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Climate Change – Grassroots and Policy Action needed

The world, including India, is already facing the consequences of global warming. Consider this: India has been
ranked as the sixth most climate change-vulnerable country in the world in terms of facing extreme weather
events (GermanWatch Climate Risk Index 2018). Impacts of global warming are far greater than what was
anticipated and estimated earlier. There is a huge gap between current global efforts Vs the actual actions
required to stop global warming. IPCC’s special report 2018 illustrates this well.
 
More than half of India’s population lives in rural areas and depends on climate-sensitive sectors like
agriculture, fisheries and forestry for their livelihoods. Climate change could reduce annual agricultural incomes
in India in the range of 15–18 per cent on an average, and up to 20–25 per cent for un-irrigated areas in India by
the end of century (Economic survey of India, 2018). Climate Change is not ignorable anymore, especially for
the agriculture sector. This is mainly due to two reasons.

1. On a global scale it is shifting temperatures, rainfall patterns, and even creating extreme climate events. It is
also changing some critical factors that have influence on farming, such as carbon dioxide levels and ozone
concentration. These are in turn causing increased incidence of climate change at a large scale and localised
sporadic disasters such as intensive rains, floods, drought, cloud bursts etc. All these are also causing
unexpected changes in soil quality, crop growth, pest and disease, and even nutritional quality of the produce,
making farm management a huge challenge and farming a highly risky affair for farmers. At the scale of nations
and globally this could have serious impact on food security, on delivering nutrition to the poor and needy, and
to even industrial growth that is intricately linked to agriculture and rural well-being.

2. Agriculture, as practised now, also contributes to climate change due to massive emissions of greenhouse
gases. The contribution on one side is through the very act of converting forests into agriculture land and by
land use changes, but the chemicals-based agriculture, dependent heavily on the use and release of
petrochemicals contributes significantly to climate change. This intensive industrial model is also highly
mechanised thus further adding to the impact. Eventually all this is measured to be at least 1/3rd of the total
contribution of all sources to Greenhouse gases.

The critical point here is that Climate Change is a disaster in itself as far as the farmers and the farm sector is
concerned, and that they are also in a sense contributing to the cause of climate change by following a
conventional and industrially driven agriculture system. Any solutions proposed should ideally combine
mitigation and adaptation, presenting a win-win situation. In a sense, there is an opportunity to convert the
climate change challenge into a trigger that is truly transformative for our farmers, in
economic/social/environmental terms. In the name of adaptation, we cannot have more problems being
created, in the form of hazardous technologies like transgenics. False solutions should not be promoted in the
name of climate change.

Existing State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs) of most Indian states fail to address key agrarian
concerns related to climate change. In fact, agriculture projects currently being funded under National
Adaptation Fund on Climate Change etc in India does not adopt holistic approach, fail to address climate
concerns and can further add to climate crisis. Existing policy, programs and institutional mechanism in India to
deal with loss and damage to agriculture sector is not in a good shape and has failed to address the concerns of
farming community. 

What is the possible way out of such a situation?

This is a Discussion Note prepared by Sridhar Radhakrishnan for the 4th Kisan Swaraj
Sammelan, Ahmedabad (Nov.2-4, 2018), with inputs from Vineet Kumar. In case of queries, you
may write to mail.thanal@gmail.com
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1. Adopt methods in farming that will reduce and in a phased manner eliminate the dependence on GHG-
emitting compounds in agriculture, such as chemical fertilisers and pesticides and reducing dependence on
fossil-fuel run machinery. This actually means adopting a farming system that is sensitive to the specific agro-
ecology of the region and adopting methods that are best suited to that particular zone.

2. Adopt methods of farming that can be resilient to climate change, which farmers can easily adopt and are
also cost effective and accessible. This would mean location specific farmer level development of such practices
that will incorporate an ecosystems approach into agriculture – in short adopting an agro-ecological system of
farming. This will mean making such changes from present conventional systems in the land use, knowledge
systems, agronomic practices and most importantly, seed varieties that have evolved over time in the specific
locality. Diversity would be the key to such resilience. Such diversity is both in terms of on-farm diversity, but
also a diversity of livelihoods in an integrated farming systems approach adopted by all farm households.

