Climate-Resilient Agriculture Imperative

Climate-resilient agriculture is rising as yield volatility, soil stress and water scarcity intensify, making resilience as crucial as productivity for India’s food security.

Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA) refers to farming systems that sustainably increase productivity, enhance adaptation to climate stress, reduce emissions and improve long-term food security using biotechnology, bio-inputs and digital tools.

Current Status of India’s Climate-Resilient Agriculture

NICRA Footprint: Since 2011, climate-resilient practices under NICRA have been demonstrated in 448 climate-resilient villages, covering drought, flood, heat and cyclone-prone regions.
Mission Backing: The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture targets rainfed areas (~60% of cultivated land) with a focus on soil health, water efficiency and integrated farming.
Bio-Input Market: India has emerged as a major bio-input hub, with biofertiliser and biopesticide markets growing at double-digit rates, reflecting early CRA adoption.
Digital Push: Over 1,000 Agritech Startups now offer AI advisories, precision irrigation and crop monitoring, though adoption remains uneven across regions.
Scientific Capacity: India has 700+ ICAR institutions and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, giving it one of the world’s largest public agricultural R&D networks.

Need for Climate-Smart Farming in India

Rainfed Exposure: About 51% of India’s net sown area is rainfed, yet it produces ~40% of national food output, making food supply highly climate-sensitive.
Yield Decline Risk: Climate projections indicate a 3–22% fall in rice yields by 2100, with worst-case losses exceeding 30% under high-emission scenarios.
Population Pressure: India supports ~18% of the global population on ~11% of global arable land, demanding productivity gains under stress.
Import Vulnerability: Climate shocks can raise cereal imports; E.g., food inflation crossed 10% in multiple months post-2023 extreme weather events.
Resource Stress: Agriculture consumes ~80% of India’s freshwater, while groundwater blocks in over 25% districts are already over-exploited (CGWA Report).

Challenges Faced

Smallholder Constraint: Over 85% of Indian farmers are small and marginal, limiting affordability and scale of CRA technologies.
Digital Divide: Only ~40% of rural households have reliable internet access, restricting digital advisories.
Soil Degradation: About 30% of India’s land is degraded, weakening the effectiveness of interventions.
Input Quality Gaps: Substandard biofertilizers erode farmer trust; E.g., inspections have found around 15–20% of biofertilizer samples failing to meet prescribed quality standards in recent years.

Way Forward

Climate Seeds: Fast-track climate-tolerant varieties to reduce yield shocks; E.g., ICAR-developed rice varieties Sahbhagi Dhan (drought-tolerant) and CR Dhan 801 / Swarna-Sub1 (flood-tolerant).
Bio-Input Quality: Enforce strict quality control and traceability for biofertilizers and biopesticides; E.g., strengthen testing with batch-wise QR verification, similar to India’s neem-coated urea monitoring.
Risk Finance: De-risk farmer adoption through insurance and transition support; E.g., expand PM Fasal Bima Yojana to explicitly cover heatwaves, floods and dry spells.
Policy Convergence: Create a unified national CRA roadmap under BioE3; E.g., State extension and biotech approvals on the model of China’s centrally coordinated climate-agriculture missions.

As the FAO reminds us, “Climate change is not a future threat, but a present reality.” Mainstreaming climate-resilient agriculture is thus essential to protect India’s farmers, stabilise food systems, and secure nutrition for future generations.

Reference: The Hindu

PMF IAS Pathfinder for Mains – Question 489

Q. The adoption of climate-resilient practices in India is constrained more by knowledge and extension gaps than by technology availability. Analyse the shortcomings of the existing extension system and suggest reforms for effective dissemination. (150 Words) (10 Marks)

Approach

Introduction: Write a brief introduction about climate-resilient agriculture.
Body: Write knowledge and extension gaps and shortcomings, and suggest reforms for effective dissemination.
Conclusion: Emphasis on an inclusive and efficient extension system to ensure India’s food security.