Enhancing Agriculture Resilience to Climate Change: Insights from NICRA in Lakhimpur, Assam, India

Aims: This study investigates the adoption of climate-resilient agricultural practices in Lakhimpur, Assam, under the NICRA project. Using a mixed-methods approach involving surveys and interviews, the study identifies key adaptive strategies and their socioeconomic impact. Results highlight increased crop yield and farmer awareness as critical outcomes. These findings underscore the role of sustainable techniques in mitigating climate risks and ensuring agricultural sustainability.

Study Design: A multi-stage sampling technique was used to draw samples for the present study. In the first stage, out of nine development blocks of Lakhimpur district, the block where the NICRA project was implemented was selected. In the second stage, all five villages where the NICRA project was implemented in the block were selected purposively. In the third stage, 80 NICRA beneficiary farmers were selected randomly from five villages, which were treated as respondents.

Place and Duration of Study: The present study on NICRA project interventions on climate resilient agriculture was taken up in the Lakhimpur district of Assam. As the project was implemented in the district in 2011, the district was selected for the study. The primary data were collected for the year 2021-22.

Methodology: An attempt had been made in the study to identify the NICRA interventions, economics of selected interventions and constraints faced by the farmers in the study area. Both primary and secondary data were collected to fulfil the stated objectives. A well-structured pre-tested schedule was developed for the collection of primary data as per the objectives Cost concepts were used to estimate the cost of cultivation (cost of production) and derive the various income measures, viz., farm business income, family labour income, net income, and farm investment income. The cost concepts of Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP, New Delhi), viz., Cost A1, Cost A2, Cost B1, Cost B2, Cost C1, Cost C2 and Cost C3 were used in the present study. Identifying the constraints that NICRA beneficiary farmers face, closed-ended questions were asked to determine the most significant challenges they were facing, and recommendations for resolving those issues were also sought. The frequency of respondents was then calculated for each constraint. Finally, ranking was done based on finding out both the frequency and the percentage.

Results: The NICRA project includes a "Technology Demonstration" component in which emphasis was given to detecting exact climatic stress and demonstrating site-specific climate resilient solutions in the farmer's field to persuade farmers to adopt locally accessible technology through different interventions. The economics of selected interventions i.e. change in crop variety (rice) & alternative land use system (mushroom) were analysed. Climate resilient agro interventions by NICRA, like real-time contingency planning, preparedness, Climate Risk Management Committee, Custom Hiring 64 Centre, Village Seed Bank, and alternate land use system were identified to be prevailing in the study area. The costs of production of rice per hectare in marginal farmers were found to be Rs. 27484.90 and for small and medium farmers it was found to be Rs. 30055.43 & Rs. 32096.23 respectively. Cost of cultivation per hectare in medium farmers was found to be maximum. The per hectare cost of cultivation as well as return from the rice cultivation varied directly with farm size. The average yield of rice per hectare was found to be 34.21 quintals. The average gross return was found to be Rs. 44477.42. The average costs of mushroom growers were found to be Rs. 1932.60 and gross return was observed to be Rs. 6152.98. The Gross return over cost was found to be 3.18. The results depicted that constraints confronted by respondent farmers were inversely proportional to the size of the farm holding. The constraint faced by the NICRA beneficiary farmers that ranked at the top was identified to be a poor economic condition of the farmers.

Conclusion: The study revealed the presence of diverse climate-resilient agro-technological interventions introduced by NICRA, such as real-time contingency strategies, preparedness initiatives, Climate Risk Management Committees, Custom Hiring Centres, Village Seed Banks, and innovative alternate land use systems. As land holding size increased, farmers tended to use more machine labour instead of bullock labour. As indicated by the computed gross return over cost ratio of rice, is profitable in the study area. Hence the “change in crop variety” intervention in the study area was found to be economically feasible. It is found that the per hectare cost of cultivation as well as return from the rice cultivation varied directly with farm size. Mushroom cultivation under the intervention of “alternate enterprise selection” was found to be very profitable for the farmers. Spawn cost shares the highest operational cost percentage for mushroom growers. The constraint faced by the NICRA beneficiary farmers that ranked at the top was identified to be the poor economic condition of the farmers.