Although, Green Revolution had transformed India from a foodgrain-deficit country into a food-surplus country, it caused many environmental challenges.
These environmental challenges include soil infertility due to intense use of chemical fertilizers, pollution of ground and surface water.
Indian agriculture, already grappling with these challenges, is also starting to get affected by climate change and global warming.
Critical Challenges
- A significant increase in temperature, extreme weather events such as frequent heat waves, droughts, floods etc, have brought a new dimension to the existing problems being faced by Indian agriculture.
- Indian agriculture is facing the twin challenges of flood and drought. Due to climate change, flood and drought, both, have become more frequent than ever.
- Most of India’s farmland is still rainfed (one estimate puts it at 23% of the total agricultural land in India). This makes Indian agriculture highly vulnerable to drought.
- Frequent flooding in the eastern part, frost in the north-west, heat waves in central and northern parts and cyclones in the eastern coast, cause irreparable damage to crops and livestocks.
- Climate change can adversely affect crops, soil fertility, livestocks etc.
- India is likely to face more extreme weather events in coming years. There will be more droughts, floods and cyclones, Heat waves will also become more intense and frequent.
- One study suggests that the number of extreme climatic events increased three times between 1950 and 2015.
- Rise in temperature and CO2 level will affect different crops differently.
- Some crops such as wheat and rice will benefit from an increase in ambient CO2.
- Higher levels of CO2 will increase the yields of wheat and crops, however, extreme events such as heat waves and drought will offset any gains.
- Availability of water, quality of water will cause yield loss in many parts of India.
- Since rice is a water-intensive crop, its production is projected to decline significantly due to frequent drought and depleting levels of groundwater.
- Coarse grains and pulses are shorter duration crops. These crops are also water-stress tolerant. Hence, these crops are least likely to be affected by extreme climatic events.
- Organic matter content will further deplete in Indian soil due to climate change. Since crop residues will have a higher C:N ratio, they will decompose very slowly and they will also supply a reduced amount of nutrition back to the soil.
- Conventional agriculture will be difficult to practice in the coastal areas, as rice in sea level may cause salt-water ingression.
- Higher sea and river water temperature will cause damage to fish breeding. It will also affect migration of fishes and their harvest.
- Frequent cyclones and increased sea temperature will lead to reduction in marine fish production.
- India’s low-lying coastal areas are densely populated. Agricultural lands are also intensively cultivated in these areas. These areas will witness land erosion, salinization, and sea flooding. Sea water will also mix with fresh water. All these climatic events will affect agriculture and fisheries.
- Change in rainfall volume, patterns and frequency will hasten the process of soil erosion.