Building climate resilience into food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

Date released

20 February 2025

The world’s highest concentration of rural poverty occurs in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Bangladesh, India and Nepal – a region that is home to 450 million people.

Livelihoods in this part of the world rely greatly on agriculture. Opportunities to work with smallholder farmers can lay the foundations for a more productive, sustainable and diversified agricultural economy.

Among the research-for-development professionals on the ground is a team working on the Rupantar project, an ACIAR-supported initiative led by Dr Tamara Jackson of the University of Adelaide.

The Rupantar project operates at a whole-of-system level. It spans both social and farming practices and extends all the way through to policy settings, market opportunities and other agrifood system barriers holding smallholders back. It also builds on prior investments by ACIAR and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Included in this integrated approach are considerations for climate impacts.

This concern saw 15 team members from the Rupantar project visit the University of Adelaide and regional South Australia and Victoria in October 2024. Funded as part of a DFAT Australia Awards Fellowship program, the study tour focused on climate resilience and adaptation.

The Rupantar project

‘Rupantar’ has a common meaning in Bangla, Hindi and Nepali. It means change on a level so profound that it is transformative. Launched in 2021, the Rupantar project is identifying opportunities for inclusive and diversified food production innovation.

Given the partnership model typical of ACIAR projects, these opportunities need to be priorities for local communities. They also need to be sustainable and to fit with longer-term climate, nutrition and available water resource projections.

Achieving this level of integration requires working on multiple levels at the same time. There is ground-up innovation – from personal to organisational. Then there are high-level policies that work down and can make important change on the ground.

Our hypothesis is that an integrated approach to livelihood change – coupled with inclusive and collaborative approaches – will result in more effective and sustainable development pathways.

Dr Tamara Jackson,
University of Adelaide

‘So, our goal is to understand the processes and practices needed to diversify food production in ways that improve farm livelihoods and reduce inequity, production risk and unsustainable resource use.’

The on-the-ground work with smallholders is implemented at sites in West Bengal (India), Rangpur (Bangladesh) and Koshi Province (Nepal). Implementation involves actioning ‘diversification pathways’ that were co-developed collaboratively with local partners.

Diversification pathways

The aim of these pathways is twofold. The first is to test diversification options and select the most appropriate crop and livestock options that are priorities for local communities. These are then implemented within existing networks and are aligned with institutional settings.

The second aim is to monitor the changes associated with the pathways, including long-term sustainability.

The project is also mindful that diversification can look very different to different members within households and can include off-farm income from seasonal male migration and greater reliance on women household members.

In all, three types of diversified systems are being explored:

• plant-based production, including crops and horticulture
• livestock-based, including chickens, goats and dairy that are especially important to women’s income
• irrigation-constrained systems.

‘The project is working on strengthening what already works about a farming system in the Eastern Gangetic Plain and building on innovations from prior projects, such as ACIAR’s introduction of conservation agriculture cropping practices,’ said Dr Jackson.

Long-running ACIAR initiatives in the Eastern Gangetic Plains worked with smallholder farmers across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal to introduce sustainable practices and innovations to intensify production.

The project team has spent the first 2 years on the ground running baseline surveys and mapping villages to better understand the system.

Implementation started in 2023 once it became clear what would work best in different settings. The visit to Australia in 2024 provided project partners with opportunities to observe what diversified and climate-resilient Australian farms look like.

Participants included Rupantar project partners from provincial government, cooperatives, farmer producer companies, NGOs, local university partners and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

Climate-smart innovation

Dr Jay Cummins from International Agriculture for Development hosted the study tour group and developed the course that focused on addressing the climate realities in collaboration with the Rupantar project.

The 20-day study tour was entitled ‘Supporting climate-smart, resilient food production networks in the Indo-Gangetic Plains’.

Key experts shared their experiences responding to climate change and on-farm visits examined how Australian agriculture builds climate resilience into its practices in different environmental and socioeconomic settings.

‘Included were visits to more rainfed, dryland cropping systems in the Mallee and, in addition, to irrigated production systems in the Murray–Darling Basin,’ said Dr Cummins.

The Australia Awards program provided a valuable mechanism to connect the participants with a whole range of Australian organisations and professionals, which in turn will help build international networks and collaboration.

Dr Jay Cummins
International Agriculture for Development

In the Eastern Gangetic Plain, food production can be heavily focused on wet season rice crops. In Australia, the visitors were able to explore dry season opportunities for diversified production of crops and livestock, including in mixed farming systems. They saw how Australian farmers manage risks around water scarcity and drought. At South Australian Riverland sites, discussions included irrigation and water management that present different diversification options.

