October 29 MRV Project Coordination Call

Time/date: Friday, Oct 29, 2021, 7am PDT / 7:30pm IST

Agenda:

Attendees:

DG: Krish, Rikin, Ashu, Ashok, Falguni, Ronali, Gelsey

EDF: Richie

CSISA consortium: Balwinder and Sonam (CYMMYT), Andy McDonald (Cornell)

US Davis: JK Ladha

Notes:

• Update on funding: Last night (Oct 28) we received formal approval/notification from the donor, Sequoia Climate Fund. We expect a grant agreement shortly.

• Update on partnership: A week ago we received a formal letter of support from JEEViKA.

• Update on progress on the ground:

  • Ashok presented data summary and details collected (paddy land, urea used, green naturing practices, etc.) - 18 different data parameters. Link to presentation.

  • CSA practices followed currently by farmers: (1) water management (drying after transplanting), (2) green manuring/green gram, (3) application of jeevamrutha/ghanajeevamruta (but not used at large scale) and (4) aware of varietals (long/short term varieties)

  • CSISA MIP for wheat (Rabi 2021): early sowing, zero tillage variety promotion, irrigation mgmt, N optimization

  • DG has video resources available, but some other ones need to be made (short duration varieties, N optimization, water management, zero tillage)

  • Next steps: Kharif data collection (Nov/Dec), training to scale to 1600 farmers (Nov-March), and emission estimates for the initial 250 farmers (Jan)

  • Provide JEEViKA clarity on: proposed activities/advisories, digitization of VRP register, stats of GG estimation, and focus on CSA MRV on GHG emission co-benefits.

  • (Ashu) Data collected may not constitute a good baseline; need support from partners to get the parameters. We have worked with JEEViKA and their VRPs effectively and now we need to thin about where to next beyond Gaya.

  • (Andy): The broad brush recommendations on the slides are ok, but to prioritize need to take into account the geographies since some recommendations are geographic based.

• Data points discussion - is this enough to make decision on advisories, models, co-benefits, etc.? With this data (currently for 250 farmers, soon for 1500 farmers), what else would the partners need to take the work forward?

  • (Ashu on chat) Data was not self-reported; it was collected by VRPs and validated at the block level by JEEViKA and DG staff

  • Need to take into account which lens to use and for what purpose.

  • Gaps in GHG accounting is water balance information - need to figure how to collect this as it is a driver of GHG emissions

  • Objective of work: (1) scalable model of data collection, (2) use data to quantify GHG emissions, (3) use that info to send advisories and apply practices to reduce GHG emissions

  • Suggestion to set up a technical committee

    • Proposed: Kritee, Balwinder, Sonam, Amresh(?), JK, Andy. From DG - Ashu and Falguni or Ashok.

    • Proposed idea: someone with behavioral science experience.

    • Propose that group is smaller at first

  • (Andy) Is this first analysis an ex-ante assessment of management practices, rather than GHG emissions?

    • Objective is to share with farmers what can be done and costs, not a full blown GHG accounting. This would show the entry points, which is critical.

    • Importance of behavior change rather than project-led interventions

• Next steps:

  • Tech committee SOW and convening after Diwali

  • Follow up with partners with regards to contracting