Bangladesh farmers swap rice for vegetables as water dries up

Where rain is sparse, farmers are collecting fog as a water supply. The collection systems typically consist of nets that catch the droplets and allow them to drip down into a storage container.

Communities in Siaya are excavating water pans to store runoff from the rainy season for agricultural and household use during droughts. The pans are dug in clay soil, and their size and depth are determined based on community needs.

The Kirinyaga county government is helping Kenyan farmers build fish ponds and supplying them with their first stock of fish and food in an effort to diversify their incomes while adding rainwater storage amid the drought.

In 1980, the Ugandan government signed an agreement with local communities in the Mugandu–Buramba wetland that gave them the right to own, manage, and conserve their own property. Today, the wetlands are thriving —reducing degradation and improving biodiversity— and creating a livelihood for the 276 people that live there. The government says that since they are using the land responsibly, their agreement will continue.

A group of women are restoring abandoned chinampas (ancient Aztec floating farms) in and around Mexico City, combining indigenous farming techniques with university research partnerships to clean polluted waterways, protect endangered axolotls, revive sustainable year-round agriculture, and train a new generation of farmers in traditional methods.

The nonprofit Group to Promote Education and Sustainable Development teaches women in drought-ridden Indigenous communities across Mexico to use ancestral methods of irrigation and grow drought-resilient medicinal plants. The four-year training program also aims to address gender disparity through empowerment. Participants are encouraged to set up savings funds to increase their financial independence and attend group therapy sessions, among other activities.

Farmers in Mexico are keeping a 1,000-year-old tradition alive to produce reliable yields of healthy crops despite facing historic droughts. They're using chinampas, which are man-made “floating gardens” created by placing soil from the lake on top of reeds and grasses.

A government scheme in Pakistan involves the construction of water-harvesting dams in areas that experience droughts, which allows farmers in the region to use the irrigation water from the dams for their crops. One farmer is growing onions and wheat and because of the access to water, his income has increased more than 60 percent. There are concerns about how helpful the water from the dams will ultimately be in the arid region, but there are plans to build more dams in the next few years.

In Zambia, where severe drought due to climate change has negatively affected agriculture, the Daughters of the Redeemer are practicing organic farming to feed hundreds of children and families whose basic needs are not being met. This group of religious sisters do not rely on rainfall to farm; they installed a drip irrigation system that has allowed them to grow crops like cabbage, maize, tomatoes, and beans. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sisters provided training to local villages about organic farming, and this has allowed families to support themselves during the crisis.

In Rajasthan, India, the Aakar Charitable Trust is building dams in previously drought-ridden areas using traditional practices that use the contours of the land to retain water. These check dams are cost-effective, partially owned by local communities, and do not displace residents; the trust builds an average of 30 dams each year, but they hope to ramp up construction in the future while cautioning that the method will not work for every topography.