This book focuses on developing an integrated holistic approach for harnessing the potential of rain-fed agriculture. In this approach, rainwater management through harvesting and recharging the groundwater is used as an entry point activity for increasing the productivity for farmers through enhanced water use efficiency. To provide the holistic and integrated solutions, the approach of consortium through building partnerships with different stakeholders, eg. different research institutions (State, National and International), development departments, eg. Department of Agriculture, Department of Animal Husbandry etc., Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), Farmers Organizations Community-based Organizations (CBOs) along with market linkages through private companies.
As the world today faces messy problems, what in some circles has been called global weirding, the term resilience has taken centre stage. This is crunch time as we grapple with the negative effects of both climate change and urbanisation. Some commentators have compared the huge problems we face today to Oom Schalks proverbial leopard waiting for us in the withaaks shade. Do we endlessly count Oom Schalks proverbial leopards spots? This is the question posed by a stellar cast of academics, researchers, and experts whose contributions in this text is a rallying cry for action to build resilience to the challenging impact of urbanisation and climate change. To that end, this volume gives hope about the potential for human agency. Our challenge however, is to re-examine our values, to change our conservation conversation and return to a more wise and holistic understanding of ourselves and our place in the Universe. Perhaps, then only can the obituaries on our demise stay locked in the drawer.
This book emphasis the role of farm level adaptation as a key in developmental pathways that are challenged by climate risks in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. It throws light on key issues that arise in farm level impacts, adaptation and vulnerability to climate change and discusses Q2 methodological approaches undertaken in study domains of Asia and Africa. The book systematically describes the perceptions, aspirations as elicited/voiced by the farmers and identifies determinants of adaptation decisions. Chapters identify constraints and opportunities that are translated into indicative intervention recommendations towards climate resilient farm households in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. Furthermore, it discusses with evidences that contributes to the development of livelihood strategy for poor farmers in Asia (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and China) and Africa (Burkina Faso, Niger, Kenya and Ghana).
Ecosystems provide services that are crucial and beneficial to the human population. The management and conservation of these services can assure the wellbeing of the local population. Climate Change and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones is an essential reference source that studies the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services in dry regions and examines various strategic local, national, and international policy developments to help overcome these impacts. Featuring research on topics such as poverty reduction, climate change, and adaption policies, this book is ideally designed for environmentalists, policymakers, government officials, academicians, researchers, and technology developers who want to improve their understanding of climate change impact, vulnerability, and sustainability, and the strategic role of adaptation and mitigation.
Community Capacity and Resilience in Latin America addresses the role of communities in building their capacity to increase resiliency and carry out rural development strategies in Latin America. Resiliency in a community sense is associated with an ability to address stress and respond to shock while obtaining participatory engagement in community assessment, planning and outcome. Although the political contexts for community development have changed dramatically in a number of Latin American countries in recent years, there are growing opportunities and examples of communities working together to address common problems and improve collective quality of life. This book links scholarship that highlights community development praxis using new frameworks to understand the potential for community capacity and resiliency. By rejecting old linear models of development, based on technology transfer and diffusion of technology, many communities in Latin America have built capacity of their capital assets to become more resilient and adapt positively to change. This book is an essential resource for academics and practitioners of rural development, demonstrating that there is much we can learn from the skills of self-diagnosis and building on existing assets to enhance community capitals. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
This book is basically associated with doctoral research. At present climate change become a serious environmental issues in the world. Farmer, pastoralists and marginalized people are more vulnerable to climate related problems because agriculture as well as livestock resources totally depended upon climate like temperature and rainfall. Livestock is a significant contributor to economic and social development in Ethiopia at the household as well as national level. Due to climate change induced hazards like recurring of drought leads the pastoralist’s livestock’s in to death and makes the pastoralist’s to be more vulnerable.
Climate change is a major challenge for life on Earth. It is mainly manifested through modifications of average temperature, rainfall intensity and patterns, winds and solar radiation. These modifications significantly affect basic resources, such as land and water resources. Populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences with global warming of 1.5°C and beyond include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous peoples, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods (IPCC, 2018). Therefore, adaptation measures are recommended in order to cope with climate change. Indigenous peoples have developed practices for climate change adaptation, based on their long-term experience with adverse climatic effects. There was thus a need to identify such practices as they could be effectively mainstreamed in community-based adaptation programmes. This report makes an inventory of indigenous and community adaptation practices across the world. The inventory was mainly done through literature review, field work and meetings with selected organisations. The case studies documented are categorized in five technologies and practices themes, including: (1) Weather forecasting and early warning systems; (2) Grazing and Livestock management; (3) Soil and Water Management (including cross slope barriers); (4) Water harvesting (and storage practices); (5) Forest Management (as a coping strategy to water scarcity), and; (6) Integrated wetlands and fisheries management. These were then related to the corresponding main agro-ecological zones (AEZ), namely arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, humid, highlands and coastal and wetlands. The AEZ approach was considered as an entry-point to adopting or adapting an existing indigenous strategy to similar areas. Challenges that threaten the effectiveness of indigenous and community adaption strategies were identified. These challenges include climate change itself (which is affecting the indicators and resources used by communities), human and livestock population growth (which is increasing pressure on natural resources beyond their resilience thresholds), current institutional and political settings (which limit migrants’ movements and delimits pieces of usable land per household), cultural considerations of communities (such as taboos and spiritual beliefs), and the lack of knowledge transfer to younger communities. Indigenous knowledge provides a crucial foundation for community-based adaptation strategies that sustain the resilience of social-ecological systems at the interconnected local, regional and global scales. In spite of challenges and knowledge gaps, these strategies have the potential of being strengthened through the adoption and adaptation of introduced technology from other communities or modern science. Attention to these strategies is already being paid by several donor-funded organisations, although in an uncoordinated manner.
