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Current Climate Variability Adaptation in AP and Available Options
G. Bhaskara Rao [email protected]
GEF – FAO – BIRD Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to
Climate Change (SPACC) Project Hyderabad
January, 2012
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Acknowledgement
Climate change (CC) is one of my favorite subjects. But, in recent years, I did not get time to
focus on this vital and very interesting subject. I said that the CC is very interesting subject, because it has been compelling us to review our thinking, our development concepts, practices, paradigms, models and so on. In such introspections, we may identify the mistakes, weakness and unintended consequences of our development concepts, practices, models and paradigms; and we may try to overcome those mistakes and will be conscious to avoid such shortcomings in the future/ new models, plans, programs and projects. Already large volumes of research outputs are being generated; so many networks have been emerging at different levels and focusing on different aspects and perspectives. So many conferences are being conducted at various levels on different facets of CC to find acceptable solutions and arrive at some consensus and agreements. Several pilots have been launched. Though the larger problems and major challenges remained; there is more clarity about the issues, challenges and potential solutions. Further, some useful win‐win solutions are emerging at least at local, if not at, sub‐national and national levels. The present study focuses on articulation of the magnitude and severity of problems, build on the available win‐win solutions and on converting the challenges of CC into opportunities and promoting the sustainable development. Hope this study will provide useful insights to policy makers and practitioners. This assignment has given me a wonderful opportunity to learn the developments in this vital subject at international, national and local levels. I am grateful SPACC project, its sponsors – FAO and GEF and implementing agency BIRDS for giving me this wonderful opportunity. My special thanks to the Project Management Team – Mr. S. V. Goverdhan Das and his colleagues for assigning me this interesting and useful task. I am particularly grateful to Mr. C. Konda Reddy for his so nice coordination. I feel that his style of coordination has brought the best out of me. I have taken this assignment on individual capacity. My present organization APMAS has provision to take up such assignments, which can be beneficial to all (win‐win), within certain limits. I am grateful to our CEO Mr. C. S. Reddy for his foresight in developing admirably the organization and sanctioning me leave to work on this absorbing assignment. My family members remained a constant source of encouragement during the preparation of this report. My son Sai Krishna helped me in typing and formatting the report. I record my appreciation of their encouragement and help.
G. Bhaskara Rao [email protected]
Hyderabad January 2012
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Contents Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................ ii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi
Acronyms .................................................................................................................................... vii
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... x
Chapter – 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1. Context ................................................................................................................................. 1
Box – 1.1: Climate Change Cause Species to Change Habitats................................................ 2
1.2. Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change ................................................................. 3
1.3. Present Study........................................................................................................................ 4
1.3.1. Methodology of the study ............................................................................................. 5
1.4. Structure of the Report ........................................................................................................ 5
Chapter – 2: Climate Change and Coping Mechanisms at Global Level ...................................... 6
2.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 6
Box – 2.1: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) .............................................. 6
2.2. The Climate Change – Definition, Dimensions and Trends .................................................. 8
Figure – 2.I: Schematic framework representing anthropogenic drivers, impacts of and responses to climate change, and their linkages. ................................................................... 8
2.3. Causes and Sources of Climate Change .............................................................................. 10
2.4. Future Directions ................................................................................................................ 10
Figure – 2.2: (a) Global annual emissions of anthropogenic GHGs from 1970 to 2004. (b) Share of different anthropogenic GHGs in total emissions in 2004 in terms of CO2‐eq. (c) Share of different sectors in total anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2004 in terms of CO2‐eq. (Forestry includes deforestation.) .......................................................................................... 11
2.5. World Agriculture and Climate Change .............................................................................. 11
2.6. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ............................. 12
Box – 2.2: Kyoto Protocol ...................................................................................................... 14
2.7. Changes in Emissions .......................................................................................................... 14
Figure – 2.3: Trends in Emissions of Annex Countries – EIT and Non‐EIT countries ............. 15
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2.8. Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................. 16
Figure – 2.4: Changes in GHG Emissions of Individual Countries of Annex I Countries ........ 18
Chapter – 3: Climate Change and Coping Mechanisms at National Level ................................ 19
3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 19
3.2. INCCA and Its Assessments ................................................................................................ 19
Box – 3.1: Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment ................................................. 20
Box – 3.2: Key results of the GHG emission profile of India for 2007 ................................... 21
Figure – 3.1: Source Wise GHG Emissions in India in 2007 ................................................... 21
Box – 3.3: Salient Findings of INCCA’s 4 X 4 Assessment ...................................................... 22
3.3. National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) ............................................................. 24
3.4. Ambitious but inappropriate plan and sub‐optimal record ............................................... 26
3.5. Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................. 30
Appendix – 3.1: Overviews of national missions related to Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Water .................................................................................................................................. 31
Chapter – 4: Current Scenario in AP and SPACC districts and implications of climate change .. 37
4.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 37
4.2. National Agriculture Strategies .......................................................................................... 37
Box – 4.1: Pitfalls of Current Agriculture Strategies .............................................................. 38
Box – 4.2: Tragedy of Private Tree Growing .......................................................................... 40
4.3. Andhra Pradesh the State and Its Agriculture .................................................................... 40
4.3.1. Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh .................................................................................... 41
4.3.2. Irrigation ...................................................................................................................... 43
4.4. SPACC project Area ............................................................................................................. 46
4.5. Select Development Programs/ Pilots in the state and SPACC area .................................. 48
4.5.1. Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture of SERP .............................................. 48
4.5.2. State watershed programs .......................................................................................... 50
Box – 4.3: Four Waters Technology ....................................................................................... 50
4.5.3. Community Forest Management ................................................................................ 51
4.5.4. APFAMGS ..................................................................................................................... 52
4.5.5. SPWD Tank Restoration Program ................................................................................ 53
4.5.6. Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi ............................................................... 55
Box – 4.4: APPS’s Learning About Seed Dibbling in Protected Areas .................................... 57
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4.6. Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................. 58
Appendix – 4.1: Select Agriculture data of Andhra Pradesh ..................................................... 60
Chapter – 5: Current and Potential CC Adaptation and Sustainable Development .................. 62
5.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 62
5.2. Climate Change Adaptation Options for SPACC Farmers ................................................... 63
5.2.1. Diversify Sources of Income ........................................................................................ 63
5.2.2. Plantations on Unviable Farms .................................................................................... 63
5.2.3. Agroforestry ................................................................................................................ 64
5.2.4. Replace inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with local and organic materials and improved farm practices ....................................................................................................... 65
Box – 5.1: Jiwamrita (Miracle Microbial Culture) .................................................................. 65
5.2.5. Mixed cropping ............................................................................................................ 67
5.2.6. Increase water storage and water efficiency .............................................................. 67
5.2.7. Proactive role in conservation and management of common pool resources ............ 68
5.2.8. Focus on local species and seeds ................................................................................ 68
5.2.9. Optimum farm practices ............................................................................................. 69
5.2.10. New agriculture extension ........................................................................................ 69
5.2.11. Adaptation to sea rise ............................................................................................... 70
5.3. Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................. 70
Chapter – 6: Support Framework for Climate Change Adaptation .......................................... 71
6.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 71
6.2. Technologies ....................................................................................................................... 71
6.3. Financial services and support ........................................................................................... 73
6.4. Institutional shifts ............................................................................................................... 76
6.5. Policy shifts ......................................................................................................................... 78
Box – 6.1: Implications to major farm support programs and alternatives .......................... 80
6.6. Summary and conclusions .................................................................................................. 82
Reference .............................................................................................................................. 85
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List of Tables
2.1 Share and per‐capita emission of top 10 emission countries in 2005 16 3.1 Projected Changes in Temperature and Precipitation in India by 2030 22 3.2 Variation in yield of select crops in India by 2030 vis‐à‐vis 1970 23 3.3 Total Wealth of the Nations, 2,000 ($ per capita and percentage shares) 28 4.1 Trends in Land Utilization Particulars in Andhra Pradesh 41 4.2 Trends in Production of Major Crops in Andhra Pradesh 42 4.3 Trends in Area Irrigated by Different Sources 44 4.4 Share of Irrigated Area in the Value of Agriculture Production 45 4.5 Farmers Indebtedness and Net Farm Income per Ha in India and AP 46 4.6 Position of Project Districts vis‐à‐vis State Average on Select Development
Indicators 46
4.7 Cost of crop production in conventional and sustainable agriculture 48 6.1 Prevalent Rate of Indebtedness by Farm Size in India 73
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Acronyms AAU : Assigned Amount Units AFPRO : Action for Food Production
AP : Andhra Pradesh APFAMGS : Andhra Pradesh Farmers Management Groundwater Systems APPS : Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi APSSARA : Andhra Pradesh Society for Sustainable Agriculture in Rainfed Areas APWELLS : Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems Project AR(s) : Assessment Report(s)
BIRDS : Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society C : Celsius/ Carbon
CBOs : Community Based Organizations CBTDP : Community Based Tank Development Program
CC : Climate Change CDM : Clean Development Mechanism
CERs : Certified Emission Reductions CFM : Community Forest Management
CH4 : Methane
CMSA : Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture
CO2 : Carbon dioxide
CO2 – eq. : Carbon dioxide Equal
COP : Conference of Parties CPRs : Common Pool Resources
DCT : Direct Cash Transfer EIT : Economies in Transition
eq. : Equal ERUs : Emission Reduction Units
FAO : Food and Agriculture Organization FCCC : Framework Convention on Climate Change
FD : Forest Department FDA : Forest Development Agencies
FFS : Farmers’ Field School FWS : Farmers’ Water Schools
GDP : Gross Domestic Production GEF : Global Environment Facility
GHG : Greenhouse Gases GIM : Green India Mission
GMCs : Groundwater Management Committees
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GMO : Genetically Modified Organisms
Gt : Giga ton GWP : Global Warming Potential
ha : Hectare HFCs : Hydro fluorocarbons
HUNs : Hydrological Unit Networks ICRISAT : International Crop Research Institute for Semi‐arid Tracks
IET : International Emission Trading IFPRI : International Food Policy Research Institute
IMR : Infant Mortality Rate INCCA : Indian Network for Climate Change Assessments
INM : Integrated Nutrient Management IPCC : Intergovernmental Penal on Climate Change
ITKPs : Indigenous Technology, Knowledge and Practices JI : Joint Implementation
JLGs : Joint Liability Groups kg : Kilogram
LULUCF : Land Use, Land Use Change and Forest M ha : Million hectare
MACSs Mutual Aided Cooperative Societies MBT : Mutual Benefit Trust
MoEF : Ministry of Environment and Forest MSP : Minimum Support Price
N2O : Nitrous oxide
NABARD : National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development NAPCC : National Action Plan on Climate Change
NBFCs : Non‐banking Financial Companies NCEUS : National Commission on Enterprises in Unorganized Sector NFSM : National Food Security Mission NGOs : Non Governmental Organizations
NHM : National Horticulture Mission NMSA : National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
NPM : Non‐pesticide Management NPP : Net Primary Productivity
NREGA : National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NTFPs : Non‐timber Forest Products OC : Degree of Celsius (of heat)
OECD : Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development PC : Producers Companies
PDS : Public Distribution System
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PF : Protected Forests
PFCs : Per fluorocarbons PIM : Participatory Irrigation Management
PMCCC : Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change POA : Plan of Action
POB : Prohibitory Order Book POP : Poorest of Poor
ppb : parts per billion ppm : parts per million
PPS : Paryavaran Parirakshna Samiti RF : Reserve Forests
RKVY : Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna SA : Sustainable Agriculture
SC : Schedule Castes SERP : Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty
SF6 : Sulphur hexafluoride
SGSY : Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
SHGs : Self Help Groups SIDA : Swedish International Development Agency
SLWM : Sustainable Land and Water Management SPACC : Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change
SPWD : Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development SRI : System Rice Intensification
ST : Schedule Tribes TMCs : Tank Management Committees
TSU : Technical Support Units UG : User Groups
UK : United Kingdom UN : United Nations
UNCED : United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
UNEP : United Nations Environment Program UNFCCC : United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
USA : United States of America WHO : World Health Organization
WLATA : Water, Land and Tree Act WMO : World Meteorological Organization
WUC : Water User Committee
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Executive Summary
1. Introduction 1.1. Climate change (CC) is no longer limited to environment sphere alone. With increasing in
frequency and intensity of extreme events like cyclones, intense precipitation, prolonged dry spells and shifts in the habitats of fish and geographical and temporal changes of many species of flora and fauna, the livelihood options of many people, especially the poor are being severely affected. The problems are going to be more severe in developing countries like India, where majority of people are directly dependent on the natural resource like land, water (rainfall) and, forests for their livelihoods.
1.2. Though there is an increasing knowledge and awareness levels about the CC at global level on certain changes and regional level on certain other trends, the overall knowledge level is far from satisfactory especially at regional and local levels. Even though a vast body of knowledge exists on the impacts of climate variability and change, little is known about the impacts at the meso (district/ sub‐district) and micro (revenue village) levels or about specific adaptation strategies at the local levels that can diminish the risks associated with climate variability and change.
1.3. Further, most of the climate changes need local level adaptation and mitigation strategies. Further, many mitigation and adaptation strategies require community participation and involvement. Hence there is need for a large number of experiments and pilots across the world in different socio‐economic and agro‐climatic contexts.
1.4. In this background an action research pilot project entitled “Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change (SPACC) Project” is being implemented in Collaboration with two UN Organizations, viz. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Global Environment Facility (GEF). Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society (BIRDS), Nadhyala is administering the project.
1.5. The project is being implemented in seven drought‐prone districts in Andhra Pradesh, viz. Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Karnool, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Prakasham. The major objectives of the project are: (1) to increase the knowledge and capacity of communities to adapt to climate variability and change, and (2) to contribute to knowledge building and experiences in integrating climate change adaptation in sustainable land and water management in drought‐prone areas.
1.6. As a part of the SPACC project, present study is undertaken. The major objectives of the study are:
a. Understand current status and trends in climate variability, risks, vulnerability, and adaptation options/ practices in use in Andhra Pradesh, India and global levels, in general, and specifically in the SPACC Project area.
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b. Design the bench‐marking of risks, vulnerability, and adaptation options/ practices in the SPACC Project area
c. Evaluate the relevance of various adaptation options/ practices in use (in Andhra Pradesh and India in general, and specifically in the SPACC Project area) in building farmers adaptive capacity to climate variability in the SPACC Project area
1.7. The study is conducted with secondary resource material available in the publications, internet and SPACC office and author’s collection and personal notes. Expertise of author and SPACC professionals are also utilized in the study.
2. Climate Change and Coping Mechanisms at Global Level 2.1. The climate change is manifesting in (1) global warming, (2) warming and rising of sea
levels, (3) melting of polar ice sheets and glaciers and reduction in frozen areas and periods, and (4) extreme events such as increase in the intensity of rainfall, drought, cyclones and changes in their frequencies and also geographical patterns.
2.2. Excess emission of GHGs is major reason for these changes. The evidence over the years suggests that the correlation between the climate change and human impacted emissions is increasing over the years. The rate of changes has been increasing over the time.
2.3. There are noticeable changes in the geographical shifts and seasonal behavior of some species of fauna and flora. The species which are not able to adapt to the climate change face the risk of extinction.
2.4. The impact of the climate change will be different among the different regions and sections. The poor in the developing countries are more exposed and vulnerable to the climate change, because their overwhelming dependence on climate sensitive natural resources for the livelihoods. Employment transition is one of the principal strategies of adaptation to the climate change.
2.5. The measures initiated, so far, for the mitigation of human impacted emissions and climate change, under the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, fall short of the requirements and appear to be an articulation of the developed countries’ interests and concerns at the cost of developing countries.
2.6. The world needs equitable and simple mechanisms to mitigate the climate change. 2.7. The land use, land use changes and forests (LULUCF) have high potential for mitigation of
climate change. Incentive mechanisms need to be put at international, national, sub‐national and at local levels to realize the mitigation potentials of the LULUCF. Current agriculture practices/ model, also referred by many as industrial agriculture, including LULUCF, is contributing up to one‐third of global GHG emissions.
3. Climate Change of Coping Mechanisms at National Level 3.1. India lived with fragmented and incomplete knowledge on climate change for quite long
time. Recent initiative of setting up of INCCA and comprehensive and systematic assessments of various facets of climate change are good developments. With the passage of time the quality of assessments may improve. For that the network need to be kept active and focused with all necessary support.
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3.2. As climate change is continuing, the future changes and their impact remain uncertain. As the intensity of rainfall is expected to increase and number of rainy days expected to fall; there may be flash floods in many parts of the country and prolonged dry spells within the season.
3.3. Though the average crop yield may decline moderately in the near future, there may be severe fluctuations and frequent crop failures, including horticulture, even in the short term. However, the tree crops of forest species may thrive.
3.4. The LULUCF have great potential to mitigate GHG emissions. 3.5. Recent initiatives like PMCCC, NAPCC, eight national missions and related focused works
with respect to climate change are good measures, though belated. However, the initiatives placed too much faith on technology breakthroughs and government own ability to invest required resources and overlooked other crucial issues like reforms in agriculture, natural resource management, governance issues such as decentralization and people’s participation in development processes and people’s institutions.
3.6. Acknowledgement of the pitfalls in the current development models/ paradigms and search for alternatives may give many win‐win solutions to turn the challenges into opportunities.
3.7. To convert challenges of the climate change into opportunities, the country has to focus on employment transition; improving the quality of human resources, which is very much related to the employment transition; thorough review of current subsidy programs; complete removal of state restrictions on the growing, harvesting and marketing forest species; development of markets and payments for environmental services at different levels, genuine decentralization and community participation in the development projects, programs and processes.
