Punjab state in the northwest Indian region has an extensive area of agriculture.

Various major irrigation sources include canal waters fed from various rivers and the water pumped from underground water bodies, and the drainage / waste water courses.

The river waters have been found to be increasingly polluted and cascades the pollutants to the crops that it irrigates.

Some poor rural communities also utilise the polluted agriculture / household drainage water, fed downstream through the water courses for activities such as small garden irrigation, washing and livestock watering, or is channelised to the river systems.

Often, there is an extensive use of pesticides and insecticides, and chemical fertilisers in the agricultural farm in order to raise the produce and generate better incomes, it being an income resource for for economic profits for many.

Farmers also burn a lot of crop residues that generates a lot of carbon gases and suspended air particles creating air pollution.

There is a need to improve the understanding of the links between agricultural pollution and rural livelihoods, and to develop options for the mitigation of diffusing agricultural pollution widely applicable across the region.

This project component has three main aims:

•  Firstly to investigate the sources of agricultural pollution and their impact on the environment and on the livelihoods of affected people;

•  Secondly to use this information to develop a range of possible options to mitigate the pollution; and,

•  Thirdly, to raise local awareness of these issues and to consider approaches to encourage policy-makers and farmers to implement the mitigation options.

The activities include:

•  literature review

•  institutional assessment

•  stakeholder consultations

•  water quality monitoring

•  ecological assessments

•  livelihoods analysis

•  socio-economic investigations

•  agricultural investigations

•  capacity building

•  public awareness raising, and

•  dissemination of results.

This involves creating partnerships with other like minded NGOs, volunteer support groups, businesses and related government agencies.

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