AgroSpectrum - AgroSpectrum India April 2024

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Doubling Down on Climate-Smart Agriculture Indian agriculture being a gamble of monsoons, crop yields continue to be climate sensitive and the fluctuations in temperature and rainfall pattern adversely affect crops productivity, thus threatening food security in India. In India, climate change has triggered an increase in temperatures by 0.6 °C to 25.1 °C between 1901 and 2018, causing shifts in monsoon patterns. According to government reports, productivity of most crops is likely to decrease 10-40 per cent by 2100 due to increases in temperature, rainfall variability, and decreases in irrigation water. The major impacts of climate change will be on rain fed or un-irrigated crops, which are cultivated in nearly 60 per cent of cropland. A temperature rise by 0.5°C in winter is projected to reduce rain fed wheat yield by 0.45 tonnes per hectare in India. Government of India's economic survey (2018) estimated that the annual loss of $ 9-10 billion was due to the adverse effects of climate change. To overcome this, the Government of India highlighted the significance of a multi-stakeholder approach in addressing climate challenges and took up climate smart agriculture measures since 2011 to support the small and marginal farmers, who constitute 85 per cent of the farming population.