{"id":20016673,"date":"2015-11-26T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T04:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=16673"},"modified":"2021-01-17T23:54:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T18:24:30","slug":"rajasthani-women-farmers-combat-climate-change-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/rajasthani-women-farmers-combat-climate-change-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajasthani women farmers combat climate change in the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the key worries that will be discussed in Paris, at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference \u2015 the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) \u2013 will be the expansion of drylands. A recent study published by Lanzhou University in China<\/a> indicates that climate change will lead to ever-expanding drylands area. If global emissions continue to rise, the study estimated that dryland areas will cover 56% of the world’s land surface by 2100.<\/p>\n

A key challenge in this scenario will be adaptation, and therefore the success stories coming out of the deserts of the Indian state of Rajasthan are that much more important. The Thar desert<\/a> cover 60% of the area of the state (it spills over also into the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan) and the state faces water scarcity for 9 to 11 months in a year and frequent droughts (1 in 2.5 years). It is in this bleak landscape that women farmers are adopting new farming methods that have helped them deal with the impacts of climate change in the drylands and move out of poverty.<\/p>\n