Home » Actions to mitigate drought effects in agriculture and reduce disaster risk in the state of Puebla Organization: Central de Servicios para el Desarrollo de Puebla Other Organizations Involved: Technical Agriculture Center (Centro de Bachillerato Tecnológico Agropecuario—CBTA) no Puebla; the “Las Margaritas” experimental field of the National Institute for Forestry Farming and Livestock Research (Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Puebla; participating farmers; local authorities and the risk prevention committees of seven communities (Ahíla Cuauneutla) in the municipality of Pahuatlán de Valle Puebla; the Young Peasant Professionals Collective (Colectivo de Jóvenes Profesionistas Campesinos and the residents of the project’s planned target communities Download Final Report farmers throughout Mexico constantly face scarce or erratic patterns of precipitation as well as increasingly severe and prolonged periods of drought That translates into lost harvests and thus has economic impacts heavy rains may provoke landslides in hilly areas as well as flooding from swollen rivers and streams—events which may lead to changes in the physical environment and resources The Northern Sierra region of Puebla is no exception as it has suffered numerous extreme weather events associated with climate change Concerned by the increasing likelihood and frequency of extreme climate event-related disasters the citizens of seven communities in the municipality of Pahuatlán de Valle have founded disaster risk prevention committees and elaborated plans to reduce such risks World Vision and the Young Peasant Professionals Collective The objective of this grant project is two-fold: to contribute to reducing the risks of disasters from landslides and the flooding of rivers and streams and to lessen the impact of droughts on corn production in the Northern Sierra of Puebla through reforestation activities and the implementation of drought mitigation technologies these proposed project activities will be consistent with the risk management plans that have already been drawn up as well as with a participatory approach supported by training and technical and advisory assistance The project proposes to achieve the following goals in the municipality of Pahuatlán The project consists of two parts: one is focused on helping smallholder farmers in participating communities prepare for droughts that impact agriculture The focus of the second part is to avert landslides in hilly areas and flooding along rivers and streams in Puebla’s Northern Sierra Corn production is a high value economic activity in Puebla Although the CIMMYT has disseminated information on “conservation farming,” which conserves moisture and improves the soil there exist other practices and technologies for mitigating the effects of droughts vertical tillage to improve water infiltration use of inputs that retain moisture (mushrooms bacteria and soil improvers) and selection of hydric stress tolerant seed varieties (where hydric stress encompasses both drought conditions and flooding) The idea is to integrate a mitigation model initially adapted to corn production but which has the potential to impact other crops The project’s second part consists of reforestation activities in seven communities in the municipality of Pahuatlán with the object of reducing the risks of disaster from landslides or watercourses overflowing their banks The idea is to consolidate hillsides and riverbanks by planting bamboo is easy to propagate—without requiring any resowing—and has great commercial potential The delivery of training in bamboo propagation along with the creation of a local bamboo plant nursery will serve to ensure the project’s sustainability and maintain reforestation efforts in the region sown for local community public uses or domestic construction purposes is also under consideration for a future phase of the project the project includes the following main activities: