Searching for New-Age Solutions

Agriculture and allied sectors are not untouched by the adverse effects of climate change, and require urgent adaptation measures through sustainable practices, use of AI and other technologies to preserve productivity, protect livelihoods, and ensure global food security

- Krishna Gupta

In the preceding articles, we have been discussing mitigation issues: i.e., those initiatives that will require us to reduce and phase out emissions. However, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and their emission is still rising. As a result of this, we are experiencing global warming, which in turn is leading to erratic weather and extreme weather events. While the effect of these changes is felt in all countries, the maximum impact is felt by low-income countries and island countries.

Even within these countries, the poor are the most affected because of their limited resources to adapt to the changes. In particular, the whole ecosystem of the poor gets affected, including their worsened working and living conditions on account of extreme heat, impact on agriculture because of erratic monsoons, the adverse effect on soils and the impact on animal husbandry. In the coming articles, we will discuss various issues related to Adaptation. Recall that developing countries have been pushing for giving equal importance to Adaptation measures in the various Conference of Parties (COPs).

Agriculture: Impact of Climate Change