Andhra Pradesh Drought Mitigation Project (APDMP)

Component 1: Climate resilient production systems aim to increase the resilience of crop and livestock production systems to drought, and provide farmers with information to provide adequate supplementary irrigation (locally called protective irrigation), improve soil fertility, irrigation efficiency, diversify cropping systems, and improve livestock productivity. The component’s objective will be achieved through the following sub-components:

Sub-component 1.1: Improved crop production systems through support to farmer information centres, farmer field schools, and promotion of integrated soil fertility management and protective irrigation.

 Sub-component 1.2: Improved livestock production systems through support to community livestock facilitators providing fee-based services to sheep producers (improved housing, feeding and breeding) and a backyard poultry scheme targeted at the poorest women.

 Component 1.3: Strengthened farmer organisations whereby the project will take a flexible approach and work with existing organisations where possible and form new organisations where needed to support farmers through input supply, seed multiplication, production services, machinery hire centres and marketing support.

Component 2: Drought proofing through NRM and water governance aims to mitigate drought and make agriculture more productive through the management of, and investment in, common property resources. The component’s objective will be achieved through the following sub-components:

 Sub-component 2.1: Water governance will support water planning, and supply and demand management via water sub-committees at the Gram Panchayat level, with these forming Hydrological Unit Network (HUN) at the drainage basin level. Training and workshops will build local capacity and support development of surface water and groundwater planning and monitoring.

 Sub-component 2.2: Water monitoring and conservation will invest in local hydrological and meteorological monitoring to support local decision making and planning of water resources, and in ensuring that GP water sub-committees and HUNs establish adequate working relationships with relevant administrations involved in water supply and demand monitoring. A pilot hydrological mapping of aquifers is proposed to complement available knowledge of and information on groundwater. Soil and water conservation activities will support the recharge of soil moisture and groundwater, and geographically targeted water harvesting activities will complement local water supply management.

 Sub-component 2.3: Regeneration of common property rangeland will support vegetative methods for water conservation and strengthen community management of grazing, rainwater harvesting and other environmental services on 130 ha per village cluster totalling 42 900 Ha.

Component 3: Management and Lesson Learning. A State Project Management Unit (SPMU) would be established, with District PMUs located in each of the five districts. Lesson learning will cover water resource planning and management, drought-resilient agriculture and climate change adaptation, and development of policies for the crop and livestock sectors, especially for small ruminants.