of Indian Population live in rural areas (World Bank)
of rural population engages in agriculture and allied sectors (National Sample Survey Organisation)
of workers are employed in the unorganized sector (National Sample Survey Organisation)
In rural India, 70% of the population live and depend primarily on agriculture. 65% of India’s farmers, predominantly youth, belong to small and marginal category, who in cases of poor crop, flooding or drought are often forced to work as laborers in informal sectors. High external input dependent agronomy has further pushed them to the margins along with creating threat to agro biodiversity, environment and food safety. It has, to some extent, overlooked the agricultural anthropology, agricultural ethics and politics and its link with the food system.
Increased temperature, changes in frequency and intensity of rainfall, seasonal variations and unusual flooding, particularly in low-lying areas, also directly affect agriculture and other modes of production.
Welthungerhilfe promotes agroecology by establishing Sustainable Integrated Farming Systems (SIFS) with small and marginal farmers through various programmes and agroecology courses. Integrated farming is an agroecological approach, which tries to imitate nature’s principles, where not only crops but, varied types of plants, animals, bird, fish and other aquatic flora and fauna are utilized for production.Through these programmes, a range of processes are developed and standardised, such as:
Capacity building of farmers through Farmer Field School (FFS) on farm designing and technical skill
Improving management practices through value addition in making farmer’s cooperative for processing, distribution and certification, and marketing of farm produce through Common Facility Centre (CFC)
Community monitoring for tracking progress and further planning by the community themselves.
Nutrition sensitive agriculture/ farm planning.
Recognising that climate change also poses an imminent threat to development and growth and in particular to agriculture sector, which is a source of livelihood for millions in South Asia, Welthungerhilfe has developed an approach for Climate Smart Village that would enable targeted communities to adapt to the potential impacts of climate change. This also includes processes like:
Village Development and Adaptation Plan (VDAP) – a set of tools to identify challenges, needs, scope and resources and plan accordingly
Agro-advisory mechanism based on weather prediction
The programmes have recorded increase in overall production, income and nutrition – both in terms of food and fodder with enhancement and diversification, both in terms of quantity and quality, incidence of risk is reduced. Cost of production also reduces, and self-sufficiency increases as the system becomes energy efficient. In the process, the farmers became innovative, self-reliant, analytic and technologically sound to assess their own resources, strengths and stresses.
Welthungerhilfe also develops larger partnership with academicians, relevant national NGOs, state institutions as well as important international players to upscale ideas and models on agroecology, climate smart and nutrition sensitive agriculture. Welthungerhilfe also conducts action-reflection based agroecology course for students and practitioners and part of global research on improving agriculture education.
India has a strong legacy of civic action which traces its history to the freedom struggle of the country. Over the years, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in India, working across several sectoral and geographical areas, have provided some of the best models for development, which were mainstreamed by the government e.g. Self-Help Groups and micro finance, Participatory Guarantee System, ecological agriculture, PRA/Participatory Learning and Action tools, Joint Forest Management, to name a few.
According to the GHI 2019, India’s hunger level is ranked as ‘Serious’. The country scores 102nd of 117 countries with a higher hunger level than Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. India’s high ranking with a score of 30.3 draws attention to the country’s stubbornly high proportions of malnourished children. India’s child wasting rate is extremely high at 21 percent (NFHS 4); it’s child stunting rate, 38.4 percent (NFHS 4), is also categorised as very high in terms of its public health significance.
Inadequate dietary diversity, communicable diseases, lack of knowledge on childcare, less access to safe drinking water, poor feeding practices, and poor hygiene and sanitation are some of direct causes of malnutrition in the country. Structural causes include poverty and debt traps, lack of access to resources as land and water, insufficient access to public services, high illiteracy rates and climate change that adversely affects food availability. To address these dimensions, Welthungerhilfe works to address all four pillars of food and nutrition security- availability, access, utilization and stability.
In rural India, 70% of the population live and depend primarily on agriculture. 65% of India’s farmers, predominantly youth, belong to small and marginal category, who in cases of poor crop, flooding or drought are often forced to work as laborers in informal sectors. High external input dependent agronomy has further pushed them to the margins along with creating threat to agro biodiversity, environment and food safety. It has, to some extent, overlooked the agricultural anthropology, agricultural ethics and politics and its link with the food system.
Increased temperature, changes in frequency and intensity of rainfall, seasonal variations and unusual flooding, particularly in low-lying areas, also directly affect agriculture and other modes of production.
Of the 430 million youth in India, 86% drop out of school after 15 and only 2% can access formal training. According to a government survey, 13 in 100 in the 18-29 age group are unemployed. With 10 million youth entering the job market every year, the country faces a huge challenge of creating employment for them. The challenge is bigger in rural areas, where nearly 70% of the population live and depend primarily on small holder agriculture. It is of utmost importance, on one side, to fill in the skill gaps of the unorganised sector in India – on the other hand, to create value chain and appropriate market system for small holder products.
Home to about a quarter of the global population, South Asia faces severe water challenges. Rapid population growth, pollution and unplanned urbanization have hugely affected water availability in the region, which is also known for being highly susceptible to floods, droughts, and climate change related disasters.
India has more people in rural areas–63.4 million–living without access to clean water than any other country, according to State of the World’s Water 2017 report by WaterAid. 67 percent of Indian households do not treat their drinking water, even though it could be chemically or bacterially contaminated. Over 50 per cent of the population defecates in the open. Inadequate water supply and sanitation in schools are health hazards and affect school attendance, retention and educational performance. Adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to dropping out, as many are reluctant to continue their schooling because toilet facilities are not private, not safe or simply not available. Women and girls face shame and a loss of personal dignity and safety risk if there is no toilet at home. The lack of adequate sanitation and safe water has significant negative health impacts.
Reasons for the poor WASH condition in India include low priority accorded to sanitation, lack of felt need, lack of funds to construct toilets, water scarcity, and lack of access to government schemes due to illiteracy and corruption.
