At the time of writing this piece, there is a hot weather advisory for several provinces whilst rain in prevalent in others due to atmospheric conditions. It obviously impacts on the environment in particular in the growing of food. The piece today touches on several aspects.
In addition to disasters faced by different segments of society such as farmers and fisherman, from a gender perspective 1.2 million out of 5.2 million families are headed by women. DRR and mitigation need to be gendered. Furthermore, agriculture’s footprint has caused the loss of whole ecosystems around the globe. Agriculture is among the greatest contributors to global warming, emitting more greenhouse gases than all our cars, trucks, trains, and aeroplanes combined. Coupled with it is pressure to produce food in the future. Our conversation should hence become broader in scope and coverage
Why gender in DRR?
Disasters affect men and women differently, but more on women. Few governments considered gender perspectives in their national reports on DRR -Gender issues have not yet been integrated into DRR. Both DRR and gender are cross-cutting developmental issues, which need to be addressed through a holistic approach and concerted actions in political, technical, social, developmental and humanitarian processes.
Challenges before Indian agriculture
An opinion by MS Swaminathan is carried here.
There are two major challenges before Indian agriculture today: ecological and economical. The conservation of our basic agricultural assets such as land, water, and biodiversity is a major challenge.
How to make agriculture sustainable is the challenge. Increasing productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm is the need of the hour. In Punjab, and in the other Green Revolution States, the water table has gone down and become saline. Further, during the Green Revolution the population was about 400-500 million; now it is 1,300 million and it is predicted to be 1.5 billion by 2030. The growing population pressure has made it pertinent to increase crop yield.
Evergreen Revolution concept
Increase in farm productivity but without ecological harm. This will include integrated pest management, integrated nutrient supply, and scientific water management to avoid the kind of environmental damage witnessed during the Green Revolution. Mandatory rainwater harvesting and the introduction of fodder and grain legumes as rotation crops to be adopted by wheat farmers in States like Punjab to ensure sustainability of farming.
Declare fertile zones capable of sustaining two to three crops as Special Agricultural Zones, and provide unique facilities to farmers here to ensure food security. Soil health managers should be appointed to monitor and ameliorate the soil conditions in degraded zones and rectify defects like salinity, alkalinity, water logging, etc.
The Prime Minister recently went to Israel. They have a clear sense of where water is needed and where it’s not. The idea of more crops per drop has been implemented well in Israel.
You should see how a water controller works on an Israeli farm. Everything is remote-controlled. They know exactly which portion of the field requires how much water and release only the exact amount. Post-harvest technologies like threshing, storage, etc. will have to be given greater attention now.
Can GM technology help address food security challenges?
There are many methods of plant breeding, of which molecular breeding is one. Genetic modification has both advantages and disadvantages. One has to measure the risks and benefits before arriving at a conclusion. First, an efficient regulatory mechanism for GM in India. We need an all-India coordinated research project on GMOs with a bio-safety coordinator.
We need to devise a way to get the technology’s benefit without its associated risks. At MSSRF (M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation), we used GM technology with mangroves to create salt-tolerant varieties of rice. For this, we took the genes from the mangroves and inserted them it into rice. To make the most of GM technology we must choose a problem where there is no other way to address the challenge.
The cycle of droughts and floods, this has rendered farming risky
Both less rainfall and a higher mean temperature affect farming adversely. Currently, we are witnessing drought, excess rainfall, sea-level rise… There are both adaptation and mitigation measures to follow in this regard.
I’ve evolved a drought code and a flood code... some of the recommendations I’ve made in recent times include setting up a multi-disciplinary monsoon management centre in each drought-affected district, to provide timely information to rural families on the methods of mitigating the effects of drought, and maximising the benefits of good growing conditions whenever the season is normal.
Animal husbandry camps could be set up to make arrangements for saving cattle and other farm animals because usually, animals tend to be neglected during such crises. Special provisions could also be made to enable women to manage household food security under conditions of agrarian distress.
In the case of temperature rise, wheat yield could become a gamble. We should start breeding varieties characterised by high per day productivity than just per crop productivity. These will be able to provide higher yields in a shorter duration.
Impact of heat waves on plant cells
Dr. Ranil Senanayake has been writing and warning on the dangers of excessive heat on plant cells. He goes onto say, “Why is a heat wave so dangerous? Apart from the heat stress in human and animals, it could exceed the threshold for enzymatic activity. All of the agriculture depends on the good growth of plants, all plants rely on their chlorophyll to grow and produce. Chlorophyll is a molecule that functions to an optimum at about 37 degrees, above that their performance falls. In heat waves often exceeding 38 degrees plant productivity will be impacted and yields drop. This year much of Australia dealt with a brutal spring heat wave that reduced farmers’ yields. Should we not prepare ourselves? Is this not disaster preparedness? But does Climate Change and Disaster Management and Meteorology Department discuss these threats, in a joint manner?”
This article shows several facets related to agriculture and the impact of climate change. The M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has always promoted smart ideas which are shown here. Similarly, Dr. Ranil Senanayake has argued for integrated approaches to address some of the pressing contemporary challenges faced by us.
It’s imperative we pay attention.
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