Rainfed Agriculture

Sustainable development, still an unfinished agenda

Mountain ecosystems are highly sensitive due to ecological fragility, geomorphologic instability but are blessed with vast eco biodiversity. Climate change impacts in the form of temperature rise, unpredictable and decreased rainfall, glacier melt, prolonged summers and short winters and changes in the seasonal cycle are happening at a more severe pace in the mountain areas making it more vulnerable to their impacts.

India’s leading weather and agriculture risk monitoring company has released a Kharif Report, sharing the prediction for the upcoming monsoon and its impact on the production of kharif crops. According to the report, Skymet expects the upcoming monsoon to be “below normal” to the tune of 93 percent (with an error margin of +/-5 percent) of the long period average (LPA) of 887 mm for the four-month period from June to September.

In recent years, cycles of extreme drought and severe flooding have affected the country’s water availability and crop production. The trend can be attributed to climate change. Scientists have been exploring drought and flood tolerant crop varieties to offset stress conditions that significantly constrain rice production. With the development of new drought and flood-tolerant rice varieties, agriculture scientists hope to ease water constraints and ensure food security.

India's food system produces large environmental impacts but these vary by diets. The per capita environmental impacts of diets in India are currently lower than those of many high-income countries due, in part, to habitually low consumption of animal source foods. But, this relatively low per capita impact may change due to the “nutrition transition” from cereal-dominated diets towards diets high in animal-source and highly processed foods, at least among some segments of the population.

Increase in agricultural productivity is not only dependent on material inputs, but also on farmer’s access to relevant information on crop production and farm management practices. This information is provided through agricultural extension services in India.

Skies in several parts of Kerala are overcast with pre-monsoon but monsoon is progressing sluggishly, as per meteorological predictions. “This year’s monsoon rains will arrive on India southern coast in Kerala on June 4 and deliver less rain than average year,” says Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency. The shadow of El Niño, a global ocean phenomenon marked by the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, will affect the onset of the monsoon. The report suggests that El Niño is likely to continue during the monsoon season.

India has the highest national freshwater demand globally and 91 percent of our freshwater is used in the agriculture sector. Cereals account for over 50 percent of the dietary water footprint in India and represent a potential opportunity for reducing water use in Indian agriculture. After the green revolution, cereal production shifted from traditional cereals such as millet and sorghum, and towards higher yielding rice and wheat. Cereals are increasingly produced in the winter (rabi) season.

India could witness near-normal monsoon this season: IMD

DDA allocates 42.5 acre plot on Yamuna floodplains for waste dumping