U.N. Pushes Climate-Smart Agriculture in India
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is Expected to Make a Strong Pitch to World Political Leaders at the U.N. Climate Summit in New York to Accept New Emissions Targets and Their Timelines
Launching theGlobal Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture(CSA) represents yet another concerted attempt to meet the world's 60-percent higher food requirement over the next 35 years, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The Alliance will come not a day too soon. The latest Asian Development Bankreportsays that if no action is taken to prevent the earth heating up by two degree Celsius by 2030, South Asia - one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change and home to 1.5 billion people, a third of whom still live in poverty - will see its annual economy shrink by up to 1.8 percent every year by 2050 and up to 8.8 percent by 2100.
The CSA alliance aims to enable 500 million farmers worldwide to practice climate-smart agriculture, thereby increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, strengthening the resilience of food systems and farmers' livelihoods and curbing the emission of greenhouse gases related to agriculture.
India, home to one of the largest populations of food insecure people in the world, recognises the impending challenge, and the need to adapt. The national budget of July 2014 set up the farmers' ‘National Adaptation Fund', worth 16.5 million dollars.
Given that 49 percent of India's total farmland is irrigated, experts fear the ripple of effects of climate change on the vast, hungry rural population.
Spurred on by organisations and government incentives to switch to a different mode of agriculture, some rural communities are already inventing a workable mix of traditional and modern farming methods, including reviving local seeds, multi-cropping and smart water usage.
Various agriculture research organisations have also been urging farmer communities to move into CSA.
CSA: Embraced by some, shunned by others
In Taraori village in the Karnal district of India's northern Haryana state, 42-year-old Manoj Kumar Munjal, farming 20 hectares, is a convert to climate-smart techniques. And he has good reason.
Scientists project that average temperatures in this northern belt are expected to increase by as much as five degrees Celsius by 2080.
The main crops in Haryana are wheat, rice and maize, with many farmers also dedicated to dairy and vegetables. Of these, wheat is particularly vulnerable to heat stress at critical stages of its growth.
A recent study projectsthat climate change could reduce wheat yields in India by between six and 23 percent by 2050, and between 15 and 25 percent by 2080.
Haryana has beenslidingin food grain production and ranked 6thamong Indian states in 2012-13. This bodes badly for the entire country's food security, as Haryana's wheat comprises a major part of India's Public Distribution System (PDS), which allocates highly subsidised grain to the poor.
Some 25 million people live in the state of Haryana alone. Of the 16.5 million who dwell in rural areas, 11.64 percent live below the poverty line.
Munjal, a university graduate, had to take over the farm with his brother when his father suffered a paralytic stroke, but has since changed the way his father grew crops.
Farming the climate-smart way, Munjal's crop mix includes four acres of maize that need only a fifth of the water that rice consumes.
He opts for direct seeding instead of sapling transplantation, which involves high labour costs and a week of standing water to survive, in addition to being vulnerable to floods and strong winds due to a weak root system.
Munjal's new methods, moreover, give shorter-cycle harvests and vegetables are grown as a third annual crop, translating into higher income for the farmer.
Trained byCGIAR's Research Programme on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and theInternational Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre(CIMMYT), Munjal also uses technology like the laser land leveler, which produces exceptionally flat farmland, and thus ensures equitable distribution and lower consumption of water.
Other tools like theLeaf Colour ChartandGreenSeekerhelp Munjal assess the exact fertiliser needs of his crops. Text and voice messages received on his mobile phone about weather forecasts help him to time sowing and irrigation to perfection.
Around 10,000 farmers have adopted climate smart practices in 27 villages in Karnal, according to M L Jat, a cropping systems agronomist with CIMMYT.
They, however, account for a low 20-40 percent of total farmers here.
Read More Related Content On This Topic - Click Here
Media
Taxonomy
- Agriculture
- Climate Change Adaptation