Recording the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS

Usharmukti, a massive river rejuvenation programme launched by the Government of West Bengal, is implemented primarily through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), in collaboration with grassroot civil society organisations (CSOs) and donor agencies. As one of the largest community-driven water security programmes in the country, Usharmukti has contributed to the conservation of natural resources  by bringing almost 30,000 ha of fallow lands under plantation with over 1.5 crore new trees between December 2019 and March 2021. It has also created 138 billion litres of water potential through the treatment of 93,330 ha with water conservation and water harvesting structures during the same period.

Besides a far-reaching welfare effect, these outcomes carry significant adaptation and mitigation co-benefits. The lead CSOs for Usharmukti—Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) and Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF)—recognised the need to quantify these benefits, and, in collaboration with the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), ventured to do that and more.

MGNREGS is a poverty alleviation programme implemented pan India. As an employment guarantee scheme, it successfully captures information on the number of jobs and assets created. However, assessment of the multiple climate co-benefits arising from these assets has been a blind spot. While there have been many studies that attest to the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS works, they have been limited in their geographical scope, resulting in constrained reporting of the accrued benefits.

This report ‘A framework for quantifying the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS works’ details the subnational efforts of CSTEP, PRADAN, and HUF to quantify the climate adaptation and mitigation co-benefits of the Usharmukti programme, and develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for quantifying and reporting the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS works.

In collaboration with PRADAN and Awadh Research Foundation, CSTEP engaged with stakeholders in four districts of West Bengal—Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, and Paschim Bardhaman—sampling 541 land- and water-based works under the Usharmukti programme. The works were assessed for their potential to deliver climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation co-benefits. Awadh Research Foundation, under the guidance and training provided by CSTEP, undertook a combination of primary surveys and focussed group discussions to quantify adaptation and resilience co-benefits, and field measurements of tree biomass and soil organic carbon to quantify mitigation benefits arising from plantation works.

The findings from this assessment are reported for a total population of 228,431 Usharmukti beneficiary households in the four sampled districts. For water-based assets, the research predominantly looked at farm ponds and irrigation canals. The construction of ponds through the programme has enabled 48,750 former rainfed farmers to irrigate their lands, and irrigation canals have brought 41.33 ha of barren land under cultivation (only within the sampled watersheds). For those who already had a source of irrigation prior to the programme, the presence of a farm pond increased the area under irrigation and provided access to water for an additional one and a half months.

This has resulted in increased crop yields and farm incomes, offering a buffer against climate hazards such as droughts, and enhancing the adaptive capacities of farmers. In addition to aiding irrigation, water harvesting structures serve as fish ponds and increase the availability of water for livestock. Average additional earnings from livestock and fisheries are INR 14,321 and INR 22,963 per annum per beneficiary, respectively. Income diversification is known to increase the coping capacities of farmers with respect to climate hazards.

Social forestry and horticulture were the predominant land-based assets that were surveyed as part of this project. Since a random sampling methodology was followed for the study, many of the plantations sampled were younger than four years, and hence did not yield fruits or timber. Yet, most beneficiary households reported a cooler ambient temperature and improved soil quality due to their plantation works.

For tree species that were large enough to be measured, our analysis shows that a total of 3,668 tonnes of carbon has been sequestered in tree biomass, and a further 5,707 tonnes of carbon has been sequestered by the soil in plantations, resulting in a total sequestration of 9,367 tonnes of carbon across all the plantation works within the sampled districts under the Usharmukti programme.

Being a large-scale programme spanning diverse agro-climatic and socio-economic conditions, it is challenging to design and implement Usharmukti/MGNREGS. Considering this, the report provides recommendations for preparing a programme design that can maximise the climate co-benefits of the programme. These include ensuring timely distribution of tree saplings and plant-life-saving irrigation to lower tree mortality, capacity building and technical assistance by horticulture and forest departments for species selection and orchard management, modifying the dimensions and density of water harvesting structures factoring in the opinion of beneficiaries, etc.

More importantly, the study—through the rapid assessment of the climate co-benefits from the Usharmukti programme—puts forth a framework that can guide a state to quantify the adaptation, resilience, and mitigation co-benefits arising from MGNREGS assets, thus highlighting at a national level, the scheme’s potential to enhance rural resilience and accelerate India’s progress towards achieving its climate goals.

The key learnings from the study can help in the efficient implementation of our framework at the state and national level. A random stratified sampling technique can be applied effectively. Gram Panchayat will need to be the unit of assessment, as opposed to a watershed (as adopted in this study).

Irrespective of public or private works, resilience and adaptation co-benefits need to be quantified at a household level. Only plantations over 5 years should be included to quantify mitigation co-benefits. Income-based indicators and their contribution in aiding adaptation will need to be explicitly defined and quantified after hazard occurrence.

The framework has been designed in recognition of the crucial need to monitor and report the significant climate co-benefits from this national programme, especially in light of India’s Nationally Determined Contributions, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the reporting requirements for Adaptation Communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2024.

While the framework can help in ensuring that the climate-positive outcomes of the programme do not go unrecorded, much needs to be done to simplify the entire process of undertaking rapid assessments to quantify the climate co-benefits from MGNREGS at scale. With this in view, our report also provides a way forward, outlining how it can be done.

The recommendations that would facilitate the implementation of the framework are:

• Prepare a work-specific list outlining the reportable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) indicators for all the 260+ MGNREGS works.
• Prepare a comprehensive list of institutions and stakeholders that can undertake such assessments.
• Prepare a methods manual for conducting rapid field-based assessments to help institutions and stakeholders in quantifying the climate co-benefits from MGNREGS works.
• Develop suitable training materials and integrate them into the existing MGNREGS capacity building programmes so that the quantification and reporting of climate co-benefits can be done seamlessly.
• Automate the sampling algorithm to extract data from the MGNREGS MIS and provide assessors with a sampled list of MGNREGS works and beneficiaries.
• Digitise and automate data collection and analysis using mobile surveys or OMR formats to reduce the burden on institutions conducting the assessments.
• If integrating the results (climate co-benefits) into the MGNREGS MIS is not possible, the framework can be piloted in a few states by creating an external database.

The full report of the study can be accessed here