"Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA)” carbon financing project in Xundian is funded by Blue Moon Fund. It covers 400 households of 2 administrative villages in the form of Farmers’ Clubs. It promotes community-driven “CSA”.

One of the project activities is watching movies developed by Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Science Food Crops Research Center in the village activity room after the villagers have finished their whole day field work. The movies are about SRI and Global Warming documentaries. Villagers could think about and discuss topics like the relationship between global warming and agriculture, conservation agriculture and water source protection etc. and develop solutions to these problems through watching movies, - this is a relaxing and pleasant way of learning.  

This activity looks relaxing, but is at the same time very effective. The farmers did not have enough knowledge and information, neither did they receive training earlier on these topics. They plant in the field based on the experiences from generations. They did not know that part of the reasons for global warming was agriculture, neither did they know what was decrease of soil organic matter. What they saw was simply crop yields. What they thought about was that the yields of this year were not as good as last year, quality of water in the village was worse than five years ago, etc. They did not know what were the reasons. Therefore our project helps farmers to ask questions and think, providing trainings which are enjoyable to them. These all contributs to their clear understanding of the problems and they later could provide suggestions for solutions. The importance of this platform is to help farmers realize that agriculture is not just about increasing yield and income, but also protecting soil, and replenishing carbon to the soil through utilizing green manure and organic manure from animal dung. The soil could then play its role positively. They also realized that they should reduce carbon emission, and reduce use of chemicals and pesticides, hence decrease nitrogen emission. In addition, they learned to diversify their crops, select proper crops to plant using intercropping and crop rotation techniques. They were encouraged to mix crop residue into the soil, which helps to increase soil fertility instead of burning of biomass and crop residues. The scientific planting methods to adapt to climate change are also made known to them. 

We hope that though this project methodologies can be researched and designed, that can be used to prepare for certifying the carbon credits for CSA in the future. Meanwhile, the villagers have the opportunities of participating in improving their environmental economic situation . Their value can be reflected in their daily work. 
 
 Video-training of farmers for participating in environment protection
 SRI training 
 Expert providing training on SRI

 This project is supported by Blue Moon Fund