Participant perspectives

Loxton farmer Brycen Rudiger discusses the challenges of growing wheat in the Mallee region with Nepali participant Gautam Bhupal — Loxton farmer Brycen Rudiger (left)discusses the challenges of growing wheat in the Mallee region with Nepali participant Gautam Bhupal (right).

Among the participants were Dr Deepa Roy from India, Ms Bimala Pokhrel from Nepal and Dr Mamunur Rashid from Bangladesh.

Dr Roy is an agricultural extension expert based at Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, India. She told ACIAR that smallholder farmers in the Eastern Gangetic Plains face numerous challenges that can lock them into poverty.

These range from small and fragmented landholdings that make mechanisation difficult, to a lack of agronomic knowledge, limited agricultural support services, limited market access, financial constraints and climatic hazards.

‘Through the course several key insights and learnings emerged that may help our farmers in understanding and adopting climate resilient technologies,’ said Dr Roy.

Key insights for participants included:

• assessing the carbon footprint of farming and taking action to reduce it
• introducing efficient soil moisture management strategies such as mulching
• adopting agronomic practices such as crop rotations and climate-resilient crops
• building soil fertility
• advocating for improved climate forecasting
• adopting grower-led research and extension
• developing digital tools to monitor the adoption of innovation
• providing financial management training to smallholder farmers
• using podcasts and radio to provide farm advisory services.

Overall, Dr Roy said that the course equipped attendees with a holistic understanding of climate-smart practices. ‘It helped us not only to strengthen technical knowledge but also to develop critical soft skill and a deeper understanding of sustainable climate resilient farming.’

It’s a point of view shared by Ms Pokhrel, who works with the Ministry of Industry Agriculture and Cooperatives in Koshi Province, Nepal. She said the course enriched efforts to both help farmers and policymakers with future planning. And it worked by enhancing both her professional and personal capacity.

‘What stood out was the extent that Australian farmers have already adopted technology to mitigate against climate change,’ said Ms Pokhrel. ‘This was particularly stark when it came to soil health and sustainable soil management practices. One of the key learnings is that we can tailor these practices for our context in the Koshi Province and, in that way, improve crop productivity by improving soil health.’

Mr Rashid agreed. He is a research fellow at Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. He noted that while ACIAR is helping to introduce conservation agriculture to Bangladesh, South Australian farmers have already adopted these soil and soil-moisture conserving practices.

They are also growing more legume crops for soil health and fertiliser benefits, adopting risk-aversion strategies amid climate variability, and introducing carbon farming to adapt to climate change.

Improved water management

Both Ms Pokhrel and Mr Rashid were especially impressed by Australian water management systems in drought-prone landscapes. They think these kinds of Australian practices have a role to play at the project sites.

While the cost and expertise required to adopt and maintain technologies such as drip irrigation systems used in Australia may be beyond the capacity of many smallholder farmers, the study tour has already inspired a new water conservation pilot project.

The Bangladesh team will launch ‘Conserving soil moisture through mulching technique in chili farming’ in the Rupantar project areas, focusing on farmers in northern Bangladesh, who experience frequent floods and droughts.

The Rupantar project team on tour in the Northern Mallee of South Australia. — The Rupantar project delegation on tour in the northern Mallee of South Australia.

‘This initiative aims to use soil moisture and reduce irrigation in chilli farming, aided by Chameleon soil water sensors that can support decision-making for the farmers of the Rupantar project,’ said Mr Rashid.

Ms Pokhrel was greatly impressed by the grower-centric research, development and extension infrastructure built around farmers’ needs in Australia. For her, this was typified by organisations such as the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Almond Board.

She thinks there are opportunities to ‘sensitise’ the different boards in Nepal to this approach.

Surprises for the project partners included the large size of farms given the small number of people working in agriculture.

What also surprised us is the rate of technology adoption by farmers, along with their dedication and the satisfaction they receive from the agricultural profession.

Ms Bimala Pokhrel
Nepal

‘Mallee Sustainable Farming System was impressive and working with farmers groups and developing the communication material in local languages are the things that we can develop for our smallholder farmers too.’

Finally, they praised the networking opportunities provided by the course, including with farmers, and opportunities to understand the people, country and culture.

ACIAR Project WAC/2020/148: ‘Transforming smallholder food systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plain’