The Initial Study of Evaluating the Energy Needs of the Poorest of the Poor (PoP) Farmers using Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) in Andhra Pradesh

Key Messages

This on-ground preliminary study explores the prevailing sociological, institutional and techno-economic parameters associated with energy consumption by Poorest of Poor (PoP) families across rural Andhra Pradesh, to potentially integrate the findings in line with Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) in near future.

Key study highlights:

• Concern areas: The study identified limited access to power & water, contained use of LPG, poor sanitation facilities, seasonality in village work-hours, and ambiguity in harnessing waste to energy as key issues contributing to energy and income insecurities.
• Synergistic relationship: A system-dynamic approach yielded a holistic picture of all factors and sub-factors impacting the village ecosystem, thus prompting a need to bring in potential localised large/small scale energy solutions to meet the families' aspirations.
• Design an energy intervention: Conceptualising feasible energy-based approaches factoring in specific village-centric conditions, a robust institutional and financial framework; and sustainable methods towards enabling livelihood improvement (in sync with CMSA's ideology).