New paradigm for transforming Indian agriculture to climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture is a must

Abstract

Indian agriculture is the backbone of India’s food, nutrition, and income security as well as sustainable growth. Indian agriculture is unique with 20 agro-eco regions, and 80 agro-eco sub-regions growing more than 100 crops in 1000,000 villages by 145 million farm-holders. India moved from ship to mouth situation in the late 1960s to food self-sufficiency and has become Atmanirbhar and an exporter of food by producing 316.06 million tonnes in 2020-2021. However, rural India needs urgent attention as there is a great divide between the urban and rural family incomes, and the primary sector’s contribution to national GDP is hovering around 17-18% although the Indian economy is largely agrarian with 950 million rural population driving the economy. However, there is a large untapped potential in Indian agriculture to become the growth engine for the sustainable development of India as large yield gaps are existing. However, the challenges of growing water scarcity, increasing land degradation, growing population, urbanization, and most importantly impacts of climate change. Due to climate change with increasing temperatures, aridity is increasing in the country, and rainfall variability with a reduced number of rainy days and increasing intensity in different parts is a major concern. There is an urgent need to develop and adopt large-scale climate resilient management practices at a local level through empowering the small farm-holders with strengthened science of delivery using new science tools such as remote sensing (RS), global information system (GIS), internet of things (IoT), information technology (IT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), etc. Business as usual will not work and a new paradigm through building partnerships, enhancing collective action, market-led agro-eco region-based diversification and scaling-up through the empowerment of small farm-holders using new science tools is proposed. The government of India’s action plan with 11 national missions is in place and all stakeholders need to contribute by enabling policies and sincere implementation for building resilience against the impacts of climate change.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation in Indian agriculture

“…Indian agriculture faces challenges like farming not being profitable, reliance on rain-fed systems (55% of agriculture), and the impacts of climate variability and change (Wani, 2023). Addressing agriculture's vulnerability to climate change requires a multifaceted approach, including developing climate-resilient crop varieties, adopting sustainable farming practices, improving water management strategies, enhancing early warning systems, and promoting diversification of agricultural systems.…”

“…Despite being a major food producer, India faces issues like profitability, rain dependence, and climate change. Sustainable agriculture is threatened by factors like water scarcity, land degradation, and population growth (Wani, 2023).…”