Winnipeg's International Institute for Sustainable Development Signs $700,000 Agreement to Conduct Research Project In India

Project will examine problems Indian farmers face due to economic globalization and climate change

WINNIPEG — The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has just signed an agreement for a $700,000 research project to be conducted in India with partners from India and Norway. The project will look at how farmers in India may be vulnerable to the problems caused both by economic globalization and climate change.

"Climate change will impact farmers and communities in India through environmental change such as drought or flooding, this in turn, upsets established crops and planting cycles," said Stephan Barg, IISD Senior Program Advisor and project manager. "At the same time as the climate is changing, economic globalization is affecting the markets for farm products, with varying prices and volumes of exports and imports creating even further challenges for farmers and their communities."

The project will construct a map showing the areas in India that are most vulnerable to such physical changes. Maps of these economic variables will also be developed, and compared with factors such as poverty levels. The result will be a map showing those parts of India most vulnerable because of their poverty, their climate, and their farm products. Case studies of four of these vulnerable areas, and analysis of the types of government policies that might reduce the potential problems, will then be conducted. The result will be a better understanding of these linked issues in India, some policy suggestions to deal with the issues, and thus a better capacity to deal with the problems as they arise.

IISD is conducting this research with two partners: The Tata Energy Research Institute in New Delhi, India, is an eminent Indian research organization specializing in climate change and energy issues. The Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, in Oslo, Norway, also specializes in climate change issues. IISD specializes in evaluating policy impacts and suggesting changes. The three partners in this project are all part of an international group of 14 institutions called the Climate Change Knowledge Network, which seeks to develop effective, equitable and sustainable solutions to climate change through collaborative research, workshops and information dissemination.

The project will bring together several aspects of sustainable development that IISD has been researching, including climate change, community livelihoods, and agricultural policy. More on IISD can be found at http://www.iisd.org.

The largest part of the $700,000 for the project will come from the Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency. The Norwegian Government is also making a grant of $83,000 Canadian to the project. The project will take place over the next two years.