Climate resilient development pathways for farmer producer organizations in semi-arid India

Small and marginal farmers in semi-arid India face vulnerabilities stemming from low agricultural productivity, degraded ecosystems, and market and climate uncertainties. Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) have emerged as collectives to address these challenges and enhance climate resilience. Despite their potential in promoting empowerment and inclusive decision-making, FPOs in India struggle to develop successful business plans and cope with extreme weather events. This study aimed to identify climate resilient development pathways (CRDPs) for FPOs in semi-arid India that can simultaneously address development and climate change concerns. We collaborated with four FPOs in Maharashtra and eight experts to co-create CRDPs for these FPOs. The CRDPs challenged existing visions; when confronted with data on increasing climate risks based on critical climate-stress moments, the FPOs included targeted climate resilience–building measures. The application of critical climate-stress moments for CRDP development is a methodological advancement, particularly in cases of contested goals, ambiguous vision, and multi-stakeholder involvement. Further, depending on their agricultural products and stage of development of climate resilience, FPOs initially prefer incremental adaptation measures over larger transformative changes. We recommend that current policies for promoting FPOs in India carefully consider the differences in types of FPOs and stage of development in climate resilience.