The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation is funding a pilot project to enable the state’s farmers to reverse the environmental degradation and rural poverty in the state by applying scientific methods to groundwater management.
Baseline studies jointly conducted by the FAO, Centre and state government have identified seven districts in Andhra Pradesh to effectively implement the best practices in sustainable cropping patterns to combat climate change. About 3,000 project volunteers of the Strategic Pilot Programme on Adaptation to Climate Change in association with the AP Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems Project have studied the ground water supply and demand in the drought-hit districts. Seven districts have been identified, all in the southern regions — Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Kurnool, Prakasam, Kadapa, Anantapur and Chittoor. The Kurnool — based Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society has been chosen as the executing partner of the SPACC project.
Dr Govardhan Das, project manager, SPACC said, “In the past 30 years, the average temperature in AP has increased by 0.02OC, driving several districts to frequent droughts. In the next decade, droughts are envisaged to be more frequent and we need to equip the farmers to handle them.” SPACC is working towards “withdrawing” the side effects of excess usage of chemical fertilisers in a step-by-step tapering off process, and eventually, all chemical inputs will be withdrawn.