Paper: GS – III, Subject: Environment and Ecology, Topic: Sustainable Agriculture, Issue: Climate-Resilient Agriculture.
Context:
India urgently needs a coherent national roadmap for Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA) as climate change intensifies risks to farm productivity through erratic rainfall, soil degradation, water stress, and rising
Key Takeaways:
Why is Climate-Resilient Agriculture Necessary?
- 51% of India’s net sown area is rainfed, producing nearly 40% of foodgrains, making agriculture highly vulnerable to climate shocks.
- Increasing frequency of droughts, floods, heatwaves, and unseasonal rainfall threatens food security and farmer incomes.
- Conventional input-intensive farming struggles to cope with climate variability and environmental stress.
What is Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA)?
- Biotechnology: biofertilizers, biopesticides, genome-edited and climate-tolerant crops
- Soil health management and residue incorporation
- Water-use efficiency and precision irrigation
- AI-driven and digital tools for advisories, forecasting, and decision-making
Objective: Enhance productivity while reducing dependence on chemical inputs and protecting ecosystems.
Where Does India Stand Today?
- ICAR’s National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project launched in 2011.
- Demonstrated success in 448 climate-resilient villages, including:
- Climate-tolerant crop varieties
- Zero-till wheat, direct-seeded rice
- Water-saving agronomic practices
- BioE3 Policy positions CRA as a key biotechnology-led growth area.
India’s Climate-Resilient Agriculture Initiatives:
Key Challenges:
- Low adoption among small and marginal farmers due to:
- Limited awareness and affordability
- Inconsistent quality of bio-inputs
- Slow rollout of climate-resilient seeds
- Uneven access to digital and AI-based tools due to digital divide
- Accelerating soil degradation and groundwater depletion
- Fragmented coordination between climate, agriculture, and biotechnology policies
Climate-resilient agriculture is crucial for India to ensure food security, protect its environment, and support its agricultural communities in the face of climate change. By developing and implementing a coherent national CRA roadmap, India can overcome the challenges it faces and unlock the full potential of CRA to build a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector.
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