Humble pulses - such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, and peas - are often overlooked in conversations about climate. Yet, they hold tremendous potential in shaping a more sustainable agricultural future, especially in countries like India that are grappling with the environmental repercussions of conventional farming practices. In the context of soil depletion, water scarcity, and growing concerns over food security, pulses offer a promising solution to many of the challenges faced by rural India. These crops not only enrich the soil and reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, but they also support water conservation and provide a critical source of nutrition.

When you think of ‘terrace farming’ in India, you tend to envision picturesque landscapes characterized by lush green steps carved into hilly terrains – the tea gardens of Assam, rice terraces of Sikkim or vegetable terraces in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu come to mind.

As the world heats up and climate change becomes an ever more stark reality, its impact on rural life is of urgent concern. Weather patterns have changed, rains come at odd times, soaring temperatures dry up water bodies, sudden torrents destroy the produce in fields, groundwater levels decline unabated. Naturally, this impacts everything, including the primary source of livelihood: agriculture.

“Millets are incredible ancestral crops with high nutritional value. Millets can play an important role and contribute to our collective efforts to empower smallholder farmers, achieve sustainable development, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity, and transform agrifood systems.” - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu

The lanes and backyards of Lakhamapur Village, Chandrapur, are, literally, teeming with goats. Families here are busy expanding their herds and growing their small, but thriving, backyard businesses – the incessant song of bleating goats rings through the air at every turn...

In 2023-24, the women of Maa Santoshi Swayam Sahayta Mahila Self Help Group ventured into the farm machinery business - capitalising on the high demand for cotton shredding machines among farmers, to shred left over crop residue like stalks, once cotton has been picked.

Traditionally, indigenous practices have ensured the health of farmlands and maintained fertility of soil. Adding farmyard manure, rotating crops, sprinkling ash, and many other such techniques have kept India's soils - which have always been low in nitrogen - at an optimum level of fertility.

Worms & Farm Waste, and the art of vermicomposting, are providing farmers with more sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of fertilizing fields, whilst simultaneously helping them build viable businesses to diversify and bolster incomes.

Ram Jethabhai Mulubhai has made some bold decisions in his life. On completion of 12th standard, he enrolled himself in a 5-year Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, and decided to become an artist! Pretty bold for a humble farmer’s son!

When Hari Singh was just 16 years old, he lost his hand in a fodder chopping machine. It took his parents almost 1.5 hours to reach the nearest hospital on their only vehicle – a tractor! But the gentle Hari is far from bitter about it. Despite his challenges, he has become a passionate advocate of organic farming - dedicating his life to educating farmers about it.

India is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change risks, and nowhere will the impacts be felt more acutely, than in the area of water – particularly in water stressed rural areas, where livelihoods so desperately rely on natural resources, like water, for survival.

A third of the world's soil is moderately to highly degraded, threatening global food supplies, increasing carbon emissions and foreshadowing mass migration. In India, soil erosion and degradation are widespread across the largely agrarian nation - putting our food security, and the livelihood of millions of farmers, at threat. A change in farming practices has never been more urgent.