Agriculture and Changing Climate

Climate change has created challenges for the agricultural sector – and will continue to do so.

Climate change-induced increases in temperatures, rainfall variation and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are adding to pressures on global agricultural and food systems.

IPCC Report

The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC was recently approved by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report focuses on keeping warming to under 1.5°C as compared to pre-industrial times.
The world has already warmed 1°C since pre-industrial times.
Hence, limiting warming to 0.5°C from now means the world can keep the ecosystems much as it is now.
Adding another 0.5°C on top of that essentially means a different and more challenging Earth for people and species.

Action-Plan to tackle Adverse Impact of Global Warming on Food Crops:

Global Warming associated with the increase in concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere is one of the reasons for the increase in extreme weather events.
Due to global warming agriculture sector is likely to be affected and climate change is expected to impact yields of agriculture crops in a business as usual scenario.
Simulation studies using integrated modelling framework showed that rainfed rice yields in India are projected to reduce marginally (<2.5%) in 2050 and 2080 scenarios while irrigated rice yields are projected to reduce by 7% in 2050 and 10% in 2080 scenarios
Climate change is projected to reduce wheat yield by 6-25% towards the end of the century with significant spatio-temporal variations.
Climate change in 2050 and 2080 scenarios is projected to reduce the kharif maize yields by 18 to 23%.
Kharif groundnut yields are projected to be increased by 4-7% in 2050 scenarios where as in 2080 scenario the yield is likely to decline by 5%. Future climates are likely to benefit chickpea with increase in productivity (23-54%).
Kharif groundnut yields are projected to be increased by 4-7% in 2050 scenarios where as in 2080 scenario the yield is likely to decline by 5%. Future climates are likely to benefit chickpea with increase in productivity (23-54%).
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) one of the missions under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate.

National Food Security Mission (NFSM) programme is implemented in the identified districts across the country with the objective of increasing foodgrain production through area expansion and productivity enhancement, restoring soil fertility and productivity at individual farm level and enhancing farm level economy.
ICAR has launched a flagship network project National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA).
The NICRA aims at strategic research on adaptation and mitigation, demonstration of technologies on farmers’ fields and creating awareness among farmers and other stakeholders to minimize the impacts of global warming on agriculture.
Under this project, large number of indigenous genetic resources and improved crop varieties of pulses (black gram, green gram, pigeonpea, chickpea) and cereals (rice and wheat) are screened for major abiotic stresses like drought and heat to identify superior cultivars for large scale adoption in farmer’s fields genetic materials for cultivation at farmers field.
In the process number of genetic materials including improved varieties were identified, some of which are already in the farmer’s fields.
Besides, location specific NRM technologies are being demonstrated under Technology Demonstration Component of NICRA in 151 climatically vulnerable districts to achieve climate resilient agriculture.

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National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA):

i) Area under organic farming, ii) Production of Bio-fertilizers,

iii) Precision Irrigation,

iv) SRI/ Direct Seeded Rice from Transplantation,
v) Crop diversification,
vi) Additional Area under plantation in Arable land,

vii) Climate Resilient Varieties (CRV) Identified/ Released,

viii a) Identification of genotypes of crops with enhanced CO2 fixation potential and less water consumption & Nutrients,

viii b) Climate Resilient genotypes with greater adaptation to drought, flood, salinity and high temperature,

ix) Coverage of milch animals under ration balancing programme and
x) Establishment of bypass protein feed making unit.

Climate change challenges:

Negatively affect both crop and livestock production systems in most regions
Resource problems
Water scarcity
Pollution
Soil degradation

Important developments are:

India celebrated 2018 as the national year of millets. Moreover, India’s proposal to observe an International Year of Millets in 2023 has been approved by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
ICRISAT which conducts research on six highly nutritious drought-tolerant crops, recently discovered important factors for heat and drought tolerance in chickpea.