Adaptation as innovation: Lessons from smallholder farmers in India's rainfed Karnataka

The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), one of ASSAR's partners in India, has published a booklet titled, 'Adaptation as Innovation - lessons from smallholder farmers in rainfed Karnataka', which documents eight innovative farmer stories from two districts (Gulbarga and Kolar) in the state of Karnataka.

 

Agriculture in India faces multiple challenges such as increasing climate variability, deteriorating natural resources, and systemic fluctuations such as market dynamics, aspirational shifts, and policy changes. These challenges are critically experienced in semi-arid regions across India which are seeing rapid environmental change and inadequate and unequal policy action. At the individual level, farmers deal with risk and uncertainty daily. Many of them leverage these conditions of stress as opportunities for innovation and improved risk management. Often, these innovative practices can result in ‘triple wins’ – higher incomes, while maintaining ecological sustainability, and adapting to increasing climate variability and environmental change.

 

The Indian Institutes for Human Settlements (IIHS), one of ASSAR's partners in India, has published a booklet titled, 'Adaptation as Innovation - lessons from smallholder farmers in rainfed Karnataka', which documents eight farmer stories from two districts (Gulbarga and Kolar) in Karnataka. 

 

Written by IIHS researchers Greeshma Hegde, Chandni Singh and Harpreet Kaur, the booklet highlights innovative practices and the socio-economic, institutional, and personal factors that enable this innovation. It also helps identify potential entry points to support autonomous, individual-led adaptation and provides directions for scaling up. The booklet is aimed at district and state-level government officials and local NGOs as a way to spread success stories and share reasons for failures between districts.

 

The booklet was launched by the IIHS on Friday, 23 March 2018, at a special event during which the progressive farmers, featured in the booklet, were celebrated and shared some of their experiences from the field.

 

The adaptation booklet is available in both English and Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka (of which Bangalore is the capital). 

 

Download the booklets here:

Booklet in English

Booklet in Kannada