeseen opportunity arose
to facilitate an international workshop designed to allow
for the direct exchange of knowledge and innovations between
Indian and Peruvian project partners (view/download
report in PDF format [792k]). As a result a group of
small farmers from South India travelled to Peru in March
2002. During 10 days, women farmers from dryland Andhra
Pradesh lived and worked with indigenous communities in
the Andes, accompanied by support NGO staff and the IIED
Coordinator.
Logistical
arrangements to address these priority issues are now underway
in AP. Organisational commitments and work plans for the next
4 to 5 years have either already been made or are now evolving.
Members of the National Level Learning
Group confirmed so far include representatives from :
-
The Coordinator of India’s National Biodiversity Strategy
and Action Plan
-
Department of Agriculture of AP
-
Ministry of Environment
-
Civil society organisations (ActionAid India)
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