Budget might increase funds to fight climate change impact on farming

With agriculture in the country facing numerous challenges because of uncertain weather, the Centre is expected to increase allocation to fight climate change in the Budget for 2017-18. The allotted funds could increase to about Rs 900 crore — nearly 45 per cent more than current allocation.

Senior officials said the allocation could be under various heads, spread across all three wings of the Ministry of Agriculture: Department of Agriculture, Indian Council of Agriculture Research and the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. The increased allocation could be directed towards research and development of new seeds and practices and increase of soil fertility initiatives.

Agriculture contributes around 17.6 per cent of the total green house gas (GHGs) emitted in the country. Of this, 18 per cent comes from paddy cultivation, 23 per cent from soil management, and the most — 56 per cent — from livestock.

Though traditionally, enteric fermentation in livestock is among the biggest contributors of GHG emissions, crop residue burning has also over the years become a major issue.

The government, along with ICAR, runs various schemes and programmes to minimise the impact of climate change on agriculture. This includes National Initiatives on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), a national agro-forestry policy, a ration balancing programme to check enteric fermentation in livestock, a national policy on managing crop residues, and others.

Studies by ICAR and other institutes on the long-term impact of climate change on agriculture show that per-hectare productivity of rice in the country might go down by 4-10 per cent in irrigated areas and 2.5-6 per cent in rain-fed areas between 2020 and 2080. 

Similarly, wheat yields might drop by 6-23 per cent by 2050 and 15-25 per cent by 2080 because of the adverse impact of climate change. 

Mustard productivity might fall by 60 per cent, potato by 12 per cent and maize yield might fall by 18 per cent by 2050. 

Adverse climatic conditions could also pull down milk yield by 1.8 million tonnes per year by 2020. The maximum impact would be on the livestock population of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal, an ICAR study has showed.