RBI flags concerns over climate change impact on India's farm outlook

Consistent with models of climate change, the number of dry days as well as days with extremely high levels of rainfall have increased in India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday flagged concerns about impact of climate change, in terms of volatile rainfall intensity, increase in extreme events and rising temperature, having implications for India's agriculture outlook.

As in many parts of the world, drastic changes in climatic conditions have also been observed in India and these include impact on onset and withdrawal dates of monsoon and the incidence of extreme events, the central bank said in its annual report.

Amid these challenges, it said, agri and allied sector provided a "silver lining" in 2019-20 fiscal on the back of record foodgrains and horticulture production,