Sadguru Model of Rural Development Mitigates Climate Change in India’s Drylands

The most significant issue facing the human species in the 21st century and beyond is the looming climate change crisis—how can we survive as a species in the midst of globalization and fit into a biosphere without destroying the delicate fabric of nature—the very means of our survival? By 2020, India has to increase productivity above 340 million tons of food grains to feed its expanding human population. If India needs to improve agriculture production, it must embark on new initiatives incorporating people, land and water with government, non-government and corporate support. In this book, the author, who is Tata Visiting Chair at the NM Sadguru Water and Development Foundation, highlights the “Sadguru Model of Rural Development” in the Indian context, and how it promotes sustainable development while mitigating local and regional climate change. If the rural development model highlighted in this book is adopted across India and elsewhere, it would certainly increase agriculture output, guarantee food security, protect natural resources, and above all, wipe out the greatest insult to human dignity–poverty.