Gist of Editorials: Farming in a Warming World (The Hindu) | GS – III

Relevance : GS Paper III (Ecology and Environment)

[850 words reduced to 150]


  • The world has become 1°C warmer because of human activities.
  • Indian agriculture amid increasing warming
    • high monsoon dependence and 85% small and marginal landholdings make it highly sensitive
    • less than normal rainfall during the last four years
    • 2014 and 2015 were drought years
    • escalation in heat waves is affecting crops, aquatic systems and livestock.
    • farm income losses could rise to 20%-25% for unirrigated areas
  • Steps needed to build climate resilient agriculture
    • reshaping both the micro- and macro-level decision-making.
    • Corroborating traditional wisdom with climate assessments
    • promoting climate resilient technologies
    • practices such as inter cropping , crop-rotation; shift to non-farm activities; insurance covers
    • educating farmers by reorienting Krishi Vigyan Kendras and other grass-root organisations
    • mainstreaming climate adaptations in the developmental framework
    • improving irrigation efficiency, satellite-enabled agriculture risk management, providing customised real time data, etc.
    • interventions such as the PMKSY, PMFBY, Soil Health Card, PKVY, e-NAM
    • greater expertise and consultations
  • Efforts to make agriculture climate-resilient must be scaled up and consolidated.

 

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