Institutional Role in Climate Resilience Building Process in Rainfed Agro-ecosystem

Abstract

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) are the main implementing agency of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA). They were actively involved in technology demonstration component. KVK activities were at grassroots level in disseminating the technologies and making it familiar to NICRA farmers. Village Climate Risk Management Committees (VCRMCs) were founded in each village constituting representatives from all farmers’ categories. VCRMC was involved in all activities for finalizing NICRA interventions, target farmer selection, target area selection, in liaison with gram panchayat and local elected representatives. Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) is innovative institutional mechanism for providing timely access to farm machinery for sowing, harvesting etc, which are imperative elements of adaptation strategy. The research findings substantiated based on farmers’ perception that input delivery (mean rank of 7.21) from these institutions was highly useful. Farmers perceived financial assistance was the least useful service (mean rank 1.76) followed by marketing services (mean rank=1.88). Farmers got highest satisfaction from trainings undertaken on climate resilience (mean rank=6.43) and they considered that marketing services were providing least satisfaction (mean rank=1.86).