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Climate change is hitting close to home earlier than expected.
Agricultural production has seen a significant dip due to the effects of climate change, such as increased temperature, floods and drought.
Climate change has resulted in 70 per cent of the country’s land becoming drought-prone, 12 per cent flood-prone, while eight per cent is affected by cyclones.
In a country struggling with rising population and the need to feed more mouths every year, farm production is taking a big hit, according to Sanjoy Bandyopadhyay, Principal Scientist, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, who was addressing a meet on Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture, organised by The Energy and Resources Institute, here on Friday.
He said production of wheat had dropped by six per cent, while rice and mustard production have slipped by four per cent each.
world bank study
A World Bank study had warned in June this year that by 2050, a temperature increase of 2-2.5 degree Celsius is likely (compared with the pre-industrialisation period), which would reduce water availability for food production. It also said that 63 million people in the country may not be able to meet their daily calorific requirement .
Since almost 60 per cent of crop area is rain-fed, change in precipitation would impact food production.
As an example, drought during 1987 affected more than 50 per cent of the crop area, while in 2002, foodgrain production declined by 29 million tonnes compared with the previous year.
Bandyopadhyay said while the number of days of rainfall has declined by more than 15 days, the intensity of the rains has increased significantly.
Further, agricultural production also has to contest increasing frequency and intensity of cyclonic storms.
He said to battle against climate change-induced reduction in farm produce, the adaptation strategies need to be changed.
He said steps such as adoption of stress (heat)-tolerant and water-logging-tolerant varieties of crops, crop diversification, and community seed banks and farmer to farmer seed exchanges need to be encouraged.
(This news copy has been corrected for error.)
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