There are various definitions that are used to understand agro-ecology, which now emerges as one of the best
possible approach for Climate Resilient Agriculture. As per FAO, agro-ecology is based on applying ecological
concepts and principles to optimize interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while
taking into consideration the social aspects that need to be addressed for a sustainable and fair food system. By
building synergies, agro-ecology can support food production and food security and nutrition while restoring
the ecosystem services and biodiversity that are essential for sustainable agriculture. Agro-ecology can play an
important role in building resilience, mitigating the possible reasons for climate change and even for adapting
to climate change. A very simple definition of Agro-Ecology is: “the Science of Agro-ecology is defined as the
application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agro-
ecosystems”.

FAO has further deliberated on this and proposes Agro-ecology as the way forward to build sustainability into
food and agricultural systems, mainstream the same on a large scale, and to achieve Zero Hunger and multiple
other SDGs. It has 10 Elements that emanated from the FAO regional seminars on agroecology, which are very
good principles, analytical tools as well as objectives that could help countries and farming societies /
organisations to build policies that will drive a sustainable and climate resilient agriculture and food system.

These 10 Elements are interlinked and interdependent and a good guide for policymakers, practitioners and
stakeholders in planning, managing and evaluating agro-ecological transitions. These are:
 Diversity,
 Co-Creation and Sharing Of Knowledge,
 Synergies,
 Efficiency,
 Recycling,
 Resilience,
 Human and Social Values,
 Culture and Food Traditions,
 Responsible Governance,
 Circular and Solidarity Economy.

All these terms are self-explanatory. Critical to our discussion here is the matter of building Climate Resilience.

Farmers and Organisations, as much as Governments, now need to discuss how we can phase in an agro-
ecological approach in building our agriculture policy with an intention to Climate Resilience. This should
include time tested principles of diversity-based farming and diversification of livelihoods options.
This is a Discussion Note prepared by Sridhar Radhakrishnan for the 4th Kisan Swaraj
Sammelan, Ahmedabad (Nov.2-4, 2018), with inputs from Vineet Kumar. In case of queries, you
may write to mail.thanal@gmail.com
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An immediate need is seen for documenting thoroughly all those practice-related (technical/technological) as
well as institutional solutions that have created “climate resilience” to carefully cull out the key elements that
need to be scaled up and replicated by governments.

Apart from governments, this is also the right time for all farmer unions, farmers’ collective, NGOs, donor
agencies and industry bodies to re-visit their own interventions and re-align them to increased climate
resilience. Linkages with urban consumers, to strengthen local market linkages, for a win-win for farmers and
consumers, become an important driving force here. Strengthening community controlled seed and grain banks
and integration of extensive livestock systems into farming might be the key, going forward.

While the transitions do take place, there are immediate concerns on climate change that also need to be
addressed, other than preventive action. This is regarding the present scenario where climate impacts are on
the increase, and there seems to be no institutionalised, responsible and responsive system in place from
governments. Here, the discussions should consider Risk and Disaster Insurance as well as adequate
compensation mechanisms, which will not only cover losses, but also would have enough support, including
financial, infrastructure and other inputs for re-starting farming in such impacted areas. This means a massive
re-haul of India’s crop insurance mechanisms as well as disaster relief mechanisms. The example of Kerala’s
floods recently illustrates amply that there are no adequate and appropriate mechanisms with governments to
address such disasters.

It is time that innovative ideas and frameworks for risk mitigation and insurance schemes are debated and put
into place.

This is a Discussion Note prepared by Sridhar Radhakrishnan for the 4th Kisan Swaraj
Sammelan, Ahmedabad (Nov.2-4, 2018), with inputs from Vineet Kumar. In case of queries, you
may write to mail.thanal@gmail.com