Landscape Restoration for Improving Ecosystem Services and Building Climate

Resilience

Landscape Restoration for Climate and CommunitiesUnderstanding the Opportunities and Challenges in Madhya Pradesh23 July 2016, Bhopal

ITC’s Agri-Business - Snapshot

Business Relevance - High Stakes in Indian Agriculture• Direct engagement with nearly 2 hundred thousand farmers thru

crop development on more than 3 hundred thousand hectares• Farmer connect thru eChoupals – 4 million• These farmers operate in moisture stressed areas:

Agriculture mainly rain-fed - crop production unstable Depletion of bio-mass - aggravating top-soil losses &

surface run-off High soil erosion - implications for fertility & productivity of

land Climate change

Business Product/ s Major Sourcing - Crop/ produceFoods business - Biscuits, noodles & pasta, wheat flour, candies etc. Potato, Wheat, milk

Paper & Paper- Boards Pulp wood species - eucalyptus, subabul, casuarina & bamboo

Commodity businesses Soya, Coffee, maize, tobacco etc.

ITC’s Social Investments Programme

Coverage: 16 states, 166 districtsOn Farm Livelihood Interventions: Livelihood Today

Natural Resource Management : Watershed Development, Social & Farm Forestry, Sustainable Agriculture.

Integrated Animal Husbandry ProgrammeOff Farm Livelihood Interventions: Making Future Ready

Women Empowerment: SHGs & SHG based Micro-enterprises.

Targeting hard-core poor Universalisation of primary education Skill Development of youths to improve

employability Health & Sanitation.

Approach: Multi Stakeholder Alliance • Partnership Between;

– Communities &PRIs – As direct implementers of the project and owners of the asset created

– Specialist NGOs & Expert Agencies – As TSA of the project with community mobilisation skills and technical competence to facilitate and handhold communities for the implementation

– Corporates – As co funders and supporting partners with managerial competence and business partners

– Government – As resource providers to support the project financially and technically and provide policy direction

• Currently, ITC has MoU for 27 PPP projects with state governments and NABARD for watershed development in 5 states covering a target area of over 158,000 ha in nearly 200 villages.

Natural Resource

Management

Communities as Direct

Implementers

Government Resources &

policy support

Specialist NGOS

Managerial Competence and Business

Skills of Corporates

Landscape Restoration : Components

Soil and Moisture Conservation Ground Water Management and Water Security Sustainable Agriculture Development Promotion of Biodiversity Building Climate Resilient Livelihood Institution Building

Land Degradation

16.4 tonnes of fertile top soil is lost per hectare per year of which:

- 29% is lost permanently to the seas and another

- 10% flows into reservoirs thus reducing their storage capacity by around 2% per year.

Water is given preference over soil Soil Moisture is a neglected area

Soil and Moisture Conservation

2,60,000 ha area treated so far 8,300 water harvesting structure

Measuring Soil Erosion: Sediment Monitoring Units

Catchment area = 1230 HaRaingague distance = 5.7 KmsSMU location - KhajuriyaRaingauge location – Ratanpur (Sehore)

S. No

District

Project / PIA

Location

village

Sediment quantity (Tons/year)

Estimated value

Actual calculated

value

1 SehoreITC SMC / VIBHAVARI

Khajuriya 3,215 4,282

2Chhindwara

ITC SMC / IDYWC

Khadwadi 4,268 11,328

3 SehoreITC-IWMP / Samarthan

Ramakhedi 2,045 -

Unsustainable Ground Water Use

• India is the “global champion” in groundwater irrigation: 40% of irrigated area from tube-wells 15% of groundwater tables over-exploited

• Sustainable use & groundwater development a major challengeWatershed plans should be aligned to the science of hydro-

geology

Source: Minor Irrigation Census, http://micensus.gov.in/

Ground Water Management and Water Security

No.of functional borewells in the entire catchment

5,825Nos

Average discharge from each borewell 210 LPMAverage annual pumping hours of each borewell

900Hrs

Discharge from each borewell in m3  11,340 m3

Total discharge from all borewells 66

Million m3 / year

Total watershed area 305 Million m2

Annual groundwater abstraction  217 mmAverage annual rainfall in watershed 1,100 mmWater storage in soil 220 mmAnnual groundwater recharge  165 mm

Ground Water Management and Water Security

Ground Water Management and Water Security

Ghod river Catchment: 3.58

lakh ha No of villages: 440

Co-Creating an Ecosystem of Sustainable Agriculture

Information &

knowledge

Access to inputs & markets

Sustainable agriculture practices

Natural resource

management

Integrated animal

husbandry services

Sustainable Agriculture Programme

Soil health is focusSoil Carbon is indicator

Climate Resilient Technologies - Zero Tillage, BBF, R&F, Horti & low

cost inputs Support Services - Mechanization for women, small

& marginal farmers thru CHCs Knowledge Services - Thru FFS and tie ups with CGIAR, Agri Universities, KVKs Mainstreaming of Gender- Women FFS- SHG led custom Hiring Centre (CHCs)

Climate Smart Village

Promotion of Biodiversity in Agri Landscape

Commons are shrinking at the rate of 1.9 per cent every five years due to encroachment

Since independence, more than 834,000 hectares of village commons have been encroached.

Traditional species are disappearing from agri fields.

Challenges• Restoration of pasture

lands• Regeneration of native

sps. – In commons, pastures, tank catchments

• Promotion of allied livelihoods – fodder/apiary/pisciculture /NTFP etc

Approx 5,000 ha commons have been rejuvenated.

Solution

Bio-Diversity conservation in Bhilwara dt., Rajasthan: Impact on Natural Resources

• Increase in area of Tree outside Forest from 36 ha to 146 ha in Agril. land & 206 ha to 460 ha in Open Forests

• Improvement in species richness and regeneration Canopy cover: 20-25%

• % increase of Organic carbon in regenerated plots- 10-13%• Total organic matter added in to soil - 969.47 Tones• Total carbon dioxide sequestered - 1454.2 Tones

• Initiated towards understanding relation between eco-system services and agriculture in partnership with IUCN. Aimed at mainstreaming biodiversity into rural and agrarian communities based on study findings

• Implement biodiversity conservation at a water basin level and going forward at river basin level by incorporating all factors such as, in-situ conservation, native species planting, protection of existing flora and faun

Bio-Diversity Conservation – Way forward

Promotion of agro forestry

2,25,000 ha covered under afforestation programme out of which 25,000 ha is agrforestry

Building Climate Resilience to Rural Livelihoods

• Integrated Animal Husbandry Programme. Covered 13,00,000 milch animals.

• 50,000 women covered through SHG programme• Targeting Hardcore Poor:10,000 ultra poor women mainstreamed and

liked with livelihoods.• Skill development: 31,000 underprivileged youths trained and placed in

different jobs.• Health and Sanitation : 15,000 households

Institution Building

• Integration of different institutions at village level.

• Involvement of PRIs: PRI Capacity building

Challenges & Learnings

Diverse Interests of different stakeholders

- Meeting expectations of different stakeholders

- Conflicting interests

Multiple institutions : PRI is a solution

Lack of policy support

Multiple schemes & programmes

Payment for ecosystem services

Thank you