The Cauvery basin in southern India faces recurring droughts, groundwater depletion, and soil degradation. Launched in 2019, Cauvery Calling set out to restore the basin by scaling tree-based agroforestry across millions of hectares. Recognizing that farmer adoption required overcoming behavioral, financial, and trust barriers, the initiative introduced a farmer hand-holding model. Through advisory visits, training, peer networks, helplines, and digital content, farmers received continuous support from pre-plantation to survival surveys. Over 192,000 farmers have transitioned, with evidence of improved incomes, enhanced drought resilience, and sustainable land restoration.
Background
The Cauvery River sustains nearly 84 million people across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka but has become one of India’s most water-stressed basins. Overextraction of groundwater, deforestation, and reliance on monocropping have eroded soils, depleted aquifers, and left farmers vulnerable to recurring droughts. Several severe drought years in the past two decades caused widespread crop failure, indebtedness, and distress migration. By 2015, river flows had reduced by nearly 40% in parts of the basin.
For farmers, the crisis was both ecological and economic. Soil health declined, water tables plummeted, and incomes remained unstable. Conventional awareness campaigns or one-time trainings proved insufficient to trigger behavior change. Agroforestry—integrating trees with crops—offered a way forward by improving soil organic matter, enhancing water retention, diversifying incomes, and sequestering carbon. Yet, adoption faced major barriers:
- Low farmer incomes limiting risk-taking capacity
- Lack of trust in external advisors
- Minimal access to peer demonstration farms
- Weak linkages to markets for diversified produce
- No sustained hand-holding beyond initial training
To address these gaps, Cauvery Calling was launched in 2019, building on two decades of farmer engagement under Project GreenHands. The program targeted the planting of 2.42 billion trees over 12 years, aiming to restore ecosystems and strengthen livelihoods. Central to the model was a continuous farmer hand-holding strategy, built around structured field visits, helplines, peer networks, and digital channels, ensuring farmers were supported at every stage of adoption.
Actions taken
Cauvery Calling’s farmer engagement strategy emphasized sustained support and on-ground presence rather than one-time interventions.
1. Sapling Production & Distribution Nurseries
- A hybrid nursery network was developed to ensure large-scale, timely supply of high-quality saplings.
- Production nurseries, directly managed by Isha, handled seed procurement, sapling raising, quality monitoring, and bulk supply.
- These fed into distribution nurseries, run by farmers and local entrepreneurs, which brought saplings closer to villages and reduced transportation costs.
- 44 farmer-led nurseries were operational, with 84% women workforce, making nurseries a significant livelihood generator alongside ecological restoration.
- The model tracked the lifecycle of saplings—from seed to farmer adoption—using digital tools for inventory, logistics, and demand mapping.
2. Farmer Hand-holding & Training
Field Visit
- Pre-Plantation Advisory Visits
- Conducted for farmers yet to adopt tree-based farming.
- Farmers were guided on soil health enhancement practices, water management, plantation layout, and species selection suited to local conditions.
- Post-Plantation Monitoring Visits
- Supported farmers who had already planted trees.
- Field staff offered best-practice guidance, inputs, and monitoring to improve survival rates.
- Survival Survey Visits
- Conducted annually to assess sapling survival and reasons for success/failure.
- Data captured through mobile apps and GIS mapping, feeding into project monitoring.
Training Programs – Large-scale awareness meetings, tree plantation drives, and focused farmer trainings on transition to agroforestry
Digital Peer Support – Geography-specific WhatsApp groups moderated by expert farmers, ensuring queries were resolved within 24–48 hours while fostering peer-to-peer trust.
Helpline & Farm Visits – A 12-hour helpline staffed by trained personnel used a CRM ticketing system to ensure query closure. Complex cases triggered expert farm visits.
Digital Channels – YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms broadcasted farmer success stories, expert sessions, and training videos. YouTube became the most popular ongoing learning channel.
3. Scale & Outreach Infrastructure
- 650+ personnel deployed across farmer support, nursery operations, and communications.
Outcomes
- Adoption and Scale
- Helped over 192,000 farmers across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Gujarat transition to agroforestry.
- Adoption was consistent due to structured hand-holding and follow-up support.
- Tree Survival and Ecological Impact
- Enabled plantation of 12.4 crore trees
- Improved soil fertility, higher organic matter, and enhanced groundwater recharge.
- Drought Resilience
- Practices such as mulching, no-till, and multi-layer cropping reduced water demand and improved soil moisture retention.
- Reduced input dependency enhanced resilience to droughts.
- Economic Benefits
- Reduced expenditure on chemical inputs through bio-inputs (e.g., Jeevamrut, Panchagavya).
- Diversification of income streams through agroforestry and value addition.
- Demonstrated farmer success encouraged peer adoption.
- Institutional and Policy Impact
Farmer–government meetings improved access to schemes.- Cauvery Calling emerged as a model for community-driven ecological restoration.
- Engagement with policymakers advanced agroforestry integration in drought resilience strategies.
- Social Impact
- Farmer-to-farmer trust networks strengthened, reducing dependency on external advisories.
- Women-led nurseries provided local employment and strengthened gender participation.
Lessons Learned
Agroforestry and enhanced soil health management builds drought resilience: Integrated practices improved soil moisture retention and sustained yields during droughts.
Water management practices are critical: Simple techniques such as farm ponds, drip irrigation, and intercropping with deep-rooted trees reduced dependency on rainfall and stabilized yields.
Agroforestry buffers farmers against climate stress: Diversified tree-crop systems provided shade, reduced evaporation, and offered alternative income streams when annual crops failed.
Behavioral change requires sustained hand-holding: Continuous support across farming stages drives adoption; one-time training is insufficient.
Peer farmers are the most trusted change agents: Demonstrations and farmer-led groups accelerate adoption more than external advisories.
Scaling requires ecosystem partnerships: Market linkages, credit access, and policy support are essential for inclusive farmer transitions.
