The village contingency crop plan has been developed by CAAST-CSAWM, MPKV Rahuri along with NABARD, BAIF, State Agricultural Universities and KVKs under the overall guidance and supervision of ICAR and CRIDA. During the preparation of the plan, five orientation workshops were held to raise awareness among stakeholders about the standard template developed by CRIDA for this purpose during June 2019. Since July 2019, vetting workshops were organized to scrutinize and finalize the plan in the presence of ICAR institutes and the respective university authorities. The process of the plan preparation is shown in Figure 2 and the vetting workshops organised for scrutiny and finalization of the plan are shown in Table 1.
| Sr. No. | Date of Workshop | Name of Workshop | Venue of Workshop |
| 1 | 09 April, 2019 | Stakeholders workshop for Agroclimatic Networking | Shenit village, Akole |
| 2 | 20-21 June, 2019 | Developing village level contingency crop plans | MPKV, Rahuri |
| 3 | 09 July, 2019 | Field validation workshop on Developing village level contingency crop plans by conducting PRA | Shenit village, Akole |
| 4 | 16 August, 2019 | Validation workshop on Developing village level contingency crop plans | MPKV, Rahuri |
| 5 | 04 October, 2019 | Validation workshop on Developing village level contingency crop plans | MPKV, Rahuri |
The basic village-level data collection template was filled by BAIF and circulated to all Akole block level officials to collect information of selected villages. The basic data contains, cropping patterns, soil type, type of crops, livestock’s, poultry and fisheries information etc. Collected data sets were then shared with Department of Agriculture, MPKV Rahuri and NABARD.
CAAST-CSAWM, MPKV, Rahuri, organized a one-day stakeholder workshop on "Agro-climatic Networking" on 09 April 2019 at Rajendra Prasad Ashram School, Shenit Tal. Akole, Dist. Ahmednagar, in collaboration with NABARD and BAIF. In this workshop, initial linkages were established between MPKV, BAIF, NABARD and village community for a joint venture to develop a village level contingency plan. BAIF presented the basic data related to agro-climatic parameters and related challenges in the workshop.
A two-day workshop on the development of the village contingency crop plan for the Akole block was held on 20-21 June 2019 at MPKV Rahuri. The workshop was attended by stakeholders from Department of Agriculture, CRIDA, MPKV-Rahuri, NABARD, representative form Agriculture Universities in other regions of Maharashtra, IITM, KVKs, scientists from different fields of agricultural sciences, ATARI, BAIF, etc. In this workshop, CRIDA explained the need for developing such localised plans and explained the processes to the participants to develop a framework for village-level contingency crop plans. The key elements of the framework included the following key elements:
The framework and templates were prepared after all these key elements were identified for village level scenarios. The planning was subsequently carried out at the village level, with the participation of experts from different Agri sciences domains, Government Department officials of the concerned block, specialists and NGO officials. During the workshop, the participants were divided into four groups; Agriculture, Horticulture, Livestock and Soil and Water Management based on their field knowledge. Out of the selected seven villages, farming situation of each village is taken into consideration and finalized during the group discussions. Following this, each village group was assigned the task of filling in the data in the contingency planning template prescribed by CRIDA, depending upon the scenario for Kharif, Rabi, and summer seasons. This task was realised to be most critical as well as time-consuming and was completed in one and a half days. Each group presented the village level contingency crop plans on the second day of this Planning meeting. Inputs from each of the groups helped in capturing micro-level situations which facilitated in developing village specific contingency measures. All the recommendations and alternative planning options deliberated in the meeting were incorporated for improvements in the plan. Experience sharing during the workshop facilitated clarity on agricultural situations, sowing scenarios, crop patterns, rainfall situations, soil types and soil classifications, vulnerability issues, preparedness and necessary real-time contingency measures. The first draft of VLCCP was prepared at the end of the workshop.
The BAIF field officials in each village took-up the task of validating the plans involving village community, farmers, and State Government Agriculture Department officials as well as Regional Research Station. This process involved Participatory Rural Approach (PRA) in the each of these villages in order to capture opinions/suggestions of the farming community. Subsequent to these consultations, CAAST-CSAWM and BAIF arranged village level workshop to discuss the draft contingency plans earlier prepared during the workshop at MPKV Rahuri. Four groups were formed for sectors viz., agriculture, horticulture, livestock and soil water conservation. The approach followed in this workshop is indicated below:
CAAST-CSAWM MPKV Rahuri hosted a final validation workshop on 16 August 2019 at the University campus. For this workshop, an expert from CRIDA, Government Department officials, University Scientists including Head of the Department of concerned subject areas, Agricultural Research Station experts were invited for the final validation of developed VLCCP. CAAST-CSAWM subject matter specialist presented the validated plans, which were earlier prepared involving farmers at the village level. The suggestions from farmers, expert, university scientists during the presentation were incorporated in the VLCCP and the final draft was communicated to CRIDA for vetting and approval.
The approval for the publication of the VLCCP was received from the CRIDA with certain suggestions which were incorporated subsequently in the final plan.