4. Current Scenario in AP and SPACC districts and implication of CC 4.1. The Indian agriculture is moving in an unsustainable path and also resulting in significant
GHG emissions (Ramanjuneyulu, et al, undated). The contributory factors are (1) high input subsidies, which prompt wasteful and harmful use of these inputs and unsustainable corresponding investments by farmers and others; (2) strict controls on growing, harvesting and marketing of trees, especially the forest species; (3) privatization of common lands; and (4) price support to resource intensive crops and centralized procurement and decentralized distribution of resource intensive commodities have negative effect on the cultivation of less resource intensive crops for subsistence and local supply.
4.2. These measures led to overall decline of the quality of natural resources, especially the land under the agriculture, slow growth of agriculture outputs and yields, decreased crop response to fertilizers application in the heartlands of green revolution areas and increasing inter regional inequalities. The impact can also be seen in AP agriculture in terms of a shift towards resource intensive crops, high cost of cultivation less profitability. Higher draft rates of groundwater, higher dependence of population and low productivity are the features of the agriculture in SPACC project area.
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4.3. The study demonstrated some very useful insights for CC adaptation through a review of some of the unconventional experiments and pilot programs such Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA), of SERP; State Watershed Program; state CFM program; APFAMGS; SPWD’s Tank Restoration Program and APPS. The lessons are:
a. SERP’s CMSA: (a) Significant reduction of cost of cultivation could be obtained with the use of local and internal organic materials in place of inorganic and external inputs, without compromising on the yield. (b) A significant increase in farm net income could be achieved with a shift from mono‐cropping to multi‐tier mixed cropping. (c) Community based extension system could be more effective than conventional extension system. SERP demonstrated robust results with coverage of over 7 lakh of farmers and 18 lakh acres in IPM.
b. State Watershed Development Program demonstrated that with extensive use of vegetatives in different farms and stages, along with focus on soil moisture conservation, the effectiveness of the watersheds could be increased manifolds.
c. APFAMGS: (a) The CBOs could discharge effectively the tasks, hitherto considered as highly scientific tasks. Given proper awareness and operational freedom, the CBOs can obtain optimum results. (c) Through informed community actions the losses from bore‐well failures and drying ups, which became common feature in recent years, could be avoided and optimum returns from groundwater could be obtained
d. The state CFM program demonstrated that the communities could provide more effective protection than the conventional departmental protection system. The program has some critical insights, which need to be carefully analyzed and appropriately modified.
e. SPWD’s tank restoration program suggests that with a small investment in tank restoration, huge irrigation infrastructure could be made productive. Tank restoration could lead to all round growth and socio‐economic transformation in the local area. With genuine involvement of the communities the project output could be enhanced significantly.
f. APPS’s natural regeneration programs indicate that the communities do understand the importance of the environmental services and can work voluntarily for the conservation of the natural resources. Increase in greenery leads to increase in local water resource availability and improve the soil quality and its productivity.
5. Current and Potential CC Adaptation and Sustainable Development 5.1. From rising of the temperature and increasing CO2, there may not be big yield fall in the
near future; however, the yields may fluctuate widely due to increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events.
5.2. The SPACC area may experience intense rainfall in fewer days, which may cause flash floods and prolonged dry spell. The agriculture in the SPACC area is already in precarious conditions due to Government’s unsustainable agriculture policies.
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5.3. Some experiments and ongoing programs such as CMSA, Four Waters concept, Groundwater as CPR, community based agriculture extension, restoration of tanks, etc have some very interesting and useful lessons for the farmers of SPACC area and the state.
5.4. The potential options include: diversification of income into non‐farm sources; raising of trees on unviable holdings and fallow lands; agrforestry; replacing the inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with local organic materials and improved farm practices; taking multi‐tier mixed cropping in place of mono‐cropping; increase water storage and water efficiency; proactive role in protection and management of CPRs; focus on local species and seeds; new agriculture extension, etc.
5.5. If the above suggested options are put into operation, the SPACC farmers could effectively transform the challenges of climate change into good opportunities, which may result in higher farm yield, less cost of cultivation, increased soil quality and health and less/ no health risks to human beings and livestock, increased carbon sequestration, which may provide the farmers with additional incentives, etc.
6. Support Framework for CC Adaptation 6.1. However, putting the suggested options into practice require a lot of policy changes and
other supports from the Government, scientists, financial institutions and others. 6.2. Under technology, it should be acknowledged that current agriculture technologies and
practices are causing significant GHGs emissions and hence need a thorough review. 6.3. At the moment the yield levels of almost all crops in the country/ state/ project area are
quite low compared to many other better performing countries and even yield levels obtained in the local model farms. Major reasons for such abject low yields are poor and deteriorating quality of natural resources, especially the land, sub‐optimal farm practices due to uncertainties about crop production and revenue and inability of farmers to invest in agriculture including in post harvest storage, processing and marketing.
6.4. With the climate change even these low yield may experience wide fluctuations in the short run and may decline significantly in the long run. One cannot overemphasize the importance of technologies. Already the multi‐national companies and their national counterparts are trying to projecting themselves as last saviors. One should keep in mind that in the country of India’s diversity, dependence on one or two technologies/ solutions are not desirable, especially on alien solutions.
6.5. The immediate required tasks are – improvement of the quality of natural resources – land, improvement of the farm practices and capacitate farmers to make adequate investments in agriculture, including in post harvest processes.
6.6. Regarding financing, majority of Indian farmers, especially in backward states, make inadequate investment in agriculture. Major reasons are unviable holding sizes, unwanted farming and lack of access to formal financial services.
6.7. Only about 20% of farmers have access to formal financial services. This percentage is as low as 13% in case of sub‐marginal farmers, i.e. holding size of less than one acre.
6.8. The holding size and lack of interest need to be addressed through land consolidation and employment transition.
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6.9. For financial access measures like shift from priority sector lending to micro‐loans (small loans); lending to groups instead of individuals; allow the banks to charge their economic cost instead of compelling them to cross subsidized, interest subvention by the government to promote credit discipline, avoid vitiation of credit discipline in the rural areas, development of credit infrastructure and environment.
6.10. There is a need for a thorough redesigning of agriculture insurance. 6.11. Present input subsidies apparently are resulting in inefficient and wasteful use of inputs
and causing climate change and adversity affecting the quality of natural resources and are accruing disproportionately to the well off farmers and regions.
6.12. The above challenges could be overcome through introduction of direct cash transfers (DCTs) to the target people. DCT is also most cost effective method.
6.13. Institutional changes: The success of Indian economic reforms proves that deregulation and decontrols can work wonders in the country. However, the economic liberalization, so far, is confined to economic sphere, especially, to manufacturing and service sectors only. There is need for similar reforms in agriculture, natural resource management and governance.
6.14. Major problems of Indian agriculture are related to too much centralization of governance, resources, technologies, schemes, programs and projects. In the country of India’s diversity, centralized development paradigms do not work. The country needs thorough decentralization. The principle of subsidiarity should be adapted for effective natural resource management and good governance.
6.15. The model projects/ programs described in chapter – 4, which may provide very useful insights for coping with the CC, are centered on people’s institutions (PIs). Almost all households in Andhra Pradesh are able to access bank credit on regular basis through SHG bank linkage program.
6.16. The central and state governments recognized the importance of the participatory development and have been providing opportunities for people’s participation in development programs and projects. Lakhs of People’s Institutions have emerged during last 20 – 30 years to facilitate the participation of poor/ people in the development process, to overcome the poor people’s challenges like exclusion, deprivation, resource deficit, exploitation, etc. There are significant economic and social gains due to PIs.
6.17. However, the experience of the people’s participation in the development and their own institutions proved to be mixed both in the process and impact. Lack of effective delegation of powers is the major reason for the lackluster performance of PIs. To elicit genuine people’s participation, the development programs and projects should focus on transparency, openness, locally felt needs, building on local resources including indigenous technologies, knowledge and practice, seeking significant contributions from the primary stakeholders, involvement of primary stakeholder from the planning/ initial stages, etc. In other words the primary stakeholders must be treated as a partners/ participants rather than as beneficiaries. True decentralization is the best possible method to get genuine peoples’ participation in their institutions, development processes and governance.
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6.18. On the policy front, the Government should give top priority to the employment transition. Current practices of promoting micro‐enterprises and small scale industries proved to be ineffective to provide remunerative income and employment opportunities to the people employed in those units, including the owners/ proprietors. Even land reforms and assignment of Government/ common lands proved to be ineffective, if not counterproductive.
6.19. The State may review and reverse some of current major agricultural policies such as input subsidies, centralized procurement, price protection to a few resource intensive crops, privatization and neglect of CPRs, etc.
6.20. Direct cash transfers (DCTs) could be more cost effective and also yield better results compare to many current subsidies, incentive and welfare programs.
6.21. The Government should remove all restrictions on growing and marketing of trees and allow farmers to grow forest species as part of their farming. The State has to extend all necessary support to the agro‐forestry including development of markets for environmental services.
6.22. The state has to invest heavily on physical infrastructure such as road, transport, communications and marketing, etc. Thorough integration of the countryside with the markets may unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of the farmers and other rural communities.
6.23. Current education and research in the areas of agriculture and medicines need to be covered India’s traditional knowledge and practices.
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Current Climate Variability Adaptation in AP and Options Available
Chapter – 1: Introduction
1.1. Context Climate change became a reality. According to Intergovernmental Penal on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) eleven of the last twelve years (1995‐2006) rank among the twelve warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature (since 1850). The global average temperature has increased by 0.74°C during 1906‐2005. The average temperature of the global ocean has increased to depths of at least 3,000 meters and that the ocean has been taking up over 80% of the heat being added to the climate system. Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003 and at an average rate of about 3.1 mm per year from 1993 to 2003. The annual average Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk by 2.7% per decade, with larger decreases in summer of 7.4% per decade. Mountain glaciers and snow cover on average have declined in both hemispheres. The maximum areal extent of seasonally frozen ground has decreased by about 7% in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900, with decreases in spring of up to 15%.Some extreme weather events have changed in frequency and/ or intensity over the last 50 years: It is very likely that cold days, cold nights and frosts have become less frequent over most land areas, while hot days and hot nights have become more frequent. The basic reason for most of, if not all, these changes are the global warming. Global warming is an average increase in the temperature of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface and in the troposphere, which can contribute to changes in global climate patterns. Global warming can occur from a variety of causes, both natural and human induced. Sun's energy nourishes the Earth, generating and sustaining all plant and animal life on the planet. A large amount of that energy bounces back into space. Naturally occurring gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane and nitrous oxide trap infrared radiation in the atmosphere and contribute to rise in global temperatures. They are called Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and this phenomenon is called the Greenhouse Effect. Greenhouse gases are essential in maintaining the temperature of the earth; without them the planet would be so cold as to be uninhabitable. Likewise, an excess of greenhouse gases can raise the temperature of the planet to unlivable levels. The harmony has been unbalanced by human beings. Significant increase of long live greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere resulted in higher capturing of the bounce back energy and resulting global warming. The identified GHGs are Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), Hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs) and, Per fluorocarbons (PFCs) (UN, 1998). CO2 is by far the largest contributor. Overuse of fossil fuels such as coal, petrol,
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diesel, etc, and other human activity such as mining, clearing of forests for wood, even agriculture, generates carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and other greenhouse gases. The global atmospheric concentration of CO2 increased from a pre‐industrial value of about 280 parts per million (ppm) to 379 ppm in 2005. The global atmospheric concentration of CH4 has increased from a pre‐industrial value of about 715 parts per billion (ppb) to 1,732 ppb in the early 1990s, and was 1,774 ppb in 2005. The global atmospheric N2O concentration increased from a pre‐industrial value of about 270 ppb to 319 ppb in 2005 (IPCC, 2007). Global warming is causing so many changes in hydrological and biological cycles. Extreme events like severe heat waves and cold waves, high intense cyclones, frequent intense rainfall, prolonged dry spells/ drought periods became more frequent (see e.g. Goldsmith Edward, 2003). The global warming, melting of ice, rising sea levels and extreme events, together, are referred as the climate change (CC). Because of the CC profound changes in biological cycles of many flora and fauna species are occurring. The CC has some impact on seasons also. Untimely unfolding leaves, i.e. early onset of spring season could be noticed in some regions. Increased melting rates of snow caps and Polar Regions and reduction in frozen areas size and periods are evident (IPCC, 2007). These have adverse impact on the breeding and feeding practices of some migratory and other species. Changes in geographical habitations of some fish species, insects and microorganism and temporal variations in their life cycles are conspicuous. Shifts in habitats of some flora are also occurring (see Box – 1.1). These clearly show the efficacy of the flora and fauna in adapting quickly to the climate change.
Box – 1.1: Climate Change Cause Species to Change Habitats
Climate change is forcing plants and animals away from their native habitats to more congenial ones. A recent survey of plants in the UK found that species favoring higher temperature like orchids and ferns that used to be found in southern parts of the country are now flourishing in the north, too. Changes have been observed in populations and distribution of as many as one‐third of all species since 1987. Climate change such as warming up of atmosphere affects habitat forcing plants and animals to disperse and migrate. But if a physical barrier prevents movement, then species could die out. Species those are not able to move quickly enough, may extinct. Climate change has hit insects (like butterflies) and birds, the hardest. Migratory birds that cover large distances have been unable to cope. The breeding period of birds usually synchronizes with a time when food is available in plenty. But climate change has thrown this system out of gear. In UK, seven of the nine common species of wading birds shifted from the 'warm west' to the 'colder east' in response to milder winters. Climate change is affecting the seas, too. In the north Bering Sea, which is frozen for most of the year, the seasonal melt is starting earlier and there is less ice in general. This is causing grey whales to move farther north to follow the cold
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water, while animals like the walrus and sea birds are facing a food shortage. A growing body of work is also linking climate change to the spread and re‐emergence of certain human and animal diseases. Increases in temperature and precipitation have facilitated the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue in most developing countries in the tropical region. The WHO says that at least 30 diseases may be making a comeback in poor countries because of climate change. A warmer climate is causing diseases such as the West Nile virus and malaria to spread to North America. The West Nile virus, which was unknown in North America until a decade ago, has infected more than 21,000 people in the US and Canada, killing more than 800. In one of its worst effects, climate change altered patterns of a fungal infection, leading to the extinction of two‐thirds of tropical harlequin frog species in Central and South America.
Source: Extract from Awasthi, Kirtiman, 2006
Climate change is no longer limited to environment sphere only. With increasing in frequency and intensity of extreme events like cyclones, intense precipitation, prolonged dry spells and shifts in the habitats of fish, warming and temporal changes, the livelihood options of many people, especially the poor are being severely affected. The problems are going to be more severe in developing countries like India, where majority of people are directly dependent on the natural resource like land, water (rainfall) and, forests for their livelihoods. Though there is an increasing knowledge and awareness levels about the CC at global level on certain changes and regional level on certain other trends, the overall knowledge level is far from satisfactory especially at regional and local levels. According to the World Bank (2008) study – ‘even though a vast body of knowledge exists on the impacts of climate variability and change, little is known about the impacts at the meso (district/ sub‐district) and micro (revenue village) levels or about specific adaptation strategies at the local levels that can diminish the risks associated with climate variability and change’. Further, most of the climate changes need local level adaptation and mitigation strategies. A practice effective in reducing emissions at one site may be less effective or even counterproductive elsewhere. Consequently, there is no universally applicable list of mitigation practices; practices need to be evaluated for individual agricultural systems based on climate, edaphic, social setting, and historical patterns of land use and management (Smith, P 2007). Further, many mitigation and adaptation strategies require community participation and involvement (Nelson, Gerald C, 2009) and (IPCC, 2011). Hence there is need for a large number of experiments and pilots across the world in different socio‐economic and agro‐climatic contexts.
1.2. Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change In this background an action research pilot project entitled “Reversing Environmental Degradation and Rural Poverty through Adaptation to Climate Change in Drought Stricken Areas
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in South India: A Hydrological Unit Pilot Project Approach”, referred to as Strategic Pilot on Adaptation to Climate Change (SPACC) Project is being implemented in Collaboration with two UN Organizations, viz. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Global Environment Facility (GEF). Bharathi Integrated Rural Development Society (BIRDS), Nadhyala is administering the project with full pledged project support office in Hyderabad. BIRDS and its partner Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are involved in field implementation of the project activities in seven districts.1 The project is being implemented in seven drought‐prone districts in Andhra Pradesh, viz. Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa, Karnool, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Prakasham. The major objectives of the project are:
1. The development objective of the proposed project is to increase the knowledge and capacity of communities to adapt to climate variability and change in seven drought‐prone districts of Andhra Pradesh.
2. The global environmental objective is to contribute to knowledge building and experiences in integrating climate change adaptation in sustainable land and water management in drought‐prone areas.
3. The project will help build the skills and tools for communities to integrate climate adaptation into sustainable land and water management (SLWM) practices and their decision making.
1.3. Present Study As a part of the SPACC project, present study is undertaken. The major objectives of the study are:
a. Understand current status and trends in climate variability, risks, vulnerability, and adaptation options/ practices in use in Andhra Pradesh, India and global levels, in general, and specifically in the SPACC Project area.
b. Design the bench‐marking of risks, vulnerability, and adaptation options/ practices in the SPACC Project area
c. List: a. risks and vulnerability to climate variability in Andhra Pradesh and India, in
general, and specifically in the SPACC Project area b. adaptation options/ practices in use in Andhra Pradesh and India, in general,
and specifically in the SPACC Project area d. Evaluate the relevance of various adaptation options/ practices in use (in Andhra
Pradesh and India in general, and specifically in the SPACC Project area) in building farmers adaptive capacity to climate variability in the SPACC Project area
1 The project seeks to build on the learning of the earlier projects APWELLS and APFAMGS. See details at www.birds.org and also FAO, 2008:
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1.3.1. Methodology of the study
The study is conducted with secondary resource material available in the publications, internet and SPACC office and author’s collection and personal notes. Expertise of author and SPACC professionals are also utilized in the study. Major output of this study is a research report with related data sets, if any.
