Sowing fresh seeds to weather climate storm

The climate crisis is no longer a threat. It is a catastrophic reality. As the G20, we must seize this moment of crisis to innovate and drive sustainable solutions,” said Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, in the recent G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at Johannesburg.

The FAO in its recent report ‘The Unjust Climate’, mentioned that the poor households are likely to lose 5 per cent of their total income due to heat stress and 4.4 per cent due to floods, based on data from 100,000 rural households in 24 countries, representing, 950 million rural people.

Agriculture is the focus of this article, given its vulnerability and dependence of about 70 per cent of India’s population on it. Worldwide, about one-third of the greenhouse gases are linked to food, its production, processing, distribution and consumption.

Further, 70 per cent of ice-free land has been altered by humans and commercial food production.

This is the primary reason for biodiversity loss.

Agri impact

Climate change affects agriculture through higher temperatures, shorter winters, either higher rainfall or scanty rainfall, uneven distribution of rainfall and reduction in the number of wet days and wet hours. Unusual floods in Rajasthan, snowfall in Mt Abu, cyclones in the west coast are some recent aberrations.

About half the world’s population is experiencing severe water scarcity for at least part of the year. Seasons no longer follow their expected patterns. Sustainable agriculture through sustainable use of land, soil, water, and energy, underpinned by preserving biodiversity is the only way forward.

What is expected from farmers and the system? Climate change implies altering the duration of the cropping period. Therefore, we must match the duration with improved local crop varieties. Do we have requisite seeds?

When India embarked on the Green Revolution, in late the 1960s, the focus was on specific geographies to produce cereals, with high productivity. The improved varieties provided food security, but are not bred for the vagaries of climate change. With climate change now reality, there is a need to change tack. The task ahead is threefold: (a) identification and inventory-making of crop varieties/landraces for climate hotspots; (b) institutionalising systems to multiply and distribute such seeds and (c) creating water harvesting structures (farm ponds, community tanks, percolation tanks) to provide lifesaving irrigation.

The seed factor

However, there is an unfortunate trend in the seeds business worldwide. Asset management firms now own the seed and agri-chemical firms, and there are only about six global giants which control the business.

In India, these companies are interested in the F1 hybrid seeds of cross pollinated crops, where farmers have to buy seeds every year (GM cotton and vegetables). They are not interested in self-pollinated crops such as cereals, millets, pulses and oilseeds groundnut, mustard and sesame as the farmers save seed and replace seeds once in three or four years.

Line departments, State agricultural universities and State seed corporations must therefore work in tandem to give fillip to the erstwhile ‘seed villages concept’ and ensure seed supply of all self-pollinated crops.

Water harvesting structures, in individual farms and at community level, are crucial to provide critical irrigation. Our experience in promoting them, has not been great, as it is mired in issues of subsidy and bank loans.

The MGNREGA is the ideal vehicle for this task, if it develops a singular focus. The Andhra Pradesh government began taking steps in this direction. State governments should be involved, along with having a judicious mix of men and machines for creating these water harvesting structures.

The writer is former Deputy Managing Director, Nabard. Views are personal