Rural Communities
adapting to Climate Change
Opportunities for ICTs
Climate Change – A Reality
Adaptation is necessary
Additional adaptation measures would be required
to reduce the adverse impacts of projected climate
change and variability, regardless of the scale of
mitigation taken in the next 2-3 decades.
Source IPCC
Create
Awareness
& share
Knowledge
Build
Capacities
Adaptation
Process
Develop
Adaptation
responses &
strategy
Assess
Impacts &
Vulnerability
Capture
local coping
strategies &
traditional
knowledge
Need for proactive approach
Planned and
anticipatory
Adaptation
Autonomous
and reactive
Planned anticipatory adaptation has the potential
to reduce vulnerability and realize opportunities
associated with climate change
Source: IPCC TAR
India
• Population of over a billion people
• Nearly 65% in rural India- over 700
million
• Nearly 40% is illiterate
• Nearly 56% of rural households still unelectrified
• Nearly 26% of the population lives below
the poverty line
• Over 7000 km of coastline
Source NATCOMM , Survey of India 2001, Times of India. India Portal
Key climate sensitive sectors
Health
Agriculture
Water
Key challenges in India
• Agriculture vital to India’s development
– Provides food to over 1 billion people,
contributes significantly to the GDP
– Source of livelihood to many
• Nearly 2/3 rd of land under agriculture still
rainfed
• Water-scarcity
• Over-stressed natural resources
• Lack of primary health facilities
• High level of illiteracy and poverty
Poor & Rural communities
Especially vulnerable
to climate change
Unaware about the looming threat which Climate Change imposes
• Low adaptive capacities
• Direct dependence on climate sensitive sectors and natural resources
for livelihood and sustenance
Agriculture
Impacts
• Decreased crop yield
• Irrigation demands
• Cropping pattern
• Pests and diseases
• Malnutrition
• Food security
• Prices
Adaptation
• Erosion control
• Development of early warning system, tolerant/resistant
crops
• Conservation & management of soil and water
• Diversification & intensification of food & plantation crops
Source IPCC
Water
Impacts
• Stress on existing water resources
• Reservoirs and wells would be affectedincrease in salinity
• Reduced water supplies would place additional
stress on people, agriculture, and the
environment
Adaptation
• Integrated Water resource management
• Water re-use
• Desalination
• Irrigation Efficiency
Source IPCC
Health
Impacts
• Increased deaths, disease and injury due to heat
waves, floods, storms and droughts
Adaptation
• Disease surveillance and control systems
• Access to better health facilities
• Emergency relief systems
Source IPCC
Opportunities for ICTs
• Integrated natural resource
management
• Early warning models
• Surveillance system
• Disaster response and relief systems
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• Knowledge and information networks
• Capacity building tools
• Advisory services
• Awareness creation and communication
Opportunities for ICTs
• Options for last mile connectivity
• Mobile/ portable devices
• Smart mobile telecentres
• Smart cards
• Low cost technologies and rugged solutions
• Energy efficient equipment
• Alternate sources of energy
India’s National Action Plan
on Climate Change
Two out of 8 missions
• Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
• Mission on Strategic Knowledge on Climate Change
Role of ICTs
• Extensive use of GIS and remote-sensing methodologies for the
mapping of vulnerable regions and pest and disease hot spots
• Developing regional databases of soil, weather, agricultural practice,
land-use patterns, and water resources
• Low-cost high-performance computing facility to generate climate
projections through sophisticated climate models run for longer time
periods and at a high spatial scale
Integrated approach
Multi-Stakeholder Involvement- PPP Model
Coping
Measures
Impact and
Vulnerability
Assessment
ICT Backbone
Internet
Radio
Resource
Centres
Mobile
Television
Satellite
Telecentres
Rural Communities
Telephone
Pilot projects
I. Develop Information Sharing System (ISS)
to Enhance Coping Capacities of Farming
Communities in Dealing with Climate Variability and
Climate Change in drought prone region in Northern
India
• Provide real-time agro advisory services
• Facilitate rapid exchange and sharing of information
among various stakeholders including farming
communities, agriculture scientists and agri- extension
workers
Agriculture
Council
Met
Department
TERI
Agriculture
Knowledge
Centre
Farming
Community
Research
Institutes
Local
bodies
Climatic Info
Cropping Pattern
Soil Condition
Pest and Disease
Ground water status
Pilot projects
Pilot projects
II. Use of existing telecom infrastructure in
rural areas for installing automatic weather
stations to capture weather parameters such
as temperature, rainfall and humidity.
• Provide more accurate agro advisory
• Feed into regional level climate modelling for
impact assessment studies
• Help in designing weather related insurance
products
Long way to go…
Reach the bottom of the pyramid
Develop coping measures for the rural poor
Build capacities among the vulnerable communities
Create an information and knowledge exchange for wider
awareness
It is not time to think…
It is time to act… and fast
"A technological society has two choices:
First it can wait until catastrophic failures expose
systemic deficiencies, distortion and selfdeceptions.
Secondly, a culture can provide social checks and
balances to correct for systemic distortion prior to
catastrophic failures"