1.4. Structure of the Report Chapter 2 discusses the current scenario at global level about climate change, its impact, and issues related to mitigation and adaptation. Current scenario about climate change, its impact, and issues related to mitigation and adaptation at national level are covered in chapter 3. Present condition and trends in the agriculture sector of Andhra Pradesh and SPACC project area are reviewed in the context of climate change in chapter 4. Current and potential CC adaptation and sustainable options, practices and relevance of various adaptation options/ practices in use in building farmers adaptive capacity to climate variability in the SPACC Project area are discussed in Chapter 5. Issues related to support structure that required for the farmers for adaptation to climate change is described in chapter 6. The chapter particularly discusses issues related to technologies required for climate change mitigation and adaptation; issues related to financial matters including subsidies; institutional issues and policy issues.
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Chapter – 2: Climate Change and Coping Mechanisms at Global Level
2.1. Introduction Alarmed by the changes in the global environment, two UN organizations jointly set up an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The role of IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio‐economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human‐induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. IPCC basically generate knowledge through objective review of available studies. It functions through thousands of voluntary scientist from different parts of the world. IPCC quickly emerged as knowledge leader on climate change. Its definitions, concepts, models, methods and findings became standard reference material in all over the world. IPCC contributions have been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (See a brief description about IPCC at Box – 2.1).
Box – 2.1: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was set up, in 1988, by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as an effort by the United Nations to provide world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio‐economic impacts. The UN General Assembly endorsed the establishment of IPCC. The IPCC's role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio‐economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human‐induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. Thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC on a voluntary basis. Review is an essential part of the IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete assessment of current information. IPCC aims to reflect a range of views and expertise. The IPCC is an intergovernmental body. It is open to all member countries of the United Nations (UN) and WMO. Currently 194 countries are members of the IPCC. Governments participate in the review process and the plenary Sessions, where main decisions about the IPCC work program are taken and reports are accepted, adopted and approved. Because of its scientific and intergovernmental nature, the IPCC embodies a unique opportunity to provide rigorous and balanced scientific information to decision makers. By endorsing the IPCC reports, governments
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acknowledge the authority of their scientific content. The work of the organization is therefore policy‐relevant and yet policy‐neutral, never policy‐prescriptive. So far the IPCC brought out four Assessment Reports (ARs), in 1990, 1995, 2001 and 2007. The fifth AR is in progress. The first IPCC Assessment Report of 1990 lead to the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the key international treaty to reduce global warming and cope with the consequences of climate change. The IPCC Second Assessment Report of 1995 provided key inputs in the way to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Third Assessment Report came out in 2001 and the Fourth in the course of 2007. The knowledge generated and disseminated by the IPCC through the ARs and other special publications led the organization to be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. IPCC is currently organized into 3 Working Groups and a Task Force. Working Group I deals with "the Physical Science Basis of Climate Change", Working Group II with "Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" and Working Group III with "Mitigation of Climate Change". Working Groups also meet at the Plenary at the level of Representatives of Governments. The main objective of the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is to develop and refine a methodology for the calculation and reporting of national GHG emissions and removals. The organogram of the IPCC is given below
Source: IPCC website, especially from http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization.shtml
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2.2. The Climate Change – Definition, Dimensions and Trends Climate change in IPCC usage refers to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/ or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer (IPCC, 2007). IPCC assess both kinds of the climate change due to natural factors and human impacted factors. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also define CC on similar lines of IPCC as the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/ or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer, but due to human impacted factors only. Whatever may be the cause, the climate change is manifesting in four categories of primary changes, i.e. temperature change, precipitation changes, sea level raise and extreme events. These primary changes in turn results in a number of secondary order changes such change in habitats of certain species of flora and fauna, temporal/ seasonal changes, changes in biological cycles of many birds, insects and micro organism and water cycles, etc. This report deals with these definitions, expected primary and secondary changes and suggest measures to mitigate and adaptation of these changes. CC is the result of the concentrations and emissions of GHGs and Aerosols. It impacts the ecosystems, water resources, food security, settlements and society and human health (Figure – 2.1).
Figure – 2.I: Schematic framework representing anthropogenic drivers, impacts of and responses to climate change, and their linkages.
IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007:
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Many of the early 1990s predictions of IPCC regarding global warming, changes in precipitations, extreme events, etc proved to be true by the middle of the first decade of 21st century (Awasthi, Kirtiman, 2006). In its 4th Assessment Report (4th AR), the IPCC pointed out that global warming and other corresponding changes got accelerated in recent years. Some broad trends in climate change according to IPCC (2007) 4th AR:
1. The 100‐year linear warming trend (1906‐2005) of 0.74 [0.56 to 0.92] °C is larger than the corresponding trend of 0.6 [0.4 to 0.8] °C (1901‐2000) given in the 3rd AR.
2. Observations since 1961 show that the average temperature of the global ocean has increased to depths of at least 3,000 m and that the ocean has been taking up over 80% of the heat being added to the climate system.
3. New analyses of balloon borne and satellite measurements of lower‐ and mid‐troposphere temperature show warming rates similar to those observed in surface temperature.
4. Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm per year over 1961 to 2003 and at an average rate of about 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm per year from 1993 to 2003.
5. Satellite data since 1978 show that annual average Arctic sea ice extent has shrunk by 2.7 [2.1 to 3.3] % per decade, with larger decreases in summer of 7.4 [5.0 to 9.8] % per decade.
6. Mountain glaciers and snow cover on average have declined in both hemispheres. The maximum areal extent of seasonally frozen ground has decreased by about 7% in the Northern Hemisphere since 1900, with decreases in spring of up to 15%.
7. Globally, the area affected by drought has likely increased since the 1970s. 8. Some extreme weather events have changed in frequency and/ or intensity over the last
50 years: It is very likely that cold days, cold nights and frosts have become less frequent over most land areas, while hot days and hot nights have become more frequent.
It is likely that heat waves have become more frequent over most land areas. It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation events (or proportion of total rainfall from heavy falls) has increased over most areas.
It is likely that the incidence of extreme high sea level has increased at a broad range of sites worldwide since 1975.
9. There is high confidence that natural systems related to snow, ice and frozen ground (including permafrost) are affected. Examples are:
Enlargement and increased numbers of glacial lakes Increasing ground instability in permafrost regions and rock avalanches in mountain regions
Changes in some Arctic and Antarctic ecosystems, including those in sea‐ice biomes, and predators at high levels of the food web.
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10. There is very high confidence, based on more evidence from a wider range of species, that recent warming is strongly affecting terrestrial biological systems, including such changes as earlier timing of spring events, such as leaf‐unfolding, bird migration and egg‐laying; and pole ward and upward shifts in ranges in plant and animal species. Based on satellite observations since the early 1980s, there is high confidence that there has been a trend in many regions towards earlier ‘greening’ of vegetation in the spring linked to longer thermal growing seasons due to recent warming.
2.3. Causes and Sources of Climate Change According to IPCC (2007) that most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid‐20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man‐made) GHG concentrations. The six GHG are converted into CO2 equal (CO2 – eq.) based on their potential to trap the radiation and their longevity. Global annual GHG emissions have increased from 28.7 Giga tons (Gt)2 of CO2 equal (CO2‐eq) in 1970 to 49 GtCO2‐eq in 2004 (Figure – 2.2). Shares of different GHGs in total emissions in 2004 are also shown in Figure – 2.2. Among different sectors energy supply accounts for little over a quarter of total emissions in 2004. Industry accounts about one – fifth followed by forestry (including deforestation) – 17.4% and agriculture – 13.5% (See Figure – 2.2).
2.4. Future Directions IPCC (2007) provided a range of scenarios about global emissions and corresponding changes. Among them, the highest emission levels are in the range of 855 – 1130 ppm of CO2 – eq. by 2060 – 2090. The corresponding global warming could be in the range 4.9oC – 6.1oC and corresponding sea level raise could be 1.0 m – 3.7 m. However, the actual emission and temperature levels could be less than those projected. There is much evidence of substantial economic potential for the mitigation of global GHG emissions over the coming decades could offset the projected growth of global emissions or reduce emissions below current levels (IPCC 2007). The report has so many insights for mitigating the emissions. Out of those, the insights relevant for the preset study are that by improved farm management, livestock feed and manure management and by prevention of deforestation, about a third emissions could be reduced (see e.g. Smith, P, et al, 2007 and Bellarby, Jessica, et al, 2008). With production and use of bio‐energy significant environmental benefits could be reaped. The most likely temperature raise could be around 3oC. Even coping with that level of raise in the global warming is a formidable challenge.
2 1 Gt (Giga ton) = 1,000 million tons
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Figure – 2.2: (a) Global annual emissions of anthropogenic GHGs from 1970 to 2004.3 (b) Share of different anthropogenic GHGs in total emissions in 2004 in terms of CO2‐eq. (c) Share of different sectors in total anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2004 in terms of CO2‐eq. (Forestry includes deforestation.)
IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, An Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2.5. World Agriculture and Climate Change
Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Higher temperatures eventually reduce yields of desirable crops while encouraging weed and pest proliferation. Changes in precipitation patterns increase the likelihood of short‐run crop failures and long‐run production declines. Although there will be gains in some crops in some regions of the world, the overall impacts of climate change on agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening global food security (Nelson, Gerald C, et al. 2009). CC adversely affects the livelihoods of overwhelming proportion of the people, especially in developing countries, where about 75% of people are dependent on agriculture. At the same time, agriculture is also contributing significantly for the world GHG emissions. Because, agriculture in recent decades has became more energy intensive and also centralized. Agriculture progressively becoming mechanized and application of inorganic chemicals is increasing at the fast pace. Further, intensive agriculture is pursued in a few pockets and the food grains, other food items are being
3 Includes only carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphurhexafluoride (SF6), whose emissions are covered by the UNFCCC. These GHGs are weighted by their 100‐year Global Warming Potentials (GWPs), using values consistent with reporting under the UNFCCC.
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transported to long distance leading to more and more ‘food miles’4, at times using air transport5 also. Hence, the present agriculture is referred as “industrial agriculture”. As per IPCC (2007) agriculture is contributing 13.5% total emissions (Figure – 2.2). If the emission due to defarestation, which is mostly due to conversion of forest lands into agriculture land the emissions would shoot up to 31% of the of global annual world emissions. If the of emission of fertilizer and other agro‐chemical industries and the component of transport sector, which is linked to transporting of agriculture commodities, are included; the total emissions due to present day ‘industrial agriculture’ could be even higher (Bellarby, Jessica, et al.,2008). One of the major contributing factors of agriculture related emissions is land conversion to agriculture (Ibid), which is referred as “land use, land use change and forests (forests include deforestation also) (LULUCF)” in IPCC terminology. Under land use changes deforestation or clearing of forests for agriculture purpose and removal of green/ tree/ grass cover due to excess grazing or conversion into seasonal cropping are major contributory factors. Global woodland areas are projected to decrease at an annual rate of 43,000 km2, but developed countries are projected to increase their woodland area by 7,400 km2 per year. Agriculture has a significant climate change mitigation potential, which could change the position of agriculture from the second largest emitter to a much smaller emitter or even a net sink (Ibid). Loss of forest cover in developing countries like Brazil is an issue of serious concern, as these forests are rich in biodiversity and genetic resources. The world should protect this precious resource as it also means loss of rich biodiversity and genetic material. Deforestation in developing countries, also leads to serious degradation of natural resources – land and water, which, in turn, cause decline of agriculture yield and production and food insecurity. The world should evolve effective mechanisms to halt and reverse the deforestation and implement the same in letter and spirit. Otherwise, the problem of food insecurity in the developing countries would become even more severe.
2.6. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)6
Though the IPCC is leading in knowledge generation on climate change, its mandate is to provide policy neutral options and not to give policy recommendations. To deal with policy and implementation issues in regards to the climate change, an international environmental treaty known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) was
4 Food transported across the world burns up a lot of fossil fuel and contributes to global warming. "Food miles" ‐ the total distance in miles the food item is transported from field to plate ‐ has become accepted as a convenient indicator of sustainability 5 Air transport is the most energy‐intensive form of transport. To give an idea, 127 calories of energy (as aviation fuel) are needed to transport 1 calorie of lettuce across the Atlantic. Unfortunately more and more food is being transported by air rather than by ship, indeed since 1980 imports by air‐ freight of fruit and vegetables into the UK have increased by nearly 4 times. 6 Material for this section is obtained from website of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change
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produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human impact on the environment) interference with the climate system. Unlike IPCC, UNFCCC focuses on the climate change due to human impacted factors. Precisely the CC due to emission of 6 GHGs, viz. carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphurhexafluoride (SF6). On June 12, 1992, 154 nations signed the UNFCCC, and upon ratification committed to a voluntary "non‐binding” aim to reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. These actions were aimed primarily at industrialized countries, with the intention of stabilizing their emissions of greenhouse gases at 1990 levels by the year 2000; and other responsibilities would be incumbent upon all UNFCCC parties. The parties agreed in general that they would recognize "common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR)," with greater responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the near term on the part of developed/ industrialized countries, which were listed and identified in Annex I of the UNFCCC and thereafter referred to as "Annex I" countries.7 Developing countries are not required to reduce emission levels unless developed countries supply enough funding and technology. Setting no immediate restrictions under UNFCCC serves three purposes:
• It avoids restrictions on their development, because emissions are strongly linked to industrial capacity
• They can sell emissions credits to nations whose operators have difficulty meeting their emissions targets
• They get money and technologies for low‐carbon investments from Annex I countries. Developing countries may volunteer to become Annex I countries when they are sufficiently developed. The parties to the convention meet annually since 1995 in Conference of the Parties (COP) to assess and deliberate on progress and necessary actions in dealing with climate change. Initially the treaty set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. Given the urgency of reducing GHG
7 The countries are Australia, Austria, Belarus*, Belgium, Bulgaria*, Canada, Czechoslovakia*, Denmark, European Economic Community, Estonia*, Finland, France , Germany, Greece, Hungary*, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia*, Lithuania*, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland*, Portugal, Romania*, Russian Federation*, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine*, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America (*Countries that are undergoing the process of transition to a market economy)
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emissions, legally binding obligations for developed (Annex I) countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions were established in 1997 under the Kyoto Protocol (see Box – 2.2).
Box – 2.2: Kyoto Protocol The Protocol was initially adopted on 11th December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16th February 2005. As of September 2011, 191 countries signed and ratified the Protocol. Under the Protocol, the Annex I countries commit themselves to a reduction GHGs produced by them by 5.2% from the 1990 level. And all member countries give general commitments. USA is the only Annex I country did not sign the Protocol and hence not committed for reduction of its emissions. The first period emission reduction commitments expire at the end of 2012. The Protocol establishes a structure of rolling emission reduction commitment periods, with negotiations on second period commitments. The Protocol defines three "flexibility mechanisms" that can be used by Annex I countries in meeting their emission reduction commitments, viz. International Emissions Trading (IET), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI). IET allows Annex I countries to "trade" their emissions (Assigned Amount Units, AAUs, or "allowances" for short). The CDM and JI are called "project‐based mechanisms," in that they generate emission reductions from projects. The CDM is designed to encourage production of emission reductions in non‐Annex I countries (developing countries), while JI encourages production of emission reductions in Annex I countries. The emission reductions produced by the CDM and JI are both measured against a hypothetical baseline of emissions that would have occurred in the absence of a particular emission reduction project. The emission reductions produced by the CDM are called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs); reductions produced by JI are called Emission Reduction Units (ERUs). The reductions are called "credits" because they are emission reductions credited against a hypothetical baseline of emissions. Source: Prepared from the material available on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
2.7. Changes in Emissions The GHG emissions are started declining in some of the Annex I countries (Figure – 2.3). The aggregate emissions of Annex I countries came down by 17.6% between 1990 and 2009. The EIT (economies in transition), countries, i.e. erstwhile socialist countries shown steep decline of 54.4% and western countries have very insignificant reduction of 0.6%. If the reduction in emissions due to land use, land use change and forest (including deforestation) (LULUCF) is excluded the overall reductions levels of all Annex I countries and EIT countries are relatively less at 11.5% and 41.4% respectively. However, the western countries achieved relatively higher reductions of 2.1% without LULUCF vis‐à‐vis 0.6% with LULUCF. While the EIT countries achieved
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dramatic reductions in 1990s8, the western countries experienced steep increase in 1990s and marginal decline between 2000 and 2008, and significant reduction between 2007 and 2009.
