Promotion of Sustainable Food Systems in India through Transforming Rice-Wheat Systems in Punjab, Haryana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh

Objectives: To promote sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient food value and supply chains at scale in rice- and wheat-based food systems in India

Description: This five-year project, directly implemented by the Government of India (GoI) (in collaboration with other key stakeholders from civil society and the private sector) supports the development, application, validation, and scaling out of a transformational model of sustainable integrated food systems.

The project will: 1) result in major global environmental benefits in terms of reduced land degradation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions; 2) provide the country with win-win benefits in terms of improvements in the environmental sustainability of food systems and the income and resilience of farmers, and; 3) generate additional benefits for other food system stakeholders such as improved access to safe and healthy food and employment opportunities.

The project adopts an innovative “whole food system” approach. At the core of this model, farmers are supported in managing their farming and livelihood systems in an integrated manner in accordance with principles of sustainability, resilience and agroecology, including locally-adapted best practices capable of delivering multiple and linked environmental, social and health benefits. Sustainable farming systems will be embedded appropriately in sustainably- and collaboratively managed landscapes to maintain ecosystem services and secure global environmental values; they will also be supported by reliable and appropriate input supply and supported and incentivized by favourable output value chains. National and global private sector entities will play central roles in both input and output sides.

This approach will be deployed in close consultation with local stakeholders in two areas of India, namely: i) Punjab and Haryana in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where the project will complement and enhance Government investments aimed at addressing the currently unsustainable nature of intensive rice and wheat production systems; and; ii) Chhattisgarh and Odisha in the east, a frontier landscape where environmental values and productive sustainability are being undermined by watershed degradation and increasing production pressures.

As one of the largest initiatives under Green Environment Facility’s larger Food, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program (IP), this project will contribute significantly to the programmatic goal of the FOLUR IP in terms of enhancing the sustainability of rice and wheat-based food systems at global level (given the huge contribution of India to the global supply of these crops); and feeding knowledge on sustainable food systems models into the global portfolio of FOLUR IP projects and beyond.

Donor: Global Environment Facility

Expected Output:

• Coordinating committees to promote inter-sector convergence and dialogue
• Multi-stakeholder policy dialogues on sustainable food systems
• Decision Support Systems developed for integrated land use planning and management and sustainable food systems planning
• Strengthened systemic capacities for decision-making on integrated land use planning and management, and food systems planning
• Capacities strengthened for providing technical, organizational and input support
• Mechanisms established and operating for provision of inputs (consumables and equipment) needed for sustainable production
• Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) supported, enabling pro-poor development of green value chains
• Green Value Chain Development Cell established as a platform for collaboration between actors in the public sector and private sector actors operating on the input and output sides of value chains, and dialogue on green value chain development
• Capacities developed for community-based sustainable landscape management
• Inter-sectoral institutional framework and mechanisms for ILM at district, inter-district and sub-district levels
• Integrated district-level plans for food system sustainability, landscape management and restoration
• Ecosystem/landscape restoration plans agreed among stakeholders
• Sustainable livelihood options compatible with ecosystem restoration developed/promoted
• Knowledge management and communication systems
• Innovation forum/platform established
• Mechanisms are developed and applied to coordinate the project with global, regional and transboundary efforts under the FOLUR IP and beyond
• Project RBM system (including MIS and M&E system) developed and implemented

Project Website: Click here

Project information on the GEF website: Click here