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Farmer's Encounter

UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS | FARMER’S ENCOUNTER WITH CLIMATE CHANGE | 05TH JULY | INDIAN EXPRESS

/ July, 2022, UPSC Daily Current Affairs

SYLLABUS SECTION: GS 3 (CLIMATE CHANGE)

WHY IN THE NEWS?

This year’s climate related happenings are awakening call in Farmer’s Encounter. New knowledge to confront the billions of excruciating,

Interdependencies of climate change challenges needs to be collate and test in the fields.

EXCRUCIATING INTERDEPENDENCIES OF CLIMATE CHANGE:

FROST ATTACK         

  • Though ice coating on the top of plants is lovely sight for city folks, but it brings doom for farmers because that pretty coat of ice is frost and it burns the plants where it forms.
  • By the time the of January, 40 per cent of last year’s kinnow crop had been harvest and sold. The remaining fruit suffers from a frost attack, more vicious than ever before.
  • The frost shorten the harvesting season to one month.
  • The quality of the fruit had deteriorate to the point where its shelf-life was reduce to a few days.

BLISTERING HEAT WAVE:

  • In the early March, entry of blistering heat wave set off uncertainty. It was not unusually hot but it was particularly hot for March.
  • As a result wheat kernels would not fully ripen and the citrus flowers would not mature into fruit.
  • The wheat yield plummet over 20 percent and the loss to farmers growing wheat was about Rs 100 crore.
  • All the crops got impacts, and half the citrus crop was lost.
The Way Forward
  • Knowledge needs to be widely share and disseminate in Farmer’s Encounter.
  • There needs to be a substantive policy for preparation as the country enters a dark zone of climate change crisis.
  • Development plans in the agriculture sector focusing on soil and water management, crop diversification, cropping system optimization, risk sharing (co-investment, community engagement), risk transfer (crop/livestock insurance), and improve localize forecasting and agro-advisory is require to optimize mitigation benefits.
  • It is essential to design policies and strategies especially focusing on small and marginal landholders.
  • Agriculture being a State subject under the Indian Constitution, State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) need to be develop that is in sync with SDGs.
  • It is also equally important to periodically review, update and integrate the agriculture, forestry and land use component in the SAPCCs.
  • Adaptation measures pertaining to impact of natural disasters in agriculture and ally sectors need to be embed in the disaster management plans prepared by district administration.
  • It is important to provide the supporting infrastructure including water supply, power and physical connectivity on which agricultural value chain depends.
  • The financial needs of adaptation in India (2015–2030) in key climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and water resources is estimates at $206 billion (at 2014–2015 prices). Therefore, large and continued financial investment from the government & private sector is required for this purpose.
  • A pro-active adaptation approach in agriculture is need, streamlining efforts and resources on climate and disaster resilience to reduce risk exposure, limiting impacts, and preparedness in coping with disasters.

Read more: UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS

SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS