Gorakhpur looks different from the climate change lens…

Ever since I joined Oxfam India in May 2009, I have been hearing a lot of brouhaha around climate change and how it is imperative for us to include that on top of our development agenda, but it is only after visiting Gorakhpur last week that the reality stuck hard on my face. I met a farmer in one of the villages 25 km from Gorakhpur who has not  learnt adaptive techniques and he showed two farms adjacent to each other - one which has been destroyed completely by the little rains that was received this year  and the other which is bearing mute testimony to the  impact of drought - while some more rains can save the crop, too much rains can destroy it.

The Oxfam India partner whom we visited - Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) has done very good adaptation work with farmers in the region - this involves multi-layer cropping, mobilizing farmers to start grain and seed banks and helping them adopt diversified cropping patterns. The result is there for all to see - there is crop for every season and there a season for every crop. Areas which have not adapted to climate change do not reflect this changing realities.

I have visited this part of Eastern Uttar Pradesh many times before but never got to appreciate its topography. The land here is very undulating - there are low lying areas and uplands on every turn making it  highly unpredictable. The topography is so uneven that a little rains can flood low-lying areas and during heavy rains, floods can play havoc.

So, climate change in this part of Uttar Pradesh is made worse by topography and other man-made factors like construction of road, blocking of drains, etc. On top of it, there is no proper drainage system and so rain water continues to stagnate making the areas prone to malaria and Japanese encephalitis.

It is within this context that the work initiated by GEAG has assumed important dimensions for farmers in 25 villages in and around Compereganj block in Maharajganj district, a district  adjacent to Gorakhpur. Growing vegetables all through the year means a decided increase in income and even if they have one or two failed crops, there are other crops which protect them. Farmers here have learnt to outwit nature and anticipate the change in climate, the faster they move the better they adapt.

Interestingly, farmers were used to this kind of lifestyle till the time green revolution introduced mono-cropping in the area making them forget tradition. And when you meet a few old farmers you realize that the terminology around climate change is new but the vagaries of climate has always been the farmer's challenge and every generation has been combating it some way or the other.

My visit to Gorakhpur has changed my perception about the area and about the people living there and strangely enough led me to discover new truths....    

(Contributed by- K. Kannan, Communications Manager, Oxfam India)