Figure – 2.3: Trends in Emissions of Annex Countries – EIT9 and Non‐EIT countries
Source: Website of UNFCCC
The lukewarm performance of the West, which account for a significant proportion of emissions is a concern. Table – 2.1 show the percentage share of top 10 countries/ regions in the global
8 The dramatic reduction in EIT is attributed to deindustrialization in those countries. 9 EIT – Economies in Transition, ‐.They are predominantly erstwhile Socialist Countries and Soviet Union Countries
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emission and per capita emissions. Annex I countries’ individual performance is given at Figure – 2.4. The USA and Canada, which have highest per capita emissions, have increased their emissions between 1990 and 2009 by 5.6% and 28.3% respectively. It is a serious issue of concern The efforts made by the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol provisions are clearly inadequate to address the climate change challenge (Sathaye, et al., 2006). Major weakness of the efforts made so far, is that there are no incentives to developing countries to reduce their emissions, especially those related to LULUCF. As mentioned above the loss of rain forest in Brazil and other biodiversity forests in other developing countries is great loss for the humanity as a whole. As Narain, Sunita, (2009) pointed out even the clean development mechanism (CDM) is designed to fail with complicated procedures and unattractive pricing. Individual country wise targets/ emission limits do not yield economically efficient solutions (Pangare, Arvind, 2010). George Moonboot, the author of Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning, has suggested a simple and fairer solution on CO2 ‐ there should be an equal allocation, worldwide, of the right to produce carbon dioxide. Our rations can be trade‐able, people may use more than their share if they are prepared to buy it; but the revenue should be returned to those who use less. This system works because it is just, easy to understand, requires very little policing and creates powerful incentives to use low carbon technologies.10 Perhaps this mechanism may give real impetus for reduction of GHGs.
2.8. Summary and Conclusions 1. Climate change is real and accelerating in recent decades. More and more evidence
suggest it is predominantly due to human activities, which resulted in huge accumulation GHGs, distorting the balance.
2. As per current understanding that climate change is manifesting in global warming, melting of ice‐caps and Polar Regions, rising of sea levels and extreme events.
10 http://kicsforum.net/docsweb/climate‐change/climate‐change‐agriculture/Climate‐Change‐Proofing‐Agriculture‐1st‐page.html
Table – 2.1: Share and per‐capita emission of top 10 emission countries in 2005
Country/ region % share in global emission
Per‐capita emission in t CO2 – eq.
China 17 5.8
USA 16 24.1
European Union 27 11 10.6
Indonesia 6 12.9
India 5 2.1
Russia 5 14.9
Brazil 4 10.0
Japan 3 10.6
Canada 2 23.2
Mexico 2 6.4 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
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3. Climate change causing changes in water cycle and biological cycles several species of fauna and flora.
4. Climate change is going to have a profound impact on people’s livelihoods, habitats, culture, health, etc
5. Efforts made so far, under UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, have yielded very small gains. Most of those gains are result of default – due to deindustrialization in erstwhile socialist countries and energy conserving technologies and innovations, which unleashed after the early 1970s oil shock.
6. There are so many mitigation potentials and win‐win solutions. LULUCF have good mitigation potential.
7. The knowledge generated and strategies adapted to mitigate, so far, appeared to be an articulation of the developed countries’ concerns and interests.
8. Climate change is an issue of common concern. Like in any other common pool resources, equity is a prerequisite for an effective climate agreement. The fact is that without cooperation this global (Kyoto Protocol) agreement will not work. It is for this reason that the world must seriously consider the concept of equal per capita emission entitlements so that the rich reduce and the poor do not go beyond their climate quota. We need climate responsible action (Narain, Sunita, 2009). Equal distribution of emission entitlements is also economically efficient (least cost) solution.
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Figure – 2.4: Changes in GHG Emissions of Individual Countries of Annex I Countries
Source: Website of UNFCCC
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Chapter – 3: Climate Change and Coping Mechanisms at National Level
3.1. Introduction Though India did not cause the global GHG emissions, it is highly vulnerable to the climate. As India does not have obligation to reduce its GHG emissions, so far, its performance towards the CC is lukewarm at best, self‐detrimental at times and ad hoc on the whole. The measures which were initiated as part of economic liberalization, such as deregulation of energy pricing, opening up of the energy sector for private sector, etc, and measures initiated under energy conservation such as introduction of energy efficient lighting (bulbs), energy efficient technologies in industry and transport sectors and buildings, etc have been projected as climate change mitigation or adaptation measures (see e.g. Ghosh, Pradipto, 2009 and Government of India, undated). By avoiding strategic and substantial actions on climate change adaptation it has increased vulnerability of the economy and majority of the population, especially the agriculture based livelihoods of about two‐thirds of population, who directly depended on agriculture. The menace of natural calamities are increasing and costing dearly the people and the Government. E.g. In the state o f Maharashtra, a single drought (2003) and flood (2005) absorbed more of the budget (Rs.175 billion), than the entire planned expenditure (Rs.152 billion) on irrigation, agriculture, and rural development from 2002‐2007 (World Bank, 2008). However, India initiated systematic and substantial measures during last 3 – 4 years to address the challenge of CC. These measures include setting up of Indian Network for Climate Change Assessments (INCCA), in 2009 to assess various facets of the climate change and its multiple impacts on regular and comprehensive basis; setting up of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC) to evolve appropriate strategies and initiate substantial measures to meet the challenges of CC and coordinate and guide the efforts of different ministries related to CC; preparation of national action plan on climate change (NAPCC) and initiation of eight national missions on climate sensitive sector under NAPCC. In this chapter the Government of India’s recent initiations are described and reviewed briefly.
3.2. INCCA and Its Assessments Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is the nodal agency for the climate change. Apart from representing the country and articulating the nation’s interests in international forums, it has been generating a lot of knowledge on climate change and its impact on the country resources, lives and livelihoods of the people, through research and consultations. Realizing that
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the current knowledge and understanding of implications of climate change at the national level is inadequate and fragmentary, the MoEF has set up the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessments (INCCA), in 2009, to assess comprehensively and regularly the climate change, its drivers, implications and impact. The INCCA is also charged with the development of decision support systems and build capacity towards management of climate change related risks and opportunities (see Box – 3.1 for details about INCCA).
Box – 3.1: Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment
As the knowledge and understanding of implications of climate change at the national level is inadequate and fragmentary, the Minister for Environment and Forests on October 14, 2009 announced the launch of the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), which has been conceptualized as a Network‐based Scientific Program designed to:
Assess the drivers and implications of climate change through scientific research Prepare climate change assessments once every two years (GHG estimations and impacts of climate change, associated vulnerabilities and adaptation
Develop decision support systems Build capacity towards management of climate change related risks and opportunities
INCCA is conceived on the lines of IPCC. The network consists of 228 scientists/ professionals from 127 premier scientific, technical and management institutions. The scope of the programs under INCCA has been developed on the basis of the fundamental questions confronting the country for developing climate proofing systems and the society dependent on climate and include, inter alia:
Short, medium and long‐term projections of climate changes over India at sub‐regional scales
The impact of changes in climate on key sectors of economy important at various regional scales
The anthropogenic drivers of climate change i.e. greenhouse gas and pollutants emitted from various sectors of the economy
The processes through which GHGs and pollutants interact with the climate system and change the biophysical environment
The mandate of INCCA would continue to evolve to include the new science questions that confront humanity including the population living within the Indian region. The aim of scientific research under INCCA is envisaged to encompass research that will develop understanding on the regional patterns of climate across India, how it is changing over time and likely to behave in the future. Source: INCCA, 2010 and Sharma, Subodh, 2010
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So far the INCCA prepared two documents – (1) A provisional assessment of the Green House Gas emission profile of India for 2007, and (2) An assessment of the impacts of climate change on water resources, agriculture, forests and human health in the Himalayan region, North‐Eastern region, Western Ghats and Coastal regions of India, which is titled as 4 X 4 Assessment. The key results of the GHG emission profile of India for 2007 are given at Box – 3.2 and salient findings of INCCA’s 4 X 4 Assessment are given at Box – 3.3.
Box – 3.2: Key results of the GHG emission profile of India for 2007
The total net Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from India in 2007 were 1,727.71 million tons of CO2 equivalent (eq) of which:
‐ CO2 emissions were 1,221.76 million tons; ‐ CH4 emissions were 20.56 million tons; and ‐ N2O emissions were 0.24 million tons
GHG emissions from Energy, Industry, Agriculture, and Waste sectors constituted 58%, 22%, 17% and 3% of the net CO2 eq emissions respectively.
Energy sector emitted 1100.06 million tons of CO2 eq, of which 719.31 million tons of CO2 eq were emitted from electricity generation and 142.04 million tons of CO2 eq from the transport sector.
Industry sector emitted 412.55 million tons of CO2 eq. LULUCF sector was a net sink. It sequestered 177.03 million tons of CO2.
India’s per capita CO2 eq emissions including LULUCF were 1.5 tons/ capita in 2007.
Figure – 3.1: Source Wise GHG Emissions in India in 2007
Source: Sharma, Subodh, 2010
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Box – 3.3: Salient Findings of INCCA’s 4 X 4 Assessment
The assessment report looked at four climate sensitive regions, i.e. Himalayas, North‐east India, Western Ghats and Coastal Areas and four climate sensitive sectors, viz. Agriculture, Forestry, Water and Health. Major findings are:
1. The rise in annual mean surface air temperature by the 2030s ranges from 1.7°C to 2.0°C in all regions. The variability of seasonal mean temperature may be more in winter months. The spatial pattern of the change in the lowest daily minimum and highest maximum temperature suggests a warming of 1°C to 4°C towards the 2030s. Night temperatures are likely to rise more over the south peninsula and central and northern India; central and northern India may experience an increase in daytime warming also
2. All the regions under consideration show a small increase in annual precipitation in the 2030s, with respect to the baseline, that is, 1961– 1990s (or 1970s). Projections for 2030s indicate that the frequency of the rainy days is likely to decrease in most parts of the country.
The regional variations of temperature and precipitation are summarized at Table – 3.1 Table – 3.1: Projected Changes in Temperature and Precipitation in India by 2030
Indicator\ Region
Himalayas North East Western Ghats
East coastal
West Coastal
Average temperature
+1.7oC to +2.0oC
+1.8oC to +2.1oC
+1.7oC to +1.8oC
+1.6oC to +2.1oC
+ 1.7oC to +1.8oC
Minimum temperature
+1oC to +4.5oC
+1oC to +2.5oC
+2.0oC to +4.5oC
+2.0oC to +4.5oC
Maximum temperature
+0.5oC to 2.5oC
+1oC to 3.5oC
+1oC to 3oC +1oC to +3.5oC
Precipitation +5% to +13% +0.3% to +3%
+6% to +8% +0.2% to +4.4%.
+6% to +8%
Rainy days + 5 to 10 days
‐ 1 to ‐10 days
‐ 5 to ‐10 days
‐ 1 to ‐5 days
‐ 5 to ‐10 days
Intensity of rainfall
+1 to +2 mm/ day
+1 to +6 mm/ day
+1 to +2 mm/ day
+1 to +4 mm/ day
Source: Compiled from INCCA, 2010; Note: + means increase and – means decrease
3. The projected number of cyclonic disturbances along both the coasts in the 2030s is
likely to decrease with respect to the 1970s. However, cyclonic systems might be more intense in the future.
4. Sea level along the Indian coast has been rising at the rate of about 1.3mm/ year on an
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average. The rate of rise has increased in recent years. 5. The yield of rice, maize and sorghum will decrease significantly under both irrigation and
rainfed conditions in Western Ghats and Coastal districts. However, the coconut yield may go up by 30% in Western Ghats, but remaining western coastal district may experience a decline Table – 3.2).
Table – 3.2: Variation in yield of select crops in 2030 vis‐à‐vis 1970
North East Western Ghats East coastal West Coastal
Irrigated Rice Yield ‐11% to + 5% ‐ 10% to ‐20%
Rainfed rice yield –35 to +35% 0 to +15% 0 to ‐20%
Maize and Jowar 0 to ‐ 50% ‐ 15 to ‐50%
Coconut + 30% ‐ 40% to + 10% ‐0 to ‐40%
Source: Compiled from INCCA, 2010; Note: + means increase and – means decrease
6. With increasing temperatures, it is anticipated that there may be an all‐round decrease
in apple production in the Himalayan region, and the line of production may shift to higher altitudes.
7. The net primary productivity (NPP) of forest is projected to increase significantly in all regions by 2030s; by about 57% in Himalayas, by 23% in North‐east, by 20% in Western Ghats, and by 31% in Coastal Districts. It is worth noting that while agriculture yield is expected to decline, the productivity of forests will increase significantly.
8. Most of the regions are expected to have health vulnerability associated with rising temperature, natural calamities, water shortage and food shortage.
9. Water availability is expected to increase in all regions except northern part of East Coast – Bengal, Orissa and north AP.
10. Composition of fish catch will change significantly in different parts of the country. Source: Extracts from INCCA, 2010
After more than 20 years of setting up of IPCC, the MoEF launched the INCCA, for a systematic assessment of climate change, its implications and impact. Though delayed, it is a very good beginning. In the two reports, INCCA provided very useful information and insights. However, the wide range of estimates suggests that the two reports, apparently, have several constraints, such as data gaps, modeling, methodologies, etc. One can hope that in the coming years, INCCA will overcome those constraints and bring out more accurate and comprehensive assessments. A few insights from INCCA two reports and other studies, which may useful for this study, are given below:
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1. The LULUCF have great potential to mitigate GHG emissions. International evidence also confirms this potential.
2. While agriculture expected to lose, the forestry productivity will go up 3. Increase in CO2 to 550 ppm may increase yields of rice, wheat, legumes and oilseeds by
10‐20%. A 1oC increase in temperature may reduce yields of wheat, soybean, mustard, groundnut, and potato by 3‐7%. Much higher losses will occur at higher temperatures. Productivity of most crops to decrease only marginally by 2020 but by 10‐40% by 2100. Climate change is likely to reduce yields of most crops in long‐term. In short‐term effects may be small. Increased climatic variability could cause significant fluctuations in production even in short‐term (Agarwal, P. K., et al., 2009)
4. In coming years, the rainfall intensity will increase, i.e. more rain occur in fewer days. Which may cause floods and prolonged dry spells occur, even if overall rainfall increase. IPCC Assessments also confirm this.
5. Rising sea levels may cause permanent or temporary floods in the coastal areas and sea water may ingress into the ground water. International assessment also confirms this.
3.3. National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) Realizing the importance and severity of the climate change, the Government of India set up, an Advisory Council on Climate Change, chaired by the Prime Minister, henceforth, referred as the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC) or in short the Council. The Council has broad based representation from key stake‐holders, including Government, Industry and Civil Society and sets out broad directions for National Actions in respect of Climate Change. The Council will also provide guidance on matters relating to coordinated national action on the domestic agenda and review of the implementation of the National Action Plan on Climate Change including its R&D agenda. The Council chaired by the Prime Minister would also provide guidance on matters relating to international negotiations including bilateral, multilateral programs for collaboration, research and development. The Council, in its first meeting on 13th July, 2007, had decided that "A National Document compiling action taken by India for addressing the challenge of Climate Change, and the action it proposes to take" be prepared (Government of India, Undated). The document is known as the national action plan on climate change (NAPCC) The NAPCC articulated the principles of India’s climate change response, measures initiated so far and measures intended towards climate change and international cooperation. The guiding principles are:
Protecting the poor and vulnerable sections of society through an inclusive and sustainable development strategy, sensitive to climate change.
Achieving national growth objectives through a qualitative change in direction that enhances ecological sustainability, leading to further mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
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Devising efficient and cost‐effective strategies for end‐use Demand Side Management. Deploying appropriate technologies for both adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions extensively as well as at an accelerated pace.
Engineering new and innovative forms of market, regulatory and voluntary mechanisms to promote (Ibid)
Some of the mitigation measures initiated, so far, includes:
Promotion of energy efficiency in all sectors Emphasis on mass transport Emphasis on renewable including bio‐fuels plantations Accelerated development of nuclear and hydropower for clean energy Focused R&D on several clean energy related technologies Making environmental impact assessment mandatory for many economic activities Forest conservation, afforestation, etc, (Ibid)
Some of the adaptation measures initiated, so far, includes:
Drought proofing Crop improvement Water: The National Water Policy (2002) stresses that non‐conventional methods for utilization of water, including inter‐basin transfers, artificial recharge of groundwater, and desalination of brackish or sea water, as well as traditional water conservation practices like rainwater harvesting, including roof‐top rainwater harvesting, should be practiced to increase the utilizable water resources.
Coastal areas: Construction of coastal protection infrastructure and cyclone shelters, as well as plantation of coastal forests and mangroves.
Health: Surveillance and control of vector borne diseases such as Malaria, Kala‐azar, Japanese Encephalitis, Filaria and Dengue. Programs also provide for emergency medical relief in the case of natural calamities, and to train and develop human resources for these tasks.
Disaster management program and preparedness (Ibid) The NAPCC has ambitious future plan for mitigating and adaptation of the climate change. These include: a. The plan call the initiation of eight national missions by concern central government
ministries to address the climate sensitive issues and sectors, the missions are:
1. National Solar Mission 2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency 3. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat 4. National Water Mission 5. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem 6. National Mission for a Green India
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7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture 8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (Ibid)
b. Other focus areas in the NAPCC include – GHG mitigation in power generation and
utilization, renewable energy technologies program, disaster management response to extreme climate events, protection of coastal areas and health sector.
c. The plan proposed to build the capacity at different levels of Government. Some of the identified areas include: Local bodies would need to create capacity on regulatory measures, particularly for ensuring energy efficiency in new buildings as well as through a program of retrofits. In respect of adaptation measures, local capacity and the involvement of communities in actions to adapt to the impacts of climate change would be crucial. Public awareness on climate change would have to be spearheaded and driven by government at all levels. Emphasis on schools and colleges is essential. In some cases legislation may be required at the central and state levels to arrive at appropriate delegation of responsibility and authority for meeting some of the goals mentioned above.
d. Under the international cooperation the plan reiterated the need for continues rapid development of developing countries, obligations of developed countries and issues related technology transfers11, technology cooperation fund, and building of the developing countries’ capacities for absorbing the new technologies.
e. Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CMD), India approved more number of projects, however, obtained relatively less number of certified emission reductions (CER) due to some problems. The plan have some suggestions for improvement (Ibid),
3.4. Ambitious but inappropriate plan and sub‐optimal record India’s record in terms of climate change preparedness (mitigation and adaptation) is far from satisfactory. It appears that the country has not yet fully acknowledged the problems. Systematic action on climate change, i.e. setting up of INCCA and PMCCC happened after two decades of IPCC establishment and one decade after Kyoto Protocol agreement was finalized. Whatever, claims made in the NAPCC are the measures aimed at energy conservation and normal development efforts, which were result of economic liberalization. One of the possible
11 According to NAPCC that the conventional model of technology transfer, considers that technology devel‐oped in the North is first established there, before it is supplied to the South. The rapid changes in the global economic and technology environment are making this model less applicable. As the experience so far also suggests, this model may be inadequate in terms of satisfying the scale and scope of the technology response required. New models and mechanisms for technology transfer will need to incorporate at least three key elements: appropriate funding modalities and approaches; a facilitative IPR environment, and enhancing the absorptive capacity within developing countries.
