Crops may fail, solar will not: Climate-resilient agriculture for a new India

Food is fundamental. Dietary patterns may evolve, but to sustain ourselves we require energy and that energy comes from food. At its simplest, agriculture is a remarkable ecological process: plants absorb carbon dioxide and, through photosynthesis, generate the nourishment we depend upon while releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

Yet, feeding a population as large as India’s is no simple ecological equation. It is a complex technological, economic, and governance challenge. It is a challenge that now demands systemic rethinking.

Hidden costs of high-input agriculture

To ensure food security, India intensified agriculture through irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanisation. These interventions delivered impressive productivity gains. However, if we conduct a full audit, we must also acknowledge the costs. Today,food production is highly energy intensive. Water, a finite natural resource, is pumped extensively, often from depleting aquifers. Cropping patterns are not always aligned with agro-ecological suitability: for instance, we must ask whether Punjab is the most appropriate region for water-intensive paddy, or Maharashtra for sugarcane.

At the same time, ensuring affordable food remains a legitimate and sensitive priority for both farmers and the Indian Government. Subsidies have played an important role in safeguarding food security. But distortions have emerged. Nearly 90 per cent of the cost of urea is subsidised. Predictably, overuse follows. The greening of crops is often mistaken for higher productivity, though that is not always the case. Excess nitrogen degrades soil health, reduces long-term efficiency and contributes to environmental pollution.

Restoring soil health

Encouragingly, initiatives such as the Soil Health Card Scheme represent an important shift. Instead of prescribing generic inputs, they focus on the specific condition of the soil and recommend appropriate amendments. Similarly, the PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) incentivises States to reduce excessive chemical fertilizer use.

Soils are living systems. When crops grow, they do not merely synthesise carbohydrates; they draw minerals and micronutrients from the soil. If biomass is removed year after year without restoring balance, depletion is inevitable. Fertilizer application then becomes a compulsion rather than a calibrated intervention. Ecological security demands that we restore this balance.

Circular agriculture at the village level

Agriculture must shift from a linear to a circular model. Crop residue, instead of being burned, can be used for biogas production. The slurry from biogas plants, rich in nutrients, can be returned to the soil. If nutrient loops are closed locally, we create a circular economy at the village level, thereby generating clean energy while restoring soil fertility.Such decentralised approaches reduce waste, emissions and transportation costs. They also enhance local resilience, which is a critical requirement in an era of climate uncertainty.

Rethinking fertilizer efficiency

Next, conventional fertilizer application methods are inherently inefficient. Water-use efficiency in many systems is below 30 per cent, implying that nearly 70 per cent of applied nutrients are lost. But “loss” in this context means pollution. Nitrous oxide emissions contribute to climate change, while nutrient runoff contaminates groundwater.

Precision agriculture offers improvements, yet inefficiencies remain. Emerging solutions such as nano-fertilizers, designed for targeted delivery and higher absorption, show promise. If nutrient uptake approaches near-total efficiency, fertilizer demand declines and emissions are reduced correspondingly. Technology must now be aligned with ecological outcomes.Science must lead climate resilience

India will be significantly affected by climate change if we persist with business-as-usual crop varieties. Yet, we are not without scientific foundations. For decades, institutions such as the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources and CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) research centres worldwide — including Bioversity International, now part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical- International Center for Tropical Agriculture) — have conserved extensive germplasm collections. Within these repositories lie genes that confer tolerance to heat, drought, flooding and other climate stresses.

If we have preserved this biodiversity, we must now deploy it. By incorporating stress-tolerant traits into new varieties — through conventional breeding, advanced genomic tools such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-based editing, and other modern technologies where appropriate — we can enhance resilience and nutrient-use efficiency. National programmes such as National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) provide a platform to support and accelerate such research. There is no reason for fear. Science offers solutions; what is required is direction.

Tackling post-harvest losses

Between harvest and consumption,up to about 35 per cent of produce can be lost. Preventing such losses is equivalent to increasing food availability by the same proportion, that is, without expanding cultivated land.

Earlier, limited access to energy constrained on-site storage and processing. Today, renewable energy changes that equation. Decentralised cold storage systems powered by solar energy, supported by financing mechanisms such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund, can operate at the village level. Refrigerated transport can reduce transit losses. Whatever we produce must be utilised efficiently.

Solar as a ‘second crop’

Questions are often raised about land availability for solar power. Yet, agriculture itself offers innovative solutions. Under initiatives such as PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evamUtthaanMahabhiyan), farmers are being supported to install solar pumps and grid-connected systems. The next frontier is agro-photovoltaics — installing solar panels at optimal heights and selecting suitable crop varieties so that there is no yield drag. Food production need not be compromised. Instead, solar energy can become a reliable secondary income stream. Crops may fail in adverse seasons; solar energy will not. Diversifying income in this manner can significantly reduce agrarian distress.

From food security to ecological security

The transition from food security to ecological security does not mean sacrificing productivity. It means producing intelligently - with efficient resource use, restored soils, resilient crops, reduced emissions and diversified farmer incomes. It calls for aligning subsidies with sustainability, reorienting research toward climate adaptation, strengthening circular bio-economies, and integrating renewable energy across the value chain. These transformations - in vision, voices and values — will be central to deliberations at the forthcoming Silver Jubilee Edition of TERI’s World Sustainable Development Summit. Agriculture, ecological security and climate resilience will be discussed alongside broader sustainability challenges spanning energy transitions, biodiversity conservation, and equitable development. Embedding ecological thinking at the heart of our development model and it is essential for securing both our food systems and our natural capital for generations to come.

Author is a Director General, TERI ; views are personal