Climate change to affect output

Nobel laureate Pachauri calls for change in cropping pattern, agri practices

Climate change can adversely impact the production of crops like wheat, rice and pulses in India and the government needs to educate farmers in this regard, Nobel laureate and Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman R K Pachauri said.

"Agricultural production in many countries including India would be severely compromised by climate variability. Therefore, farmers really need to be concerned about its impact," Pachauri said in an interview.

The country needs to educate its farmers about the impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security, he added.

"Basically, yields of some crops like wheat, rice and pulses will go down. We have got an evidence on decline in the productivity of wheat in the country. It is high time farmers should know why their yields are not growing," he noted.

The livelihood of a vast population in India depends on agriculture, forestry, and fisheries and land use in these areas is strongly influenced by water-based ecosystems that depends on monsoon rains.

Pachauri said farmers have to realise that they cannot take natural resources for granted. They should be aware of water scarcity, which is likely to grow in future.

"Farmers would probably need to pay much higher price for water in future," he said, pointing out that a lot of water is wasted by farmers because electricity is provided free or at low cost.

He elucidated on how the annual monsoon is expected to change, resulting in severe droughts and intense floods in various parts of the country.

"Also, farmers perhaps need to change their cropping pattern and agricultural practices to adapt to climate change. Moreover, the government should develop new strains of crops which are drought-resistant, can handle higher temperature and also which can thrive under lower water availability conditions," Pachauri said.

He said scientists predict that by the end of the century the country would experience a 3-5 degree Celsius rise in temperature and a 20 per cent rise in all summer monsoon rainfall.

The noble laureate Pachauri blamed industrialisation for the adverse effects of climate change.

"For 150 years, we have been industrialising at a very rapid rate emitting green gases on a large scale. All of that now is affecting the climate in several adverse ways across the world. If we were responsible and had taken the knowledge of scientific community earlier, we would have been careful in pursuing this path. Now, we are reaching a stage of crisis," Pachauri said.

He added that India is focusing too much on Green Revolution which essentially requires a whole range of inputs that rich and relatively affluent farmers can afford. It needs to shift its priority to rain-fed agriculture.

"If we can bring about improvement in productivity, this will compensate some of the decline which is going to take place. We have given a presentation on climate change to the Agriculture Minister. He is now mobilising the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to develop a programme of action by which agriculture can be climate proof to some extent.

"India has the means by which it can remain self-sufficient and meet food security. However, it requires the complete restructuring of its policies," Pachauri added.