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reasons, for this uninspiring performance, could be that India does not need to reduce its GHG emissions under Kyoto Protocol.12 The NAPCC appears to be more general strategy without clear targets and timeframe. As a part of this study, three mission documents, viz. Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Water, which are closer to the present study, were reviewed. The overviews of these three missions are given at Appendix – 3.1, at the end of this chapter. The NAPCC and three reviewed missions apparently have more focus on investments and technologies. No doubt these are important, but not adequate to meet the challenges of the climate change. The country needs paradigm shifts to meet the challenges of the climate changes and make them as the opportunities.13 The IPCC (2007) assessment report and other studies of IPCC (e.g. IPCC, 2011 and Smith, P et al, 2007) and many other studies (e.g. Bellarby, Jessica, et al, 2008, Goldsmith, 2003; Shiva, Vandan (2011); Vijay Kumar, T (undated); and Ramanjaneyul, et al, (undated) pointed out that ‘win‐win solutions14’ are feasible. To convert the challenges of the climate change into opportunities, one has to review one’s development concepts, incentive/ subsidies and taxes, community participation, decentralization, etc. Some of these issues will be discussed briefly here and more detailed discussion will be in chapter – 6.
1. It is very clear that the adverse impact of the climate change will be disproportionately heavy on the poor in developing courtiers, who live in hazardous and frazil conditions and heavily dependents on the natural resources for their livelihoods. As the relative share of agriculture in GDP is declining year after year without corresponding employment transformation, the people depending on agriculture become relatively poorer year after year. Climate change is going to aggravated further the plight of the people, who dependent on the agriculture and primary sector.15 Employment transformations should be one of principal CC adaptation strategies for India.
12 In Durban Conference of Parties (CoP) 17, during November – December 2011, India agreed (or forced to agree) for legally binding emission reductions from 2020 onwards (see EPW, 2011: The Durban Subversion, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 46 (52), December 24, 2011). 13 . Among the three reviewed mission documents, only Green India is categorical about the prominent role for Panchayas and self help groups (SHGs) 14 By shifting from modern industrial agriculture, in which large quantities of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides are used and mono‐cropping is practiced, to sustainable agriculture, in which locally available organic materials and practices are used for nutrient supply and pest control and multiple crops, the cost of cultivation could be lower significantly without any yield loss, i.e. in sustainable agriculture, the farm profitability goes up without affecting the environment. 15 According to the new publication, “Excluding oil states, natural resources make up 25 percent of the total wealth of low income countries, much larger than the 16 percent share of produced capital. By far the largest component of natural wealth in these countries is land. It is precisely this wealth that is highly at risk from climate change. See a brief about the World Bank (2006) study ‐ Where is the Wealth of Nations
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2. Building the human resources should be another important strategy to meet the challenges of the climate change. It is quite obvious a healthy and strong person can cope the challenges of the CC better than an unhealthy or weak person. Similarly an informed or educated person can cope with challenges better. According to a World Bank (2006a)16 study the principal wealth of a country is its intangible capital (human resource), which vary from 59% in low‐income countries to 80% in high‐income (OECD) countries. On the other hand, the share of the natural capital varies from 26% in low‐income countries to 2% in high‐income (OECD) countries (Table – 3.3).
Table – 3.3: Total Wealth of the Nations, 2000 ($ per capita and percentage shares)
Income group Natural capital
Produced capital + urban land
Intangible capital
Total wealth
Natural share
Produced share
Intangible capital share
Low‐income countries
1,925 1,174 4,434 7,532 26% 16% 59%
Middle‐income countries
3,496 5,347 18,773 27,616 13% 19% 68%
High‐income OECD countries
9,531 76,193 353,339 439,063 2% 17% 80%
World avg. 4,011 16,850 74,998 95,860 4% 18% 78%
Notes: All dollars at nominal exchange rates. Oil states are excluded. (OECD) Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development Source: World Bank 2006a, Where is the Wealth of Nations,; http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20746661~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
3. Current allocations to social sector are quite inadequate. But simply an increase of the
allocations/ expenditure on education, health, food security, etc is not sufficient; the people, even the poor, can invest on their own improvement, provided they get assured decent employment and income opportunities. The Government should focus on employment transition and on providing quality infrastructure, market links, financial inclusion, institutional support so that the people can take up suitable
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20746661~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html 16 A brief about this study can be seen at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20746661~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html
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economic activities on their own and get ability and incentive to invest on their own improvement.
4. Intentionally or unintentionally, the Government has been proving all kinds of incentives to resource intense crops like paddy, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and less resource intense crops like groundnut, pulses, and coarse cereals are not at all getting the benefit of Government’s huge allocations on input subsidies and price support. Further inputs subsidies and price support are accruing disproportionately to the developed regions/ states and medium and larger farmers. Recent SERP experiments in lakhs of ha show that with less/ no input subsidy/ external inorganic fertilizers and pesticides same level or even higher level of yields could be obtained (Vijay Kumar, T., undated). SERP’s paradigm shift from input centric to knowledge based farming need to be mainstreamed and replicated in all parts of the country. Similar success could be seen in many NGO lead experiments in different parts of the country. The government should replace the current subsidies with smart subsidies to obtain desirable cropping patterns and other shifts (World Bank, 2008).
5. The first forest policy envisaged to bring in one‐third of total geographical area under forest cover. But the target has been eluding the country for last 60 years. Further, the green cover in the crop land and also homestead has declined significantly during this period. People are made scared and frustrated by many restrictions on growing, harvesting, using and marketing of forest species in their fields and homes and other private lands (see e.g. Saxena, N. C., undated; Narain Sunita, 2011; Mahapatra, Richard, 2011 and many articles and editorials in the Down to Earth). Complete removal of the State’s monopoly and restrictions on growing, harvesting, using and marketing of forest species may unleash people’s enthusiasm to grow trees and get benefited. Growing trees in fields and other private lands has many environmental and economic benefits such as carbon sequestration, increased soil nutrias and moisture status, harvesting of fruits, leaves, timber, twigs, etc. As per ICRISAT research that the profits from ‘drylands eco‐farm’ are three to five times higher than the current farming systems. Eco‐farm is an innovative trees‐crops‐livestock system for rain‐fed crop production; it involves intercropping fast‐growing trees with annual crops. Also included in the system are livestock that are appropriate for the agro‐ecosystem (Dar, Williams, 2007). Similarly research in different countries of Asia and Europe suggests that allowing grazing in the plantations of coconut and oil palm benefit both livestock and the plantation and also enhance the soil quality and moisture levels also (Orskov, Bob. 2005). Similarly rising of seasonal/ annual crops in teak plantation enhanced significantly the total productivity/ profitability of the land and also enhances the soil quality and moisture levels (Ibid).
6. By obstructing farmers from raising the forest species, the Government created a huge shortage of timber and other forest produces in the country (see e.g. Mahapatra, Richard, 2011 and many articles and editorials in the Down to Earth). These shortages are being fulfilled through imports and use of substitutes, which are usually non‐renewable commodities like iron, aluminum, cement, petroleum, etc. This is not a sustainable development model.
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7. Introduction of markets and charges/ payments for environmental services may increase significantly the green cover in the country. It also improves the soil quality and agriculture productivity and resilience to the climate change.
These are some of the illustrative shifts/ changes the country needs to overcome the challenges of the climate change and make it as an opportunity. These issues will be further elaborated in chapter 6.
3.5. Summary and Conclusions 1. India lived with fragmented and incomplete knowledge on climate change for quite long
time. Recent initiative of setting up of INCCA and comprehensive and systematic assessments of various facets of climate change are good developments. With the passage of time the quality of assessments may improve. For that the network need to be kept active and focused with all necessary support.
2. As climate change is continuing, the future changes and their impact remain uncertain. As the intensity of rainfall is expected to increase and number of rainy days expected to fall; there may be flash floods in many parts of the country and prolonged dry spells within the season.
3. Though the average crop yield may decline moderately in the near future, there may be severe fluctuations and frequent crop failures, including horticulture, even in the short term. However, the tree crops of forest species may thrive.
4. The LULUCF have great potential to mitigate GHG emissions. 5. Recent initiatives like PMCCC, NAPCC, eight national missions and related focused works
with respect to climate change are good measures, though belated. However, the initiatives placed too much faith on technology breakthroughs and government own ability to invest required resources and overlooked other crucial issues like reforms in agriculture, natural resource management, governance issues such as decentralization and people’s participation in development processes and people’s institutions.
6. Acknowledgement of the pitfalls17 in the current development models/ paradigms and search for alternatives may give many win‐win solutions to turn the challenges into opportunities.
7. To convert challenges of the climate change into opportunities, the country has to focus on employment transition; improving the quality of human resources, which is very much related to the employment transition; thorough review of current subsidy programs; complete removal of state restrictions on the growing, harvesting and marketing forest species; development of markets and payments for environmental services at different levels, genuine decentralization and community participation in the development projects, programs and processes.
17 Saxena, N. C., 2009 beautifully articulated these pitfalls
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Appendix – 3.1: Overviews of national missions related to Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Water
National Mission on Green India or Green India Mission Green India Mission (GIM) puts “greening” in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Greening is meant to enhance ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; as well as other provisioning services such as fuel, fodder, small timber and non‐timber forest products (NTFPs). The Mission aims at responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures, which would help: 1. Enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystems; 2. Adaptation of vulnerable species/ ecosystems to the changing climate; and 3. Adaptation of forest‐dependent communities.
The objectives of the Mission are:
a) Increased forest/ tree cover on 5 m ha of forest /non‐forest lands and improved quality of forest cover on another 5 m ha (a total of 10 m ha).
b) Improved ecosystem services including biodiversity, hydrological services and carbon sequestration as a result of treatment of 10 m ha.
c) Increased forest‐based livelihood income of about 3 million households living in and around the forests.
d) Enhanced annual CO2 sequestration by 50 to 60 million tons in the year 2020 The Mission will have clear targets for different forest types and ecosystems which will enable achievement of the overall objectives of the Mission. The Mission targets 10 m ha of forest/ non‐forest lands and includes:
a) qualitative improvement of forest cover/ ecosystem in moderately dense forests (1.5 m ha), open degraded forests (3 m ha) , degraded grassland (0.4 m ha) and wetlands (0.1 m ha;
b) eco‐restoration/ afforestation of scrub, shifting cultivation areas, cold deserts, mangroves, ravines and abandoned mining areas (2 m ha); c) bringing urban/ peri‐urban lands under forest and tree cover (0.20 m ha); and d) agro‐forestry /social forestry (3 m ha). The Mission also targets improvement of forest‐ based livelihoods for about three million households living in and around forests.
The key highlights of the Mission strategy are listed below:
o Holistic view to “greening” (broader than plantations): The scope of greening will go
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beyond trees and plantations to encompass both protection and restoration. Emphasis will be placed on restoration of degraded ecosystems and habitat diversity, for example, grassland and pastures (more so in arid/ semi‐arid regions), mangroves, wetlands and other critical ecosystems. The greening will not only strive to restore degraded forests, but will also contribute in the protection and enhancement of forests with relatively dense forest cover.
o Vulnerability' and 'Potential' as criteria for intervention: Criteria for selection of project areas/ sub‐landscapes/ sub‐watersheds under the Mission will include projected vulnerability to climatic change, potential of areas for enhancing carbon sinks and the significance of the area from ecosystem services angle, such as biodiversity and hydrological services.
o Integrated cross‐sectoral approach to implementation: The Mission will foster an integrated approach that treats forests and non‐forest public lands as well as private lands simultaneously, in project units/ sub‐landscapes/ sub‐ watersheds. Livelihood dependencies, for example firewood needs and livestock grazing, will be addressed using inter‐sectoral convergence (e.g., livestock, forest, agriculture, rural development, and energy)
Key role for local communities and decentralized governance: Local communities will be required to play a key role in project governance and implementation. The Mission will bring primacy to Gram Sabha as an overarching institution to oversee Mission implementation at the village level. The committees set up by the Gram Sabha, including revamped JFMCs, CFM groups, Van Panchayats, Committees set up under Forest Rights Act; Biodiversity Management Committees etc., will be strengthened as the primary institutions on the ground for nested decentralized forest governance in rural areas. Similarly in the schedule VI areas, the traditional village level institution/village councils will be supported. Likewise, the Mission will support revamping/strengthening of the Forest Development Agencies to support the field institutions.
Cadre of Community Foresters: The Mission will invest in the development of a cadre of community‐based change agents from amongst educated community youth. These community foresters will facilitate planning, implementation and monitoring of the Mission activities at the local level. This will provide skilled employment opportunity to about one lakh educated community youths.
Robust and effective monitoring framework: A comprehensive monitoring framework at four different levels is proposed. In addition to on‐the‐ground self‐monitoring by multiple agencies, including communities, the Mission will support the use of modern technology like Remote Sensing with GPS mapping of plot boundaries for monitoring at the input /output/ outcome level. The Gram Sabha will carry out the social audit of the Mission activities at the village level.
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The Mission will identify research priorities in support of the Mission aim and objectives. The Mission will set up a cell under the overall guidance of MoEF to link to REDD Plus activities in the country.
The Mission will implement its strategy through a set of five Sub Missions and cross‐cutting interventions. Mission Organization: At the national level, the Mission will be set up as an autonomous Society under the aegis of the MoEF to facilitate smooth implementation of the Mission. The Governing Council of the Society, Chaired by the Minister for Environment and Forests, Government of India, and drawing upon cross‐sectoral representation, will provide overall guidance. The Mission will be subjected to the highest degree of financial accountability and transparency. A revamped State Forest Development Agency will act as the State Mission Directorate and will be chaired by the Chief Minister/ Forest Minister. It will solicit cross‐sectoral representation and will guide the Mission activities at the State level. At District level, the Mission implementation will be facilitated by revamped Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) and will link with District Planning Committee. The Gram Sabha, and the various Committees set up by it, will be the key institution for planning and implementation at the village level. A federation of these Committees along with a federation of self‐help groups (SHGs)/ User Groups (UGs) at the cluster level will be represented in the revamped FDA at the district level. In urban areas, the ward level committees linked to Municipality/ Municipal Corporations will facilitate planning and implementation under the Mission. Timeframe: The actual implementation period of the Mission will spread over 10 years, coinciding with the 12th and 13th five year plan periods. Resources: The total mission cost is estimated to be Rs.46,000 crores Source: Government of India, 2010a
National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) seeks to address issues regarding ‘Sustainable Agriculture’ in the context of risks associated with climate change by devising appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies for ensuring food security, equitable access to food resources, enhancing livelihood opportunities and contributing to economic stability at the national level.
