For a country like ours, which experiences almost extreme weather conditions every year, resilience building must be given top priority
The agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and is a big challenge for the agrarian economy. Food-bowl Punjab and Haryana farmers’ fetish for unsustainable big cereal wheat this time has begun to hurt, as returns diminish due to climate challenges. The climate challenge farmers faced this time was erratic rainfall at the end of March, while crops were ready to harvest, likely to affect the yield significantly. In the case of Punjab, the initial deliberation by the agriculture department has indicated that at least 40 per cent of 35 lakh hectares of wheat sown is impacted by rain, winds, and hailstorms.
The serious challenges from climate change-induced impacts of erratic rainfall and the heat waves are not just a threat to our food security and nutrition as well as to the livelihood of 45 per cent of the country's population that depends on farming. It has an impact on their crop loan cycle to return on time to get fresh lending and to invest back into their farms.
Policymakers, agri-scientists and farmers must come together to confront the challenge of climate change. Various climate change policies are established at international, national and state levels to address the impacts of climate change. Traditionally, the focus of such policies remained on mitigation instead of adaptation measures. Adaptation actions are needed to respond to climate change as these actions help reduce vulnerabilities.
Overuse of resources like water, soil, fertilisers and pesticides to boost yield resulted in Green-House Gases Emissions (GHGs). Take the example of Punjab, after the implementation of the Food Security Act; the nation is again looking toward Punjab, but Punjab farmers need to conserve its soil and water management along with adopting diversification in agriculture.
Why are the funds dwindling?
However, the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC) seeks to build a dynamic knowledge system that would inform and support action for responding effectively to the objective of ecologically sustainable development making agriculture climate resilient.
The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) was established in 2015 to meet the cost of adaptation for the States but why are the funds dwindling to address this serious challenge? The grants released under NAFCC fell from `350 crore in 2015-16 to `27.76 crore in 2022-23, while the sub-committee of the Ministry of Finance estimates the cumulative expenditure for adapting to climate change at ` 85.60 lakh crore by 2030.
Research and development is the bedrock of climate resistance agriculture but the minuscule investments in R&D impede the ability of science and technology research to tackle multiple challenges. As per the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, around 85 per cent of their budget goes towards salaries and other administrative/establishment expenditures, with little left for research. The same is with state agriculture universities facing a financial crunch for R&D work. The total R&D expenditure in India as a percentage of agricultural GDP has been stagnant at 0.3 to 0.5 per cent in the last two decades. It is much lower than in the US (2.8 per cent), China (2.1 per cent), South Korea (4.3 per cent), and Israel (4.2 per cent).
For a country that experiences almost extreme weather every year, adaptation and resilience building must be a priority. India needs more granular risk analysis that can help target appropriate adaptation action locally while making new infrastructure climate resilient and strengthening early warning systems.
An analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water found the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events increasing by almost 200 per cent since 2005 and three out of four districts of India are facing extreme climate change. Experts’ analyst estimates show that climate change might reduce global agriculture productivity by 17 per cent by 2030. According to a study by the World Meteorological Organisation, India is estimated to have suffered an average annual loss of more than `6 lakh crore from climate-induced changes.
The way forward:
To face these risks, adaptation is the key factor. Farmers should start promoting sustainable integrated agriculture practices that could enable them to lower their vulnerabilities by higher crop diversity from staples to high-value crops, fruit and vegetables. Integrated farming with the inclusion of dairy, poultry, beekeeping, fisheries and mushroom cultivation can give additional high-energy food without affecting the production of food grains. There are four sustainable ways farmers can produce more food.
First, Farmers need hand-holding in the early phases. Support them for knowledge exchange with skill-intensive practices. Second, support technology innovation and adaptation to minimise their vulnerability. Third, Instead of input-based subsidies for fertiliser and power, incentivising outcome-based support could encourage innovation. Four, and the most significant, is enhanced research and development for impact studies compared with conventional farming across agro-climatic zones.
(The writer is vice-chairman of Sonalika Group, and vice-chairman (Cabinet Minister rank) of Punjab Economic Policy and Planning Board)