Promoting climate resilience for women through biodynamic farming and water-retaining vegetables

This project focuses on food security and water availability, through biodynamic farming, water-retaining vegetables, and rainwater harvesting. Activities include awareness programs in schools/colleges/women’s groups, group technique discussions, and solar demonstration. Key indicators of affordability and sustainability include increased food supply with water-retaining crops; reduced working hours and time spent to fetch water; less conflicts, and revenue from vermicomposting fertilisers.

The most crucial part of this project is to empower women and girls living in a community with low literacy rate. The project also aims to empower them by teaching about climate change impacts, sustainable solutions, solar demonstration training, rainwater harvesting system, etc. Besides that, women and girls also learn vermicomposting with solid waste and they would sell the compost to generate revenue.

The vermicomposting component of this project could be scaled-up through training. This would reduce solid waste and produce cleaner environment, thus contributing to climate change mitigation. The biodynamic farming system using water-retaining crops could also be widely replicated. It takes less time as well as addresses issues such as natural resource management and building higher adaptive capacity among women to mitigate water scarcity.