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The Mission acknowledges that the risks to the Indian agriculture sector due to climatic variability and extreme events would be accentuated at multiple levels including at the levels of crop or livestock, farm or cropping system and the food system. Adverse impacts on agricultural production would be severe in the absence of appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures with far reaching consequences in terms of shortages of food articles and rising prices which could endanger the food and livelihood security of our country. The Mission, therefore, seeks to transform Indian agriculture into a climate resilient production system through suitable adaptation and mitigation measures in the domain of crops and animal husbandry. These interventions would be embedded in research and development activities, absorption of improved technology and best practices, creation of physical and financial infrastructure and institutional framework, facilitating access to information and promoting capacity building. While promotion of dry land agriculture would receive prime importance by way of developing suitable drought and pest resistant crop varieties and ensuring adequacy of institutional support, the Mission would also expand its coverage to rainfed areas for integrating farming systems with management of livestock and fisheries, so that agricultural production continues to grow in a sustainable manner. The mission identifies ten key dimensions for promoting the sustainable agricultural practices by implementing a program of action (POA) covering both adaptation and mitigation measures through four functional areas, namely, Research and Development, Technologies, products and practices, Infrastructure and Capacity building. While modern technologies and research would continue to play an important role in promoting the sustainability of agricultural production, the Mission also recognizes the need to harness traditional knowledge and agricultural heritage for in‐situ conservation of genetic resources. The POA would be operationalised by mainstreaming adaptation and mitigation strategies in ongoing research and development programs and in flagship schemes including; Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), National Food Security Mission (NFSM) etc. through a process of selective upscaling and course correction measures which would further be supplemented by introduction of new programmatic interventions. NMSA would also seek convergence with other National Missions and collaborations with key Ministries/Departments for institutionalizing linkages for addressing cross‐sectoral issues. Sustainable agricultural production is the key to ensure food and livelihood security and would require a multi‐functional/multi‐tier institutional mechanism for ensuring convergence and establishing linkage at all levels. The Mission, therefore, proposes to formulate policies of national importance in consultation with the States in the National Development Council. Similarly, for deliberating cross cutting issues with other Missions as well as Ministries/ Departments, an Inter Ministerial Coordination Committee, chaired by Cabinet Secretary is
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recommended. The Intra‐Ministerial platform will function in the Ministry of Agriculture and its collaborative efforts with relevant Departments, NGOs, civil society, knowledge institutions and other stakeholders would be coordinated at the level of Secretary (Agriculture & Cooperation) The implementation of NMSA up to the end of XII Five Year Plan would require additional budgetary support of Rs.1,08,000 crores. Source: Government of India, 2010
National Water Mission The main objective of the National Water Mission is “conservation of water, minimizing wastage and ensuring its more equitable distribution both across and within States through integrated water resources development and management”. The five identified goals of the Mission are: (a) comprehensive water data base in public domain and assessment of impact of climate change on water resource; (b) promotion of citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation and preservation; (c) focused attention to over‐exploited areas; (d) increasing water use efficiency by 20%, and (e) promotion of basin level integrated water resources management. Various strategies for achieving the goals have been identified which lead to integrated plan for sustainable development and efficient management with active participation of the stakeholders after identifying and evaluating the development scenario and management practices towards better acceptability on the basis of dependable projection of the impacts of climate change on water resources based on reliable data and information. Identified strategies of the Mission also aim to review (a) National Water Policy, (b) policy for financing water resources projects, and (c) criteria for design and planning for water resources projects. The most important strategy is to identify and evaluate development scenario and management practices towards better acceptability with due consideration to integrated water resources planning and emphasis on ensuring convergence among various water resources programs. Some of the important features of the Mission are:
Review of National Water Policy; Research and studies on all aspects related to impact of climate change on water resources including quality aspects of water resources;
Expeditious implementation of water resources projects particularly the multipurpose projects with carry over storages;
Promotion of traditional system of water conservation; Intensive program for groundwater recharge in over‐exploited areas; Incentivize for recycling of water including wastewater; Planning on the principle of integrated water resources development and management.
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Ensuring convergence among various water resources programs; and Intensive capacity building and awareness program including those for Panchayati Raj Institutions, urban local bodies and youths.
Sensitization of elected representatives of over exploited area on dimensions of the problem and to orient investment under NREGA towards water conservation.
For achieving the objectives of the Mission, long‐term sustained efforts both in terms of time bound completion of identified activities and ensuring the implementation of identified policies and enactment of necessary legislation through persuasion at different levels with the State Governments have been envisaged. The first and foremost action is to put in place appropriate mechanism for coordinated actions followed by intensive capacity building and awareness program up to lower most level of management i.e., Panchayati Raj Institutions, urban local bodies, Water User Associations etc. All sections of the society, particularly youths are planned to be actively involved in the process. Source: Government of India, 2009
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Chapter – 4: Current Scenario in AP and SPACC districts and implications of climate change
4.1. Introduction As over 60% of population is directly dependent on agriculture and many mare dependents indirectly such as in transport of agriculture products, manufacturing and supply of agriculture inputs and in the processing and marketing of agriculture produces, agriculture is critical sector in the state. Further prices of agriculture commodities are very sensitive issue. The climate change is going to have profound impact on agriculture, livelihoods of at least three‐fourth of people and overall state economy. In this chapter the condition of and, trends in the state and SPACC area’s agriculture are discussed. The chapter also described some innovative and climate change resilient projects and programs which may provide, some insights or potential solutions to the impending climate change, are discussed. As the national agriculture policies and strategies have larger impact on the state agriculture and that of SPACC area, the chapter starts with a brief discussion about national agriculture strategies.
4.2. National Agriculture Strategies In order to attain self sufficiency in food grain productions during the mid 1960s food grain crises, the Government of India initiated the ‘Green Revolution’, with support package of input subsidies such as fertilizer, power, irrigation, etc and support price to wheat and rice. Though the country achieved self sufficiency in food grains production, the Government continued the same package support. This proved to be a drain on the public resources, deprived the public investment in agriculture infrastructure, especially in backward regions and caused severe environmental challenges. Saxena 2009 beautifully articulated the pitfalls of the current agriculture policy of the Government of India (Box – 4.1). Most of the benefits of present input subsidies and support price programs are accruing to resource intensive crops such as wheat, rice, sugarcane, cotton, etc; to well off farmers and developed regions. The Government is continuing these policies under the pretext of sustaining the food security. Evidence from different parts of the country and also world indicate that government’s total focus on wheat and rice to obtain food security is neither desirable nor necessary; a healthy and more nutritional and palatable food security could be achieved through biodiversity cropping at much cheaper cost and environmentally benign methods (see e.g. Ramanjaneyulu, et al (undated); Shiva, Vandana, 2011; and Goldsmith, 2003). The present cultivation practices, often referred as ‘industrial farming’ is crumbling under its own weight. The crop response to the fertilizer application has declined significantly. Continuous use of fertilizers, pesticides and mono‐cropping has severely affected the soil health and quality. Many insects have been developing
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resistance to chemical pesticides. Availability of the diesel and petroleum products become uncertain (see e.g. Goldsmith, 2003).
Box – 4.1: Pitfalls of Current Agriculture Strategies
The policy approach to agriculture since 1990s has been to secure increased production through subsidies on inputs such as power, water and fertilizer and by increasing the minimum support price (MSP) rather than through building new capital assets in surface irrigation, power and rural infrastructure or through improving credit for small farmers and evolving new drought resistant technologies. This has shifted the production base from low‐cost regions to high‐cost ones, causing an increase in the cost of production, regional imbalance and an increase in the burden of storage and transport of food grains. The equity, efficiency and sustainability of the current approach are questionable. The boost in output from subsidy‐stimulated use of fertilizer, pesticides and water has the potential to damage aquifers and soils – an environmentally unsustainable approach that may partly explain the rising costs and slowing growth and productivity in agriculture, notably in Punjab and Haryana states. Although private investment in agriculture has increased, this has often involved macro‐economic inefficiencies (such as private investment in diesel generating sets instead of public investment in electricity supply). Instead of promoting low‐cost labour intensive options that have a lower capital‐output ratio, present policies have resulted in excessive use of capital on the farms such as too many tube‐wells in water‐scarce regions. Another big change in the last three decades is the dominant use of groundwater as opposed to surface and sub‐soil (through shallow wells). Groundwater has become the main source of irrigation. Surface irrigation systems already created are lying wasted because canals or other systems are hardly maintained. Because of inefficiency of large water irrigation systems, people have been forced to exploit groundwater. Thus bulk of Indian agriculture not only remains rainfed but also depends on groundwater, not surface water. This is worrisome in the current context of increasingly variable rainfall. Due to excessive withdrawal of groundwater, groundwater use exceeds the rate of groundwater recharge. As a result Government has classified nearly 30 percent of the development blocks in the country as semi‐critical, critical or overexploited (mostly in ‘green revolution’ areas) in term of groundwater depletion. As there is no effective control over digging of tube‐wells in water‐scarce regions, farmers are borrowing money from informal sources at high interest rates for it. Many such borings fail due to non‐availability of groundwater leading to indebtedness, and even suicides. Sources: Compiled from Saxena, N. C. 2009
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Yet another strategy, which has severe impact on tree growing tradition by the farmers in their fields and other individuals in their homesteads and on other vacant areas is the nationalization of private tree lands. It resulted in massive tree felling in 1960s, even in 1970s. Apart from nationalization of private tree lands, various state governments have monopoly powers on many forest species’ ownership, harvesting and marketing; even if they were grown on private lands (see Box – 4.2). E.g. take the case of Sandalwood ‐ the tree grows like a weed in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Yet, it is difficult to find a single sandalwood tree. If they spot a sandalwood sapling in their fields, landowners uproot it immediately, rather than let it grow, even though sandalwood is very valuable and can fetch good money for landholders. Why do landowners resort to this drastic step? If they do not uproot the tree, they get caught in a double whammy. On one hand is the law. On the other are the outlaws who trade in sandalwood. If an outlaw chops it down, the law will hold the landowner accountable. As a result, sandalwood remains in short supply. But the government's pricing mechanism does not take the law of supply and demand into consideration. The government buys sandalwood at an absurdly 'controlled' ‐‐ to be read low – price (Down to Earth, 1999). State restriction are not just limited to Sandalwood, cover almost all forest species such as Bamboo (Narain, Sunita, 2011), Red‐sander18, even horticulture trees19. Similarly the government controls on harvesting/ cutting of trees in the homestead, in urban areas, is discouraging the people from planting/ rising trees in their homesteads and vacant lands.
Another policy, which has negative effect on traditional sustainable agriculture practices of farmers is the assignment (allowing of encroachments), under ‘grow more food’ campaigns, of common lands including water bodies like defunct tanks. This led to reduction of livestock holding, by small and marginal farmers and landless people. As a result machinery replaced livestock in many agriculture operations. As consequence farmyard manure also declined and had to be substituted by inorganic fertilizers. Further, the Government subsidies to inorganic fertilizers and diesel accelerated the process. On the other hand as most of assigned/ encroached common lands are not suitable for permanent agriculture, the assignees left the lands fallow. As a result the country witnessed a steep decline of pasture/ common lands and a significant increase in fallow lands during last four decades.
18 The famous Rishi Vally School in Madanapalli, Chittoor district has many Red‐sander trees in its vast campus. The outlaws cut the trees in 2004 ‐ 05. The authorities subjected the school management to severe investigation and harassment. The news papers in the state prominently reported the news 19 During the prolonged drought period early years of current century, many horticulture plantations such as Mango and Sweet lemon died in Andhra Pradesh. The authorities issues notices, under state Water, Land and Tree Act (WLATA) 2002, to farmers not to cut/ lift the dead trees without their permission. Local news papers reported the news, though not so prominently.
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Yet another unsustainable practice introduced by the Government is centralized procurement of food grains (predominantly resource intensive rice and wheat) in a few pockets20 and decentralized distribution, under public distribution system (PDS) across the length and breadth of the country. This practice led to huge ‘food miles’21 and adversely affected the cultivation of local food crops – coarse cereals.
Box – 4.2: Tragedy of Private Tree Growing
At the time of country's independence in 1947 the areas under Reserve Forests (RF) and Protected Forests (PF) were 31 and 15 m ha respectively. Since then the net area under the control of Forest Department has further increased to 67 m ha through several processes. First, after the abolition of the princely states and landlordism, all uncultivated lands under their control became vested in the State. The larger tracts were handed over to the Forest Department generally as PF, and the rest were vested in the village Panchayats which are under the overall supervision of the Revenue Department. The second process of extending government control over forests was through acquisition of private forests. These laws were passed by the various state governments in the two decades following Independence. Massive felling of trees took place from these forests because of the fear that these forests would be nationalized, as indeed they were in the 1950's and 60's. For several years after this take‐over an impression has continued in the villages that if trees are planted on private lands, not only would the trees belong to Government but land on which such plantation takes place would also revert to Government. Even as late as 1987 a SIDA team promoting farm forestry in South Bihar encountered tribal’s fears that if they planted trees their lands would be taken away by the government. The fear is not baseless as the Bihar Private Forest Act and similar other enactments did precisely this in the past, by "nationalizing" private trees. Source: Saxena, N. C. undated
4.3. Andhra Pradesh the State and Its Agriculture Andhra Pradesh (AP) is one of the largest states of India. Spread over 275 thousand square kilometers, it hosts a population of over 90 million. AP has reported a total GDP of Rs.3,26,547 crores which works out to be Rs.35,600 per capita for the year 2007‐8 at current prices. AP is the
20 About 71% of total procured wheat in 2010 – 11, was procured just from two states – Punjab and Haryana. And about 70% of total procured rice, in 2009 – 10 was obtained from four states – Punjab, Haryana, UP and AP. Within states also procurements are confined to a few districts. 21 Food transported across the world burns up a lot of fossil fuel and contributes to global warming. "Food miles" ‐ the total distance in miles the food item is transported from field to plate ‐ has become accepted as a convenient indicator of sustainability; and has led to a general movement towards local production and local consumption in order to minimize them.
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fourth largest state economy of India with its per capita income about the average for India but growing at a rate of over 10% since 2003‐4. Only 26% of its GDP accrues from agriculture, yet 62% of all workers are either farmers or manual agricultural laborers. Per hectare agricultural output works out to be Rs.25 thousand which is above the average for India. AP has a literacy of 60.5% (70.3% male and 50.4% female) and low infant and child mortality at 43 per thousand births (Government of India, 2010b).
4.3.1. Agriculture in Andhra Pradesh
As mentioned above the national agriculture strategies, which include input subsidies, price support to wheat and rice, nationalization of tree lands and state monopoly on rising, harvesting and marketing of forest species, privatization of pasture lands, PDS, etc have large influence on state agriculture sector such as land use policy, cropping pattern, etc. The trends in land use pattern between 1956 – 57 and 2008 – 09 are given at Table – 4.1. The area under forest has gone up from 55.55 lakh ha to 63.6 lakh ha by 1975 – 76, because of the state policy of nationalization of tree lands (see Box – 4.2). This policy had a big impact on the tradition of tree growing in the state and also in the country. As mentioned above, because of assignment of pasture lands, the area under pastures declined from 12.36 lakh ha in 1956 – 57 to 5.77 lakh ha in 2008 – 09. During the same period, the fallow lands increased from over 25 lakh ha to 40 lakh ha. And the net sown area also declined by 4 lakh ha (Table 4.1). It shows how unsustainable and unprofitable the agriculture became over the years. Table – 4.1: Trends in Land Utilization Particulars in Andhra Pradesh (Area in lakh hectares)
Year Geogra‐ phical area
Forest area
Barren land
Land putto nonagri. uses
Permanent Pastures
Misc trees
Cultural waste
Other fallows
Current fallows
Net area sown
Area sownmore than once
Gross croppedArea
1956‐57 269.12 55.55 25.87 15.24 12.36 2.33 18.13 8.06 17.85 113.74 10.7 124.44
1965‐66 274.75 61.17 21.21 19.70 11.69 3.11 14.2 9.42 24.3 109.94 10.95120.91
1975‐76 274.40 63.6 22.45 20.70 9.64 2.74 9.55 11.51 22.48 111.72 17.86129.58
1985‐86 274.40 58.36 22.69 22.48 8.81 2.64 8.65 14.92 31.58 104.27 16.73121.00
1995‐96 274.40 62.45 20.83 24.50 7.63 2.47 7.44 16.58 25.39 107.11 24.06130.43
2005‐06 274.40 61.99 20.84 26.15 6.76 2.78 6.92 16.23 24.34 108.39 26.16134.55
2006‐07 275.04 62.1 20.98 25.91 6.02 3.2 6.95 15.83 31.66 102.39 26.64129.03
2007‐08 275.04 62.1 20.59 26.37 5.71 3.06 6.59 15 27.19 108.43 28.11136.54
2008‐09 275.04 62.1 20.79 26.49 5.77 3.17 6.52 14.49 26.11 109.60 28.70138.30
Source: Directorate of Economics And Statistics, Government Of Andhra Pradesh; http://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
As mentioned in the previous section, the Government of India continued an emergency ‘green revolution’ policies and programs such as subsidies on farm inputs such as electricity, diesel,
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irrigation, fertilizers, and price support to rice and wheat for too long. As a result the share of resource intensive crops like rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, etc grew at the cost of less resource intensive crops. Same trend could also be seen in cropping pattern in the state (Table – 4.2). Resource intensive crops production has increased significantly during 1956 – 57 to 2008 – 09. E.g. the production of rice increased from 34.7 lakh tons to 142.41 tons, the production of cotton increased from 1.26 lakh tons to 35.69 lakh tons and sugarcane production increased from 6.29 lakh tons to 15.32 lakh tons. It was 21.42 lakh tons in 2007 – 08. The only less resource intensity crop which grow significantly is maize. The possible reasons are steep increase in its demand from poultry industry, urban consumers, food processing industry and technology improvement. Though groundnut production also increased, it experiences wide yearly fluctuations and it is being cultivated as last resort with minimum external inputs. The steep increase of maize production suggests that crops like Jowar and Ragi would have gone up, had there been good market and other support measures. But the market for, and, local/ subsistence consumption of, these crops were depressed by cheap supply of rice and wheat through PDS. Inclusion of the coarse cereals in PDS may increase the production of these less resource intense crops and also improve the health of the people and palatability of the PDS items. As a World Bank 2006 study pointed out that in changing climate conditions the profitability of less water intensive crops like jowar will be high and losses due to crop failures would be less. Though the productivities of these crops are low, their yield rates grew at the same rate of the resource intense crops like rice (Appendix – 4.1 at the end of this chapter). Further, the evidence from many NGO lead experiments suggest that with better farm management practices, the productivity of these crops could be increased significantly. It may be noted that the area under rice did not increased significantly during last 50 years. However, rice cultivation has completely shifted to irrigation area during this period. Rice is being cultivated in new area, especially where irrigation facilities were created. Some of traditional rice growing areas have shifted towards fish and prawn culture and horticulture.
