The Need For Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Description

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Context

Unfavorable, unreliable weather hurt agriculture, is in turn pushing food prices out of reach across the world.

Concern

At 14.23 per cent, India’s wholesale inflation rate in November 2021 was the highest in three decades.
Wholesale price index (WPI) inflation is always a cause of concern as it can raise retail inflation.
Prices of seasonal vegetables jumped unprecedentedly in many states. And this was due to extreme weather events; and this trend is not limited to India.
Extreme weather events had damaged crops, leading to a collapse of the supply of vegetables at a time of the year when they usually flood the markets.

Findings

Oxfam Report

Oxfam simulated the impact of adverse climatic conditions on food price.
Its estimates in 2012 show the average world market export price for wheat would rise by 120 per cent by 2030 compared with 2010; the figures for processed rice is 107 per cent and for maize is 177 per cent.
The fact is by changing the rain and its distribution, climate change is altering the very axis of agriculture.

International Coffee Organization

According to the forecast of the International Coffee Organization, the climatic onslaught on the world’s top coffee producer would lead to price rise for the next two years.

FAO report

‘Unpredictable’ and ‘unfavorable weather’ have caused ‘reduced harvest expectations’, ‘weather-stricken harvests’ and ‘production decrease’.

RBI

Between 1956 and 2010, there were nine double-digit inflation episodes. Of these, seven were caused by drought conditions, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
In the past six decades, there have been three major episodes of significantly high food prices globally: 1970s, 2007-08 and 2010-14.
All these were triggered by weather shocks followed by factors such as increase in oil prices, trade policy interventions and biofuel consumption. The current episode seems to be entirely driven by weather anomalies.

Climate-resilient agriculture

Climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) is an approach that includes sustainably using existing natural resources through crop and livestock production systems to achieve long-term higher productivity and farm incomes under climate variabilities.
This practice reduces hunger and poverty in the face of climate change for forthcoming generations.
Improved access and utilization of technology like Gene Editing, transparent trade regimes, increased use of resources conservation technologies, an increased adaptation of crops and livestock to climatic stress are the pre-requisites.
Most countries have been facing crises due to disasters and conflicts; food security, however, is adversely affected by inadequate food stocks, basic food price fluctuations, high demand for agro-fuels, and abrupt weather changes.

Strategies and technologies for climate change adaptation

Gene Editing

Gene editing is a method to generate DNA modifications at precise genomic locations.
These modifications can result in knockout or knockdown of one or undesirable multiple genes.
This could have a very significant impact in reducing antimicrobial and antiparasitic drug usage and help overcome the challenges of resistance to chemical treatment, as well as the problem of environmental contamination with drug residues.

Tolerant crops

Patterns of drought may need various sets of adaptive forms.
Example: To reach deficient downpour conditions, early maturing and drought-tolerant cultivars of green gram (BM 2002-1), chickpea and pigeon pea (BDN-708) were brought on selected farmer’s fields in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra (rainfall of 645 millimetres).
This provided 20-25 per cent higher yield than the indigenous cultivars.

Water management

Water-smart technologies like a furrow-irrigated raised bed, micro-irrigation, rainwater harvesting structure, cover-crop method, greenhouse, laser land levelling, reuse wastewater, deficit irrigation and drainage management can support farmers to decrease the effect of variations of climate.
Various technologies based on a precision estimation of crop water needs; groundwater recharge techniques; adoption of scientific water conservation methods; altering the fertilizer and irrigation schedules; cultivating less water requiring varieties; adjusting the planting dates; irrigation scheduling; and adopting zero-tillage which may help farmers to reach satisfactory crop yields, even in deficit rainfall and warmer years.

Agro-advisory

Response farming is an integrative approach; it could be called farming with advisories taken from the technocrats depending on local weather information.
The success of response farming, viz., decreased danger and enhanced productivity has already been taken in Tamil Nadu and many other states.
Response farming can be a viable choice for climate change adoption strategies, for the variations of climate is not a sudden one.
The main cause for the success of response farming is because of both location and time-specific technologies.
It is time to take forward the success of response farming to the entire farming community.

Soil organic carbon

Different farm management practices can increase soil carbon stocks and stimulate soil functional stability.
Conservation agriculture technologies (reduced tillage, crop rotations, and cover crops), soil conservation practices (contour farming) and nutrient recharge strategies can refill soil organic matter by giving a protective soil cover.
Integrated nutrient management deals with the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers, in addition to farmyard manure, vermicompost, legumes in rotation, and crop residue for sustaining soil health for the long term.
Feeding the soil instead of adding fertilizers to the crop without organic inputs is the key point for the long-term sustainability of Indian agriculture.

National Programmes for Climate Change Adaptation

The National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture was implemented in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) to promote the judicious management of available resources and this was one of the eight missions under NAPCC.
The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) was launched in 2015 to address the issues of water resources and provide a permanent solution that envisages Per Drop More Crop, by promoting micro / drip irrigation for the conservation of maximum water.
The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana mission was executed to extensively leverage adaptation of climate-smart practices and technologies in conjunction with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and state governments of India.
To mitigate climate extreme actions, Green India Mission was launched by the GOI in 2014 under the umbrella of NAPCC with the primary objective of protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s diminishing forest covers, thereby reducing the deleterious effects of climate change.
To protect the soil health, GOI has launched the Soil Health Card scheme with the main objective of analysing cluster soil samples and advocating farmers regarding their land fertility status. Additionally, Neem-Coated Urea was also introduced to minimise the excess addition of urea fertilizers, thereby protecting soil health and supplying plant nitrogen.
To encourage farmers with more income benefit and ecosystem protection, programmes such as the National Project on Organic Farming and National Agroforestry Policy was introduced in 2004 and 2014 respectively.
These policies are aimed at supplying plant nutrients in the form of organic amendments, soil carbon stock improvement, and soil protection from erosion loss.

Role Models

Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, etc, have already initiated several programmes to adopt and promote organic farming practices on a wider scale. Sikkim is an organic state.
The ICAR, through its network research Institutes, state agriculture universities and all line departments is implementing agriculture contingency plans in about 650 districts of India towards climate change preparedness for the last seven years.
These models are taken forward to SAARC countries towards adaptation to climate change impacts like floods, cyclones, droughts, and heat waves and seawater intrusion.
ICAR has established climate-resilient villages across India in 151 districts, which are replicated by the state governments towards the overall objective of building carbon positive villages.

Way ahead

In a nutshell, following steps are crucial to build climate resilient agriculture systems and achieve sustainable development goals (SDG) in India:

Adaptation of appropriate mitigation technologies such as the cultivation of tolerant breeds to overcome the climate stress
Water and nutrient management for efficient productivity and resource utilisation
Agro-advisories for timely crop monitoring
Conservation agricultural practices to build soil organic carbon and to build congenial environment for plant growth, manure management
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from all agriculture and non-agricultural sources has to be prioritised. The introduction of neem-coated urea is one such policy intervention
Structured training is essential to build confidence in stakeholders and sensitise them to understand the climate change events
Fine tuning the gap between current management practices and essential agro-advisories
Flagship farmer-oriented programmes are needed to improvise skills in agriculture and allied sectors
Collaboration between farmers, research institutions, funding agencies, governments, and non-government organisations and private sectors combine strengths to promote CRA.