Fighting Climate Change in South Asia – Episode 36

From chefs in India to fisheries in the Maldives, we journey through South and Central Asia to explore how climate change and agriculture are interlinked and how farmers are adapting to new challenges with the help of IFAD and their local governments.

 

 

Episode Contents

• Meera Mishra and Fida Muhammad on India and Pakistan’s past, present and future
• Bhutan farmers yield results through CARLEP, with Dorji Wangchuk
• Farmer Tshering Dorji on growing a successful business in Bhutan
• Stronger together: Aminath Shafia on improving the agriculture sector in the Maldives
• Our chefs at Recipes for Change bring us the latest from India
• Weathering the storm: How a village in Bangladesh is adapting to climate change
• Emeritus Professor Ben Norton on improving livelihoods in Tajikistan’s rural communities
• Sustainable dishes from across the globe, with Earlene Cruz
• Youth Agribusiness Hubs, Part 4: Robert Meloche
• Research and Impact Assessment Series, Part 6: Aslihan Arslan
• Summing Up
• Similar Episodes to Enjoy

 

Meera Mishra and Fida Muhammad on India and Pakistan’s past, present and future

Meera Mishra (left), Country Programme Office India and Fida Muhammad (right), Country Programme Office Pakistan

Meera Mishra and Fida Muhammad join us from the India and Pakistan offices to discuss the importance of Sustainable Development Goals, while looking back on the incredible achievements of these two South Asian countries following their independence 75 years ago.

 

Bhutan farmers yield results through CARLEP, with Dorji Wangchuk

Dorji Wangchuk

Dorji Wangchuk is a Programme Director at CARLEP, a project that was launched in 2015 by IFAD and the Bhutanese Government to assist small-scale farmers.

He spoke to us about how the project grants and modern technology have helped local farming communities since CARLEP’s inception seven years ago.

 

Farmer Tshering Dorji on growing a successful business

Bhutanese farmer Tshering Dorji

Tshering Dorji knew he couldn’t support his family through farming alone. With the help of CARLEP and IFAD he now turns an annual profit and is expanding his business, along with 28,000 other farmers who have benefitted from the project.

 

Stronger together: Aminath Shafia on improving the agriculture sector in the Maldives

Dr Aminath Shafia

The Maldives is among the world’s most vulnerable countries when it comes to climate change. Dr Aminath Shafia, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture discusses climate and the positive effects of the Maldives Government partnership with IFAD on the archipelago’s agriculture sector.

 

Our chefs at Recipes for Change bring us the latest from India

Thomas Zacharias

Anahita Dhondy

We spoke with chefs Thomas Zacharias and Anahita Dhondy about their experiences with climate change.

 

Weathering the storm: How a village in Bangladesh is adapting to climate change

Qasa Alom

The residents of Jarakana in the Haor region of Bangladesh are no strangers to seasonal flooding. But for some time now they have had to contend with the challenges posed by climate change too.

Journalist Qasa Alom spoke with farmers, families and experts to get a sense of how the community is adapting, surviving and thriving.

See more from Qasa Alom on You Tube QasaVision.

 

Emeritus Professor Ben Norton on improving livelihoods in Tajikistan’s rural communities

Ben Norton

Ben Norton’s objective is to improve agricultural production and sustainability in rural communities in developing countries.

Not long ago he lent his expertise to IFAD’s Livestock and Pasture Development Project in Tajikistan, which ran from 2011 to 2018 and is estimated to have benefitted some 22,400 poor households. In this episode we hear about how the project changed their lives for the better.

 

Sustainable dishes from across the globe, with Earlene Cruz

Earlene Cruz

Do you want to travel the world in 75 recipes? Look no further than The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: for People and Planet – a joint venture by The Kitchen Connection, FAO and the Dutch Government.

The founder of Kitchen Connection, Earlene Cruz, joins us to talk about the array of celebrity chefs, farmers, indigenous cooks and food activists who contributed their favourite sustainable dishes to the book.

Order your copy of The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and Planet on amazon.com and in bookstores in the US and Canada, and worldwide in late 2022.

 

Youth Agribusiness Hubs, Part 4: Robert Meloche

Robert Meloche

In the fourth part of this miniseries we speak with Robert Meloche, the head of programmes at the Visa Foundation, tells us why they chose to invest in youth agribusiness development.

 

Research and Impact Assessment Series, Part 6: Aslihan Arslan

Aslihan Arslan, IFAD’s Research and Impact Assessment Project

IFAD’s Aslihan Arslan gives us a summary of the Impact Assessment for the IFAD 11 project cycle, delivered earlier this month to the IFAD board.

 

Summing up

Thanks to our producer Francesco Manetti and our contributors who include Allison Lecce in Rome and Qasa Alom in Bangladesh - and everyone else who’s worked on this programme. Your hosts are Brian Thomson and Yamini Lohia.

We want to hear from you! Please, be in touch with your comments and ideas at [email protected]

Remember to subscribe to and rate the podcast via your favourite podcast platform.

We’ll be back next month Next month in podcast 37 we’ll be talking climate change and food security as the UNFCCC COP 27 in Egypt is ready to set sail

Similar Episodes to Enjoy

Episode 26 we look at the blue economy – marine and coastal activity in East and Southern Africa.

Episode 25 looks at the link between climate change and small-scale farmers.

And in Episode 20 we talk about agricultural development that puts the environment at the forefront of its methods.