Table – 4.2: Trends in Production of Major Crops in Andhra Pradesh (Lakh Tones)Category 1956‐57 1970‐71 1980‐81 1990‐91 2000‐01 2007‐08 2008‐9
Rice 34.70 47.86 70.11 96.54 124.58 133.24 142.41
Jowar 11.80 9.67 10.82 8.51 6.19 4.70 4.36
Bajra 2.29 2.99 3.36 1.68 1.48 0.92 0.60
Maize 1.05 3.44 7.25 6.46 15.81 41.35 41.52
Ragi 2.91 2.31 2.45 1.91 1.20 0.69 0.52
Total Cereals 56.16 69.65 95.77 116.34 149.74 181.20 189.73
Green gram 0.67 1.49 1.83 1.37 1.84 1.92 1.36
Black gram 0.03 0.90 1.07 3.66 3.91 2.50 2.20
Red gram 0.04 0.62 0.44 0.74 2.19 3.02 2.02
Bengal gram 0.33 0.28 0.14 0.57 2.29 9.12 8.54
Horse gram 0.90 1.12 0.61 0.51 0.20 0.25 0.16
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Total Pulses 2.76 4.50 4.14 6.96 10.54 16.97 14.48
Total Food grains 58.92 74.15 99.91 123.30 160.28 198.17 204.21
Ground nuts 12.22 12.34 8.60 22.67 24.43 26.40 9.73
castor 0.65 0.65 0.26 0.87 1.37 1.29 0.81
Sesamum 0.53 0.53 0.31 0.33 0.37 0.27 0.19
Cotton 1.26 0.78 4.89 11.10 16.63 34.91 35.69
Tobacco 1.35 1.44 1.64 1.87 0.88 1.75 3.14
Sugarcane 6.29 9.47 10.42 13.26 18.00 21.42 15.32
Chilies 1.19 1.59 1.49 3.47 5.26 7.72 7.73` Source: ‐ Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradeshhttp://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
4.3.2. Irrigation
Irrigation plays an important role in tropical areas like Andhra Pradesh. Therefore the rulers and communities have been giving a lot of importance to irrigation. Many kings like Vijaynagar kings and Kakatiya kings build a number of irrigation tanks during the medieval periods. The British build barrages on Godavari and Krishna rivers, which contributed immensely for the development of the costal districts. During the same time the Nizams also built a number of irrigation tanks. After independence, the government gave high priority to irrigation, built a number of multipurpose large and medium dams and plethora of minor irrigation projects. The communities also build number of small/ minor irrigation tanks/ structures and lift irrigation schemes. Individual farmers have been giving high priority to build irrigation wells for long time and bore‐well in recent years. The trends in source‐wise irrigation during 1956 – 57 to 2008 – 09 are presented at Table – 4.3. The area under canal irrigation has doubled from 12.92 lakh ha to 25.97 lakh ha and the well irrigated area has increased by 8 times from 2.84 lakh ha to 23.23 lakh ha. But the area under tank irrigation has declined by about 50% from 10.68 lakh ha in 1955 – 56 to 6.48 ha in 2008 – 09. During the same period the share of tank irrigation in total irrigation has declined from 38.9% to 11.3%. Another problem with tank irrigation is wide yearly fluctuation. E.g. the area under tank irrigation was 5.85 lakh ha in 2007 – 08. Decline of tank system is a serious issue of concern. Because, tanks provide a number of benefits such as recharge of ground water, protective and productive irrigation, improve the local environment (attracts migratory birds, provide water for wild animals, and moisture to local greenery. Tanks provide irrigation on wide spread areas, especially in up lands and other vulnerable area, where canal and well irrigation is not possible. As any other common pool resource, tanks used to benefit the poorer sections more and help the reduction of economic inequalities in the villages. If the tanks become defunct, the poor and weaker section sections suffer more (Bhaskara Rao, G, 2003).
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Table – 4.3: Trends in Area Irrigated by Different Sources (in lakh hectares)
Source of Irrigation
Net Area Irrigated % to Total Net Area Irrigated
1955‐56
1970‐71
1985‐86
2007‐08
2008‐09
1955‐56
1970‐71
1985‐86
2007‐08
2008‐09
Canal 12.92 15.79 17.83 25.84 25.97 47.0 47.7 50.4 46.0 45.2
Tanks 10.68 11.12 7.86 5.85 6.48 38.9 33.6 22.2 10.4 11.3
Wells 2.84 5.00 8.57 22.87 23.23 10.3 15.3 24.2 40.7 40.4
Other Sources 1.03 1.12 1.12 1.62 1.80 3.8 3.4 3.2 2.9 3.1
Total Net Area Irrigated 27.47 33.13 35.38 56.18 57.48 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Area Irrigated More than Once 4.53 9.10 7.99 16.41 19.20 16.5 27.5 22.6 29.2 33.4
Gross Area Irrigated 32.00 42.23 43.37 72.59 76.68 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐ Source: ‐ Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradeshhttp://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
The use of groundwater varies across the state with some areas still having significant unused groundwater potential while in other areas groundwater use has exceeded 100 percent. Most of the groundwater is being used in areas not covered by surface irrigation. Groundwater use in these areas is 56 percent as against 16 percent in areas with surface irrigation (World Bank, 2006). Another issues of concern in respect to irrigation is that the Government invested huge amounts of money in major and medium irrigation, without corresponding benefits either to the communities/ farmers (economic benefits) or to the investor (Government) (financial benefits). The completion of the projects has been taking too long time and cost escalations are quite high even more than 10 times of original budget. Further, there has been vasts and ever widening gap between potential and actual irrigated area under almost all major and medium projects. Last 10 years experience of water user committees (WUC) and participatory irrigation management (PIM) are not very satisfactory. One of the possible reasons is that people’s participation usually starts after completing of the construction of the structure or at the time of utilization of the structure/ water. Further, WUC are not given adequate responsibilities and their contributions were never sought in developing the irrigation structures. The actual irrigation charges, in major and medium irrigations projects not sufficient even to meet the maintenance cost of the structure. Because of these huge subsidies, there is ever increasing demand for canal irrigation (dams) and huge wastage/ high inefficient use of the precious water. Because of these inefficiencies the share of irrigated area in the gross value of agriculture production in the state is broadly correspond to its own share in gross cropped area (Table – 4.4). It implies that the productivity/ profitability of the irrigation area are no better than that of un‐irrigated area. The only major benefit from irrigation is that it’s potential to enhance the cropping intensity. Out of about 30 lakh ha of total area sown more than once, 20 lakh ha is the area irrigated more than once. Other benefit is that insulate the agriculture income from vagaries of the monsoon.
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Table – 4.4: Share of Irrigated area in Value of Agriculture Production
Area category
2000‐01 2008‐09
Gross Cropped Area
Gross Value of Production
Gross Cropped Area
Gross Value of Production
(lakh ha.) (Rs. Crores) (lakh ha.) (Rs. Crores)
Irrigated 59.16 (44) 12,459(44) 67.41 (49) 27,746 (49)
Rain fed 76.29 (56) 15,859(56) 70.59 (51) 28,870 (51)
Total 135.45 (100) 28,318(100) 138.3 (100) 56,626 (100) Source: ‐ Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradeshhttp://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
Yet another concern of irrigation in the state is its contribution to the indebtedness of farmers and their suicides. The inputs subsidies including free power and price support to rice have been enticing the farmers to invest heavily on bore‐well and cultivating resource and water intensive crops like rice. Because of over exploitation of ground water and frequent droughts, the bore‐well discharge became a big uncertain and leading to crop failures and even the failure of bore‐well. Failure of bore‐well forces the farmer to sink another bore‐well at another location. Table – 4.5 shows the farmers indebtedness, cost of cultivation, value of production and net income per ha in AP and India. On average 82% of farm household are indebted in AP vis‐à‐vis 48.6% at all India level. The difference is even more in marginal and small farmers’ categories. One of reasons is that farmers in AP have better access to financial institutions/ banks due to its thriving SHG bank linkage program. Apart from institutional credit, the farm household in the state have higher propensity to raise credit from informal sources also, particularly from input suppliers and invest heavily in agriculture. The cost of cultivation (more appropriate phrase could be “farm investment”) in AP is Rs.8,673 compare to Rs.5,841 at all India level, i.e. the AP farmers’ cost of cultivation is about 50% more than the all India cost of cultivation, but they get less than 10% of additional value of output per ha. As a result net income per ha in AP is significantly less than that of all India. The situation is even worse for marginal and small farmers. The marginal farmers in AP invest more than 50% per ha vis‐à‐vis the all marginal farmers in the country but get just little over 50% of net income per ha compare to marginal farmers in the country. Some of the reasons for this could be the poor and deteriorating quality of natural resources, also due to excess use of inorganic and synthetic chemicals. This is perhaps the one of the principal reasons for farmers’ suicides in the state.22 It clearly shows that marginal and small farmers in state are more vulnerable and need significant diversification in their income sources.
22 Andhra Pradesh has the dubious distinction of being the home for ‘Farmers’ Suicides’ in India. Out of the 32 districts identified by Planning Commission and the Prime Minister’s Relief scheme as districts being under serious agrarian distress, 16 are in Andhra Pradesh. Among various reasons for the crisis higher dependency on external inputs contributing to economic and ecological distress are important issues which need to be addressed (see Ramanjuneyulu, G. V. and Krishna Soujanya, 2011).
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Table – 4.5: Farmers Indebtedness and Net Income per Ha in 2003
Indicator Sate/ country
Farmer category
Marginal Small Marginal & small
Medium & Large All
Indebtedness (% of household)
India 45.8 50.8 46.8 57.8 48.6
AP 80.3 86.9 81.9 82.7 82
Cost of cultivation per ha
India 6,945 6,046 6,530 5,252 5,841
AP 10,553 9,806 10,176 7,527 8,673
Value of output per ha
India 14,754 13,001 13,944 11,333 12,535
AP 14,777 14,849 14,813 12,886 13,720
Net income per ha
India 7,809 6,955 7,414 6,081 6,694
AP 4,224 5,043 4,637 5,359 5,047 Source: Compiled from NCEUS, 2008
4.4. SPACC project Area The SPACC project is being implemented in seven southern districts of Andhra Pradesh. The districts are Anantapur, chittoor, Kadapa, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda and Prakasam. Out of these, only Prakasam has sea coat and all other are land locked districts. These are drought pone districts. Being the drought prone, the socio ‐ economic condition of these districts are below the state average, but not too below the state average. The districts are behind state average in population density, sex ratio, urbanization, infant mortality rate (IMR), value of agriculture output per ha, dependency on agriculture (Table – 4.6). However some districts are above state average on a few development indicators such as literacy rate and per capita income. Very high dependency on agriculture and significantly lower agriculture output per ha are issues of concerns.
Table – 4.6: Position of project districts vis‐à‐vis state average on select development indicators Region / District Andhra
Pradesh Anantapur
Chittoor Kadapa Kurnool
Mahabubnagar
Nalgonda
Prakasam
Area ("000 sq. km.) 275 19.1 15.2 15.4 17.7 18.4 14.2 17.6 Population (in millions 2001
76.2 3.6 3.7 2.6 3.5 3.5 3.2 3.1
Population Density (Persons/ sq.km.)
277 191 246 169 199 191 229 174
Urbanization (in %) 27.3 25.3 21.7 22.6 23.2 10.6 13.3 15.3 Sex Ratio 978 958 982 974 965 972 966 971 IMR (Per 1000) 43 54 40 39 47 58 48 40 Literacy Rate 60.5 56.2 66.8 62.8 53.2 44.4 57.2 57.4 % of SC's & ST's 22.8 17.6 22.2 18.1 19.8 25 28.3 25.2
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Work Participation Rate 45.8 48.8 46.8 44.8 49.4 51.9 49.1 50.3 % Share of Agri in Total Workers
62.2 67.5 66.1 63.3 68.2 73.2 67.6 68.4
Per ha Agri. Output (RS.'000)
24.6 9.1 23.5 12.9 15.8 11 15.9 21.3
2007‐08 Per capita DDP (in RS.)
35,600 32,255 28,147 46,305 29,362
27,959 34,138
35,472
Per capita income rank 15 18 3 16 19 12 10 Government of India, 2010b
In these districts, surface water appears to be fully utilized with only a modest scope for further increase. In the medium term, irrigation projects can increase the area under surface irrigation by about 8 percent (World Bank, 2006). Groundwater extraction is also quite high in these districts, compared to the state average amounting to about half of the total groundwater extracted in the state (figure 4.1). There are serious technical and economic constraints to increasing the volume of irrigation water for these districts or at least for those areas within these districts that have become drought‐prone hot spots. There is a wide recognition in the state of the need to start an adaptation process for a gradual shift to less water‐intensive agricultural and other economic practices (such as livestock and agro‐industry) that are more sustainable in water‐deficit areas (World Bank, 200623). With very limited scope to increase the surface irrigation and over 50% of current ground water draft rate, few available options, in the area, are: increase the water use efficiency, build small and innovative water storage structures, improve water absorption and retention capacity of the soil, shift to non‐agriculture enterprises, etc.
Figure – 4.1: Groundwater Assessment for Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh (Million Cubic Meters)
Source: Adapted from World Bank, 200624
23 The World Bank 2006 study covered 8 rain shadow districts. The 8 districts are seven SPACC districts and Rangareddy district. Hence the findings of the study are very closely applicable to present study area. 24 Ibid
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4.5. Select Development Programs/ Pilots in the state and SPACC area
There have been so many Government and NGO and other initiatives addressing issues related climate change, resource degradation, sustainable development, sustainable agriculture, etc. In this sections the following programs, which are very much relevant for this study are discussed:
1. SERP’s CMSA 2. State watershed program 3. Joint forest management program 4. APFAMGS program 5. SPWD Tank restoration program 6. APPS experience and learning
4.5.1. Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture of SERP
Realizing the mounting cost of cultivation, especially for small and marginal farmers, low returns from agriculture and environmental implication of excess use of inorganic agro‐chemicals, SERP initiated the sustainable agriculture program. SERP build the program on earlier experiments and learning of dedicated NGOs and farmer – scientists. The program has the following shifts (Vijay Kumar, undated):
Instead of using inorganic chemical, plant protection is done through suitable farm management practices and use of organic materials such as: summer plowing, organic seed treatment, trap crops (along the field boundary or rows), bonfires and pheromone traps, sticker plates, bird perches, bio‐pesticides like agniastram25, brahmastram26, etc.
Soil Health and Fertility Improvement through application of microbial formulations like panchagavya27, jeevamrutha28, etc.
25 Agniastram – chilli, garlic, neem and cow urine 26 Brahmastram – neem leaves, custard apple, castor, papaya, bitter guard, and cow urine 27 Panchagavya – cow dung, cow urine, milk, ghee and curd 28 Jeevamrutham – jaggery, sugarcane juice, cow urine and dung
Table – 4.7: Cost of crop production in conventional and sustainable agriculture in Rs.
Crop Conventional SA Saving
Cotton 13,066 2,585 10,481
Chillies 39,151 5,170 33,981
Red‐gram 3,901 846 3,196
Castor 5,170 1,081 4,230
Paddy 5,170 611 4,606
Source: Vijay Kumar, undated
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Soil fertility management through application of tank silt, ‘dung’ based inoculants, biomass plantation on bunds, common lands, etc; Azolla application for paddy crop.
Input Enterprises ‐ Seed Banks, Input enterprises based on local materials Improving Cropping practices such as crop rotation, multi‐cropping, strategic intercropping Mixed Cropping Systems ‐ tree farming and livestock as important ingredients
It is a shift from conventional “external input‐driven” agriculture to “knowledge and skill‐based and local natural resource” model (Vijay Kumar, T (undated). Another innovation of the experiment is use of community resource persons (CRPs) for extension. CRPs are a sustainable agriculture (SA) practicing farmers, who has/ gained in‐depth knowledge on SA and capable of training and capacity building of other farmers. The vast network of SHGs and their federations in the state facilitates these CRP functions (SERP, undated). Unlike organic farming, SERP SA model is gradual shift from inorganic intensive congenital agriculture to local organic material use and improved farm practices. Hence there is no production loss even in the initial stage, which may occur in the strict organic farming. The cost of cultivation in SA comes down gradually. The savings in cost of crop protection of a few crops are presented in Table – 4.7. During 2009‐10, under its poorest of the poor (POP) strategy, SERP established 251 models mixed cropping farms of each of 0.5 acre. Out of this 0.5 acre, 0.25 was put under system rice intensification (SRI) and the remaining 0.25 acre was put under a seven tier poly‐crop model ‐ ranging from tuber crops to fruit crops, vegetables, pulses, cereals, etc (popularly called as 36 x 36 m model). It gave an income ranging from Rs.15,000 to Rs.40,000 based on the cropping pattern and time of sowing. This model provides food and income round the year. Last two years data shows that a net income up to Rs.50,000 in a year is possible along with improved household food and nutritional security (Ramanjuneyulu, G. V. and Krishna Soujanya, 2011). SERP sustainable agriculture program has other features like community seed banks, farm implementation hiring and NPM shops, which were networked to share the material and implements in times of need (Ibid). The NPM component is being implemented in 21 districts, with steep increase year after year, covering 18.17 lakh acres benefiting 7.38 lakh farmers in 2009 – 10. Estimations put the area likely to be covered in 2010‐11 at about 28 lakh acres, which is 10 % of gross cultivated area in Andhra Pradesh (Ibid). The project demonstrated that: (a) all kinds of plant diseases and harmful pests could be controlled with local organic material and improved farm practices; (b) significant reduction in cost of cultivation is possible, (c) improvement of soil quality through application of organic material improved farm practices could be accomplished; (d) reduction of health risks of farmers due to discontinue of pesticides; and (e) significantly high net income through multi‐tier multiple cropping (Ibid). SERP accomplishments are worth emulation. The governments of different states and centre should work for mainstreaming the program. Vijay Kumar, T, et. al (2009) came to the same conclusions that there is a potential of scaling up of this approach to the whole of India as CMSA
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is showing trends of being economically viable and ecologically friendly. It is heartening to note that the Government of AP is contemplating to set up an autonomous society (similar to SERP) to up‐scale the sustainable agriculture initiatives through Community Based Organizations network. This society is proposed to be called as AP Society for Sustainable Agriculture in Rainfed Areas (APSSARA) and have representatives of Agriculture and Horticulture Departments on board (Ramanjuneyulu, G. V. and Krishna Soujanya, 2011). While up‐scaling SA, the government/ designated agency have to focus on marketing of increased agriculture production and labor implication of the program. Mixed cropping is a labor intensive model. Perhaps, due to its high labor insanity, the traditional mixed cropping system might have given the way to the modern mono‐cropping system.
