The Pilot Program, Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiative (APDAI) emerged from a study entitled ‘Drought in Andhra Pradesh: Long Term Impacts and Adaptation Strategies’, undertaken by the World Bank in 2005, on the request of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh. The study brought forth the need to develop location specific adaptation strategies with a wider applicability, as the state will be subjected to chronic water scarcity and drought conditions in future due to Climate Change. Thus, AP DAI pilot program was initiated in the year 2006 with a broader objective of evolving a ‘package of measures’ that improve the adaptive capacities of the communities to sustain the negative impacts of increasing drought related vulnerabilities, accentuated by the climate change. The program aimed at identifying and bridging the gaps in the ongoing mainstream government programs with respect to drought adaptation. WASSAN worked as a Lead Technical Agency (LTA) for this pilot program. APDAI was implemented in two phases due to different modes of financing. Phase I of the pilot program (June 2006–April 2007) was financed by a World Bank-executed trust fund while Phase II (May 2007-June 2009) was financed by the Japan PHRD Climate Change Initiative Grant (CCIG), the World Bank and the Government of Andhra Pradesh. It was implemented in two most drought prone districts; Mahabubnagar and Anantapur districts of Andhra Pradesh. Three Mandals of Mahabubnagar district covered 15 villages in the first phase and later expanded to Anantapur district with 5 mandals, entailing 25 villages (See Box 1: Details of Pilot Villages). As the pilot experiences were building up, they were expanded to other villages in the Mandals.

Approach of APDAI
Given the pilot character of the project and the short duration, an intervention strategy was defined at the outset of the project that could be easily replicated and upscaled. This was done in cooperation with Federation of Women Groups at Village and Mandal level (MMSs and Village Organizations).

The first step in this systematic approach was to define a Drought Adaptation / Climate Change Impact Matrix. The next step in this logical progression was to develop a Drought Adaptation/ Climate Change Measures Matrix which defines possible interventions to address the challenges defined in the first matrix. Based on this approach several initiatives were taken up during the period (see Box 2: Summary of APDAI Pilot Initiatives).

Box 2: Summary of the APDAI Pilot Initiatives
Sl. No.	Drought Adaptation Strategy	Pilot Initiatives
1.	Better management of soil and moisture	Integrated into Diversified Farming System
2.	Allocation of Groundwater	Collectivizing groundwater through pooling of borewells and extending
	Increasing efficiency of water use	System of Rice Intensification udner Tank irrigation systems and borewells
		Small scale drip systems
3.	Diversifying crop / farm systems	Diversified Farming Systems
		Soil fertility improvement Soil conservation and water harvesting Biomass improvement / Integration of multi-purpose trees Inter-crop systems and fodder crops Non-pesticidal management of insect pests Establishing pigeon pea processing mill (dhal mill) Establishing market linkages for processed NPM grains Easting Bullock constraints for poor farmers
4.	Effective and Quick response livestock	Community managed preventive livestock healthcare systems
	Healthcare systems	Organizing livestock rearers
5.	Building on the opportunities of small ruminants and backyard poultry and other livestock	Promotion of deccani breed of sheep Building a value chain of sheep and goat (from reducing kid-mortality to marketing of meal) Organizing goat and sheep rearers into groups Networked Backyard poultry Heifer rearing Fodder farms for creating access to fodder for dairy
6.	Strengthening livelihoods related to commons and fisheries	Regeneration of CPRs and enhancing CPR based livelihoods Promoting Community managed tank-based fisheries
7.	Creating buffers	Community managed fodder banks Seed banks to maintain buffer seed and seeds of contingent crops

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