Cultivating Sustainable Food and Farming Transformations

CAT is dedicated to guiding India’s 40 million farmers’ agroecological transformations towards a sustainable and just food system by 2030.

About Us Test

The Consortium for Agroecological Transformations (CAT) is a dynamic force aimed at integrating, scaling, and popularising agroecology across India. By uniting stakeholders for collaborative action, CAT envisions a transformative journey for the nation's agricultural landscape. Our goal is to tackle pressing challenges like climate change, nutritional insecurity, farmer debt, biodiversity loss, and resource degradation. Through a united effort, we aim to facilitate a substantial shift towards agroecology-driven farming practices that further fair and equitable food systems, benefitting all stakeholders from growers to consumers.

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Vision

Envisioning an India where agroecological and sustainable farming systems flourish, fostering social justice, food sovereignty, self-reliance and economic aspirations for farmers, with a commitment to provide nutritious, diverse, safe and healthy foods to consumers.

CAT aims to transform Indian agriculture by putting farmers at the centre, using a landscape-level approach. We want to build sustained support through collaboration. Our vision includes:

Galvanising Stakeholder Support

Unified Vision: Gather diverse stakeholders with a shared goal, approach and agreed-upon measures of success.

Inclusive Dialogue: Facilitate open discussions to ensure everyone agrees on the overall mission.

Establishing a Collaborative Governance Framework

Inclusive Decision-Making: Create a system where everyone actively participates, defining responsibilities.

Transparency: Make decision-making processes transparent to build trust and accountability.

Tracking Progress Effectively

Common Metrics: Develop shared metrics to track progress on national and state levels.

Real-time Monitoring: Use technology for timely updates on achievements and challenges.

Our Structure

CAT will bring together various key stakeholders, including domestic and international funders, organisations like CSOs and farmer groups, public agencies, and research institutions. These groups will work together to achieve targets in agroecology, coordinating efforts across four main stakeholder groups: funders, enablers, impacters, and market players. CAT aims to be inclusive, acting as a custodian of a larger vision. It will involve stakeholders from the private sector and government agencies. A steering committee will ensure efficient decision-making, supported by a dedicated secretariat. Additionally, CAT will collaborate with other government and non-government initiatives and networks like NMNF, Working Group for Indo-German Lighthouse on Agroecology and NRM, NCNF, and CoFTI, aligning efforts toward common goals.

Our Approach

Empowering Farmers: Building Stronger Communities, Landscape by Landscape

We are putting farmers at the heart of our efforts, focusing on landscape-based approaches. We shall support all the services and agencies needed for agroecological change on a large scale for at least ten years. This means working together with our stakeholder groups and ensuring resources are available. We will start by creating 15,000 clusters, each covering 15-20 villages in smaller landscapes, chosen based on specific criteria.

Agenda for 2024

Partner Convention

A national workshop in 2024 to form a consolidated group of CAT partners, co-design common goals and chart out the action plan with timelines. Finalise and adopt the CAT Charter and Governance Structure. Launch the Blueprint for Agroecological Transformations.

Agroecology Tracker

To launch an open-access online platform which will track and monitor Agroecology related initiatives across India at cluster level to provide real-time visibility of initiatives and their progress in one dashboard

Cat Governance

To create a core team which will coordinate and carry out activities of the consortium. Adopting the governance structure of CAT, create committees, working groups and partner groups

Funders’ Alliance

Long-term financial plan to mobilise funds and resources through innovative financing solutions to support critical processes of state and local level initiatives projects leveraging government programmes and schemes.

Metrics of success framework

A holistic framework of KPIs, outcomes, and outputs for measuring success for various agroecological interventions. This will result in a consistent and contextualised metric adaptable to all regions and suitable for the intended outcomes.

Our Stakeholders

CAT has created a space built on mutual respect and trust for its stakeholders, who are grouped into Impactors, Enablers, Funders, and Market Players within the agroecology field.

Impactors:

Driving Change at the Grassroots

Impactors are the architects of change, comprising networks, champion organisations, and individuals working directly with communities. Their efforts, supported by other stakeholders, drive tangible and sustainable results through on-ground initiatives.

Enablers:

Bridging Vision to Action

Enablers form the backbone of CAT, including researchers, think tanks, consultancies, support organisations, governments, and thought leaders. They contribute to ground-level efforts and collaboration, focusing on developing and deploying Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks for agroecology. Enablers customise approaches based on evidence, ensuring the transformative impact of agroecology is measured accurately and refined.

Funders:

Catalyzing Funds for Action

Funders play a crucial role in driving transformation by reflecting on long-term outcomes and directing funds towards innovation and capacity building in agroecology. They avoid duplication of efforts, leverage funds, and engage diverse donor groups to propel agroecological initiatives forward.

Market Players:

Shaping the Future of Agriculture

Market Players further innovation and bridge gaps in the agroecology sector, connecting consumers to Farmers' Producer Organizations (FPOs), organic stores, and entrepreneurs. They facilitate cross-sectional partnerships and empower consumers to make informed and sustainable choices while linking financial institutions to agroecological investments.

Resources

Blueprint

Our Blueprint for scaling agroecological transformation in India is a plan to change the way farming is done in the country. It wants to solve problems like farmers earning less money and the environment getting worse by promoting agroecology-based farming.
Indian agriculture is in trouble because it costs more to grow crops and the soil isn't as good as it used to be. Agroecology can help by making the climate better, improving soil health, and making farming communities stronger.

Charter

CAT's mission is to catalyse and coordinate transformative agroecological processes in India. These processes encompass evidence building, policy discussions and implementation, knowledge management and sharing, capacity building for all stakeholders, efficient resource mobilisation and allocation, and the development and dissemination of successful models and approaches.
The charter provided is a starting point, subject to evolution through nationwide discussions with key stakeholders.

Concept Note

The transition to agroecology has begun, with various stakeholders like CSOs, governments, scientists, private sector, donors, and farmers' movements supporting its adoption. Programs like the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming (APCNF) and the Odisha Millets Mission show successful efforts at significant scales.
However, achieving widespread adoption and mainstreaming remains challenging. Currently, only 1.6% of agricultural land is under organic cultivation. Agroecological interventions are fragmented and often lack sustained, comprehensive, long-term support for farmers and their value chains. Read our concept note to learn more about the future of agroecological transformations in India.

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Transforming Agriculture, Transforming Lives

We are approaching agroecology holistically: Connecting people, planet, and prosperity. This is our contribution and commitment to Sustainable Development Goals.