Date: 22/10/2022

Relevance: GS-3:Climate Change, Agriculture Cropping Pattern and issues related to it.

Key Phrases: Climate Change, Rabi and Kharif crops, Heatwave, Price Inflation, Hailstorm, Drought, Lumpy Skin Virus, Climate Adaptation, ICAR, PM Crop Insurance Scheme, Patent-free Climate Resilient Seeds, Multi-cropping and Inter-cropping.

Context:

• According to the Climate Transparency Report 2022, Between 2016–2021, extreme events such as cyclones, flash floods, and landslides caused damage to crops in over 36 million hectares, a $3.75 billion loss for farmers in India.

Key Highlights:

• Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) assessment showed that the decade spanning 2010–2019 was the most turbulent for disasters.
• The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2022 highlights the intensification of the major drivers of food insecurity:
  • conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities
• Heat exposure in the country led to the loss of 167 billion potential labor hours.
• In India, local precipitation is projected to increase by 6 percent from the reference period of 1986-2006 at 1.5°C of warming.

Major Climatic Events:

• Heat Wave:
  • The abnormal increase in maximum and minimum temperatures during 2022 impacted crops, fruits, vegetables, and animals.
  • For example, North India was hit with heatwaves, hitting wheat harvest across Punjab, Haryana, and UP.
• Excessive Rain:
  • Heavy rainfall in India has damaged key summer-sown crops such as rice, soybean, cotton, pulses, and vegetables just before harvesting.
  • For example, farmers in Meghalaya have been hit by untimely and excessive rains damaging ginger to forest edibles.
• Drought:
  • India was identified as one of the most severely drought-affected countries in the assessment.
  • Drought affected nearly two-thirds of the country from 2020 to 2022.
  • As per sources, India's drought-prone area has increased by 57% since 1997.
• Cyclone:
  • Heavy rains, brought by a cyclone, damage crops, and vegetables just before harvesting in key growing regions.
  • For example, Cyclone Tauktae was the strongest storm to hit the west coast of India in over 20 years which damaged the crops before harvesting.

Effects of Climate Change:

• Changing weather patterns are creating significant challenges for farmers across the country. Some of them are given below-
  • Loss of crop Production:
    • Crop production is projected to decrease in many areas during the 21st century because of climatic changes.
    • Higher temperatures tend to reduce crop yields and favor weed and pest proliferation.
    • Climate change can have negative effects on irrigated crop yields across agroecological regions both due to temperature rise and changes in water availability.
  • Price Inflation:
    • Climate change is altering weather patterns, directly impacting 55 percent of the country’s inflation basket.
    • For example, a heatwave in March played havoc with the wheat crop.
      • Despite a ban on exports, wheat prices have risen 19 percent.

Way Forward:

• Short Term Measures:
  • Expand PM Kisan Insurance Scheme to include climate damage.
  • Insurance companies should compensate for crop value.
  • Steadfast mechanism to report directly to insurance companies.
  • Third-party audit to verify farmer’s claims.
• Long-Term Measures:
  • Abandon the green revolution paradigm
    • It will ensure climate adaptation and nutrition security.
  • Research and Development on climate resilient agriculture.
    • More funds need to be allocated for R&D purposes.
  • Increase Private sector participation.
    • Govt must encourage private sector participation in seed division.
    • Indian companies should be invited to expedite R&D on climate resilience.
  • Development and identification of climate-resilient seeds.
    • It should be used for vulnerable areas and emergency situations.
  • Encourage multi-culture and inter-cropping.
    • Monoculture practices should be discouraged.
  • Promotion of Organic farming.
    • It will cut down the bills of subsidy and ensure nutrition security.
    • More funds should be given to improve organic farming and organic produce markets.
  • Natural methods to mitigate climate change should be promoted.
  • Govt should incentive the growing of agro-climatic zone-specific crops.
  • Development of Patent-free climate seeds & technologies.

Conclusion:

• Ecologically sound agriculture policy towards climate adaptation is the need of the hour to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on agriculture.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. What are the issues faced by agriculture due to bad weather? Suggest the measures that can be taken to reorient the ecologically unsound agriculture policy. (200 Words).