Saturday 16th January 2021 • Promotional Content


Personal development, financial & legal resolutions New Year, Fresh Start 43 Turn the tables on climate change


Most of us want to make greener choices in our lives and it’s heartening to see governments and companies starting to make bolder commitments to reducing carbon emissions


B ‘yes’.


ut is there anything we can do to help people whose daily lives have been


affected by the damage already done to the climate?


Especially


smallholder farmers who rely on what they can grow for food and income, but whose crops


Want to make 2021 the year you


help families around the world turn the tables on


repeatedly


fail due to changed weather patterns? Te answer is definitely International develop-


climate change? Practical Action can help you. Visit practicalaction.org/ newyear


ment group Practical Action has pioneered innovative approaches that are helping farming commu- nities around the world to adapt to changing weather patterns and thrive in their new climate realities. Like helping communities to


re-green deserts in drought ravaged Sudan. Or working with coffee growers in Peru to protect and work in harmony with the Amazon rain- forest. And helping farmers use solar energy to pump water from deep underground to irrigate desperately parched fields in Zimbabwe.


One of the group’s most ambitious efforts is a plan to help thousands of farming families in the Himalayas of Nepal to work around the cycles of floods and droughts that destroy crops and make drinking water scarce. Pooja (pictured,


right)


farms her land and looks after her chil- dren and in-laws. She explained, “We’re facing problems due to climate


change — it doesn’t rain on time


and when it rains, it pours. We don’t have any inkling about how to farm in these conditions”. Practical Action’s answer is a


combination of small changes that will


add up to a big difference.


Working in partnership with farming communities in other areas of Nepal, it has developed an effective, multi- stranded approach that works — with many farmers finding themselves better off than they were before the climate changed. It starts with more resilient seeds, suited to the new weather seeds


better patterns. Te need water


— just enough at the right time. So, solar-powered irrigation and water storage is called for. Training in improved farming techniques comes next, along with access to weather information services. Improved harvests mean enough


to feed the family and extra to sell at market. But trips to market are


hazardous and time-consuming, carrying heavy loads down treach- erous mountain tracks prone to landslides. Practical Action has this covered,


too, with its fascinating


community-built, gravity-powered cable-cars that take goods downhill in minutes rather than hours. And championing women in society to unlock their potential is a crucial driver in making all of this possible. Get behind Practical Action’s work


and help more farmers like Pooja in Nepal — and others around the world — to turn the tables on climate change. Even better, donations made before 9 March will be matched pound for pound by the UK government.


You can donate online or find out more about Practical Action’s work to help people adapt to climate change at: practicalaction.org/newyear


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