The flood-prone and exceptionally fertile plains of the northern Indian state of Bihar constitute the perfect setting to experiment with digital climate adaptation. Since the promotion of “climate-smart villages”, a concept pioneered in 2011 CGIAR and compounded the Modi’s government launch of “Digital India” in 2015, Bihar can be considered as a laboratory for climate services and digital adaptation. Ranging from farm activities (“farming as a service”, Malik 2023) to important poverty reduction schemes like the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), the synergy between adaptation and the digital has become pervasive.
In our exploratory fieldwork, Dr Vidya Pancholi carried out a comprehensive mapping of the organisations and entities that are currently active in digitalisation in both farm and non-farm sectors in the capital city of Patna, and in four administrative blocks Gurua (Gaya), Mohanpur (Gaya), Pusa (Samastipur), and Mahant-Maniyari (Muzaffarpur).
Our aim is to investigate how users and communities engage with, co-design, employ, and resist such applications and understand how digital adaptation contributes to reshaping knowledge and power relations in a society where land ownership, access to employment, resources and technologies are deeply fraught along the lines of caste, gender, and ethnicity.
An abandoned car in Guruva Block, Gaya Block, Bihar A female farmer showing her nursery of plants to the researcher in Guruva Block, Gaya District, Bihar A picture of Wheatgrass from the fields of women farmers of Guruva Block, Gaya District, Bihar A view of mustard fields in Guruva block, Gaya District, Bihar A group of female farmers showing their fields in Guruva Block, Gaya District, Bihar Walking across the fields in Guruva Block in Gaya District, Bihar A group of female farmers in Guruva Block, Gaya District accessing agro advisories on their smartphone A view of farms in Mohanpur Block, Gaya District, Bihar A tuck-tuck resting in Mohanpur block, Gaya District, Bihar A shop en-route Guruva block, Gaya district, Bihar IT Centre in Guruva block, Gaya district Jeevika’s block office, Guruva block, Gaya District, Bihar A view of buildings in Guruva block, Gaya district, Bihar A view of tractor trolley with aggregates en route to Mohanpur Block, Gaya, Bihar A view of farms en-route Mohanpur block, Gaya, Bihar A stock of hay near a farmer’s house in Mohanpur block, Gaya, Bihar Jeevika’s office in Guruva block, Gaya, Bihar A bunch of kids enjoying their free time in fields, en-route Guruva block, Gaya Entering Guruva block in a tuk-tuk, Guruva block, Gaya, Bihar A view of farms en-route Mohanpur block, Gaya, Bihar A view of farms from the taxi en-route Mohanpur block, Gaya, Bihar A view of farmer’s houses in Guruva block, Gaya, Bihar Walking along with Jeevika resource persons in Guruva block, Gaya, Bihar A farmer’s cattle in Guruva block, Gaya, Bihar