4.5.2. State watershed programs
The state has been in forefront in implementation of the watershed program, taking advantage of various Government of India programs and available funds from other national and international sources. At one time, AP has over 40% of total watershed programs, being implemented in the country. Over 10,000 micro watersheds have been implemented in the state. In 2001, the state introduced an innovative technology in the watershed program known as the ‘Four Waters’ (see a brief description about Four Waters at Box – 4.3). The Four Waters model focuses on soil moisture conservation, with small earthen structures, and vegetation. However, the four waters concept was not implemented in letter and spirit in most of the watersheds. Apart from a few exceptions, the overall performance of the watershed program is far from satisfactory. The general observations of Saxena, N. C. (2009) ‘although the ministries of agriculture and rural development have been implementing watershed projects for more than a decade, evaluation reports show that these projects cannot succeed without full participation of project beneficiaries and careful attention to issues of social organization. This is because success depends on consensus among a large number of users. Moreover, collective capability is required for management of commons and for new structures created during the project. Then the costs and benefits of watershed interventions are location specific and unevenly distributed among the people affected. Unfortunately most projects have become unsustainable because of the failure of government agencies to involve the people and build their social capital’, proved to be true in AP context also. However, the government is continuously trying to improve the watershed program and further graduated from micro watershed of 500 ha to mega watersheds of 5,000 ha. Currently about 225 mega watershed are being implemented in the state.
Box – 4.3: Four Waters Technology
The ‘Four Waters’ technology is evolved by integrating ‘Four Waters’, viz. rain water, soil
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moisture, ground water and surface water. This is developed by adaptation of the proven aspects pertain to five scientific disciplines namely Agriculture, Soil Conservation, Ground Water, Surface Water and Geo‐Engineering. Innovations are introduced in this technology by integrating the proven principles in these five technical disciplines. The advantages of this technology are that with the same cost, it is possible to increase the benefits three times more, and increase the recharge to ground water ten times more than earlier. The Four Waters model demystified the technologies and enables the primary stakeholders (watershed committees) to execute the works, without the usual preparation of plans and estimates by the field engineers and without the medium of contractors. The model emphasized the following vegetative:
1. Cover crops in rainfed lands 2. Tree plantations on all uncultivated lands to develop a 3 tier canopy 3. Trees on all boundary bunds of rainfed lands, with a small trenches on either side 4. Vegetative cover (agave) for gully slopes 5. Tree plantation on slopes and banks of gully 6. Nurseries for fodder, timber, fuel wood and horticulture 7. Agro forestry including block plantations, shelter belts, sand dune stabilization, etc. 8. Pasture development either by itself or in conjunction with plantations
Hanumantha Rao, T, 200
4.5.3. Community Forest Management
AP is also leading in the Community Forest Management (CFM) in terms of area brought under CFM , number of groups formed, confirming rights over 100% available non timber forest products (NTFP) to the community, investments made in affarestation, increase in green cover, etc. There are also some critical issues in the CFM program, such as (a) conversion of multi‐tier natural forests into ‘effective’ teak and other plantations, thwarting under growth, removal of goats in forest areas, sporadic attempts for evection of the local people and convert their (podu) lands into forest, etc. Though the major reasons for increased green cover, during last decade or so, are the regeneration of forests and the effective protection provided by the community, including prevention of forest fires; the Forest Department, like their counterparts in other states, has been over emphasizing on larger investments and insulation of the forest lands from biotic interferences. Latest research and other developments suggest:
1. Multi‐tier canopy and multiple vegetations give more economic and ecological benefits than mono‐crop/ plantation from the same size of land
2. Land covered with undergrowth/ grasses ‘catch’ and ‘cover’ (sequestrate) more CO2
than bare lands
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3. Grazing of livestock in the plantation may benefit the plantation crops and may also improve soil quality (Orskov, Bob. 2005). Limited grazing may be ecologically desirable in many contexts.29
4. Similarly rising of seasonal/ annual crops in teak plantation enhances significantly the total productivity/ profitability of the land and also enhances the soil quality and moisture levels (Ibid).
5. Nowadays the FD has significantly reduced timber extraction from the forests and at the same time continuing its monopolistic authority on privately grown forest species, resulting huge shortage of teak, which in turn lead to a large scale wood substitution, especially with non‐renewable products. From the climate change point of view this is not a prudent policy.
4.5.4. APFAMGS
One of the serious criticisms against the current watershed program is that though the groundwater table was raised through various physical works, the program failed to foster the judicious use of the groundwater with measures like cropping pattern changes and collective action and planning. The FAO sponsored Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems (APFAMGS) demonstrated that collective action in groundwater management and use, benefitting all, is possible. The core concept of APFAMGS was that sustainable management of groundwater is feasible only, if users understand its occurrence, cycle and limited availability, and they accept that groundwater conservation through collective decisions is ultimately a safeguard of their own interest. The concepts of hydrogeology and groundwater management, which had hitherto remained in the domain of scientific communities, were translated for and mastered by poorly literate farmers through what was called the “demystifying science”. It is clear that the implementation of such a complex concept implied a strong “piloting and testing” element (FAO, 2008). Demand‐side management is also considered feasible, but external control and regulatory measures are over‐costly and ineffective. APFAMGS on the contrary adopted a demand side approach, wherein farmers are made to understand their groundwater system adequately so that they could make informed decisions about their water use. Thus, the burden of control of extraction would be transferred to individuals in communities who know the “why and how” and act based on sound information, rather than being enforced by external agents through imposed rules and regulations (Ibid).
29In one of the studies about the Bharatpur National Park, the present author leaned that when the authorities completely banned the grazing of livestock from neighboring villages, on one hand it resulted in an acute shortage of fodder and the villagers disposed off their livestock, especially bollocks and replaced them with tractors. On the other hand the grass in the park grew tall and thick and became a big obstacle for the birds in catching the fish and consequently adversely affecting the bird population in the park.
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APFAMGS achieved this through promotion of groundwater management committees (GMC) at habitat level and networking them at hydrological unit level known as hydrological unit networks (HUNs). HUNs and GMCs are empowered with technologies and tools to assess the groundwater availability and their judicious use collectively. The farmers are made aware about various less water intensive crops and practices, which also yield better returns through farmers’ water schools (FWS) on the lines of FAO Farmers Field School (FFS). These changes reduced the crop failures due to drying up of bore wells. The project was implemented in seven drought‐prone districts in southern part of Andhra Pradesh. The APFAMGS promoted 555 GMC in 555 habitations and 63 HUNs in the project area. It has provided training on variety of issues. Total participants in the training programs are about 70,000 and over one‐third are women. The project trained intensively about 1,700 volunteers also known as farmers’ facilitators (FF) in all aspects including advanced and technical subjects like rainfall reading, groundwater levels assessment, etc. Effectively these FFs operate as extension workers in all project areas and also beyond the project area. As the community understands the relevance of the project and its utility, the community involvement in the project increased significantly with the passage of time. It reflected in several indicators. One such manifestation is that the costs of the FWS over time show dramatic decreases from approximately Rs. 1,500 per participant in 2006 – 07 to Rs. 122 per participant in 2008 – 09 (Ibid). FAO evaluation appreciated the project concept, its management structure, its impacts and potential sustainability of the institutions like FWS and HUNs and adaptation of HUNs concept by other agencies (Ibid). The evaluation asked the FAO to disseminate the project learning widely and recommended sanctioning of another similar project to deal with emerging challenges such as climate change (Ibid). APFAMGS demonstrated that given the responsibilities and awareness, the community based organizations (CBOs) can deliver very effective results.
4.5.5. SPWD Tank Restoration Program
In late 1990s, Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD), a New Delhi based development organization started restoration of defunct irrigation tanks, in collaboration with a network of over 20 grassroots NGOs in five of seven SPACC project districts. After careful analysis of the of the area, people, their livelihoods and on‐going government development projects,30 SPWD decided to adopt an unique strategy, which can be summarized in one sentence as 'building on local resources', which include physical infrastructure, indigenous technology, knowledge and
30 One of the finding was that degradation of tank system was basic reason for the plight of the people and the region. The area irrigated came down from 5 lakh acres to 1 lakh acres between 1960s and 1990s. People involvement in the on‐going different development projects was negligible at best, though there were categorical instructions for clear and active role for the communities and their contributions.
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practices (ITKP), finances, material and labor. Salient features of the strategy are (Bhaskara Rao, G. 2003): a. Building on local resources. b. Thorough involvement of stakeholders. c. Insistence on local contribution, which indicates relevance of the project to the primary
stakeholders. d. Prioritisation of various tank restoration‐tasks ‐ take up different tank restoration tasks in the
order of their benefit – cost ratio. Between 1997 and 2000, thirty‐two tanks were taken up for restoration excluding twin and triplets. All these structures provide direct irrigation to more than 2,000 acres and benefiting about 2,000 families. Some of these tanks are percolation tanks, whose exact influence is not known. On average the irrigation cost of restoration was little over Rs.2,200 per acre. It includes administrative cost of implementing agency and local contribution. SPWD's net contribution for tank restoration is about Rs.1,500 per acre plus Rs.220 per acre towards NGOs’ overhead. Local contribution is about Rs.400 per acres (Ibid). The tank management committees (TMCs), which consist of all farmers in the tank command areas, were entrusted with complete responsibilities of identifying the problems, preparing the tank restoration plans and executing them. Practically the project used the TMCs as its planners, executors, auditors, monitors and managers. The experience suggests that genuine peoples' participation enhance the project's output, outcome and impact by many‐folds. SPWD has identified the following five major benefits from the tank restoration program: a. Tank restoration triggers all‐round development of the village/ region. b. It is the most cost‐effective option in Rayalaseema or any other similar region in the
country, Investment on this activity yield maximum possible returns. A huge infrastructure in the form of tank embankments, feeder channels, supply channels are lying idle because of smaller problems. E.g. A thousand meters long bund would be ineffective if there is a five meters breach. Similarly a five kilometers long feeder channel would be ineffective if there are a couple of two meters breaches at critical points. By attending these critical problems the project brought back these infrastructures into use.
c. Like any other common pool resources, tanks reduce income inequalities in the village economy.
d. Utilization of indigenous technology, knowledge and practices (ITKP) would increase the self‐esteem of the people. Tank system is the indigenous technology, which had evolved over centuries and contributed for the development of the region. Because of the neglect of tanks, the local wisdom was dying. Since the project is encouraging the application of the local technologies, inputs, etc, the local people start believing in themselves. One of the
55
excellent traditions was that cropping pattern under tank irrigation used to be collectively decided every year based on water level in the tank.31
e. Restored tanks are providing a number of environmental benefits to the local area. Tanks increase the recharge of aquifers and sub‐soil moisture levels, which facilitate a good growth of trees and other biomass in the local area. Water would be available for domestic animals and wildlife including migratory birds. In this process tanks protect the local ecosystem (Ibid).
The project once again demonstrated the potential of CBOs. The project provided some insights and inspiration to the Anantapur District Administration, which worked intensively on restoration of tanks and other water structures between 1999 and 200332, and state community based tank development program (CBTDP), which restored 3,000 tanks and promoted the tank management committees to manage the restored tanks during last 5 – 6 years.33
4.5.6. Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi
Anantha Paryavarana Parirakshana Samithi (APPS) literally known as Anantapur Environment Protection Committee is an important environment movement in the district, in Andhra Pradesh, perhaps, in India. It has demonstrated that natural regeneration is possible in desert prone district like Anantapur. People’s participation can be obtained in a project like conservation of common pool resources (CPRs) without any external investment, which does not have any immediate economic returns. It also demonstrated no/ low cost methods for regeneration of highly degraded hills/ lands. Environmental conscious people and organizations initiated the APPS in 1989. Most of the important NGOs in the district at that time and some concern individuals were behind the moment. All the members drew the inspiration from conservation effort of a handful of villages and sacred groves of the district. For example in Pulikallu village, the Sarpanch initiated the protection of four hills under the Panchayat in the early 1970s. The villagers extended full 31 APFAMGS adopted similar system with tremendous success. 32 Mr. Somesh Kumar, then district collector, visited one of the tank restoration villages – Bhushaiagari Palli, in which the villagers were celebrating harvesting of second (Rabhi) crop 1st time in their living memory. Enthused by the people’s joy and festivity and realizing the potential of tank restoration, he announced to invest at least Rs.1 to 2 cr on tank restoration every year from district funds. The present author also participated in that function in Bhushaiahgari palli. As promised he arranged proclaims (hydraulic machines to desilt, strengthen the bunds and clear the unwanted flora from the tank bed and embankment, etc. During his tenure almost all tanks in the district were repaired, restored and rejuvenated. 33 Though restoration of tanks may yield good results in the short term, its sustainability depends of the quality of the physical works and tank management committees (TMCs) promoted for the management of the tank. In the project the tank restoration work was entrusted to outsiders through tendering and the TMCs were promoted with externally evolved norms and centralized processes.
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cooperation. No seeds or seedling were planted, no un‐due restrictions were imposed on grazing and other uses by the villagers. The hills are being protected from wild fires and smugglings. By late 1980s the four hills appeared to be close forests. Mulakanur village has a scared grove. Nidimamidi is another village protecting over 1,000 ha since 1950. In this village, villagers are allowed to graze their flock without hacking branches. Villagers, with permission of the governing body, can cut branches for agricultural implements and trees for house construction purpose. Green manure is allowed to be collected only once or twice in a year, which are announced in all the hamlets in the Panchayat. Few other villages such as Donnikota, Vaddumarava Palli, Ramapuram, Boggala Palli, Etla Palli, etc have similar experience (Bhaskara Rao, G, 2004). In all these CPR conserved villages, one can see high water and soil moisture availability and also good and healthy crops vis‐à‐vis other villages. In the initial years, it was an ad hoc movement aimed at generation of awareness about desertification, need for conservation of forests, restoration of tanks, conversion of irrigation tanks into percolation tanks and construction of new percolation tanks. As the part of the campaign, APPS had organized Padayatras, Cycles rallies, etc. It appears that the organizers learn more from these Padayatras, rallies and interactions with people than the awareness they generated (Ibid). Enlightened by the Padayatras, rallies and interactions with cross sections of people and fully convinced about the feasibility of natural regeneration as the viable option, APPS decided to move from campaign mode to demonstration mode. Twenty‐four members of APPS have decided to protect and regenerate about 4,000 acres of common lands on pilot basis in 1993. By the end of 1993, the protection was extended to over 6,000 acres at 16 villages. Protection was focused on primarily on hills. At that time APPS got minimum financial support from OXFAM India Trust and guidance and moral support from OXFAM India Trust, Hyderabad, Center for World Solidarity (CWS), Hyderabad, AFPRO, Hyderabad and a few individuals. Methodology followed for protection was very simple. Villagers, particularly youth were motivated and Paryavaran Parirakshna Samiti (PPS) were formed. For motivation purpose youth were taken on exposure to old protected villages like Nidimamidi, Pulikallu, etc. The faith that green cover would attract more rains was major motivating factor for the villagers in the initial year. The villagers, who have been protecting their hills/ CPRs for decades said during those exposure visits that they have been receiving slightly more rains than the rest of the district and never experienced crop failures in recent past. Even if there were no additional rainfall, the green‐cover directly regulates the local rainfall and contributes for the increase in the organic matter in the soil and improves the soil’s water retention capacity, which might result in higher yield and a feel of higher rainfall. The villages farmed rules and regulations such prevention of wood cutting, forest fires, rotation of grazing, seed dibbling, etc and adopted them. The villagers in all protected villages have respected their locally adopted conservation regulations. The results were remarkable. The rootstock started regenerating overwhelmingly. The hills turn green within one or two years.
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Enthused by remarkable regeneration, the villagers replaced the paid watcher system with social control. Number of volunteers came forward to take charge of conservation. Many neighborhood villages came forward to participate in the conservation of their respective hills and CPRs. Because of prompt natural regeneration and enthusiastic local participation, the conservation has spread rapidly touching over 75,000 acres at 228 villages in 28 mandals within a decade. The rate of expansion has been increasing year after year. One of the learning of APPS is that one of the principal reasons for deforestation and degradation of CPRs is assignment and encroachment. According to available statistics more than 200,000 ha of CPR have been assigned. The extent of CPRs encroached is not known. Needless to say that assignment of CPR did not help poor, as more and more areas are being left fallow. To prevent the protected areas being assigned or encroached in the future, APPS got the areas entered in Prohibitory Order Book (POB) with the help district administration. Though attraction of rains was the major motive for the protection in the initial year, it was realized that protected areas yield a number of economic benefits. APPS got usufruct rights over the protected areas from the district authorities. Till March 2003, 65 usufruct rights have been obtained covering 26,970 acres. The district authorities give usufruct right to the entire village. But APPS arrange item wise usufruct right to different groups of select households especially of poor and women headed at each village. Seed dibbling is most important and effective practice initiated by APPS. In initial years about 1,000 kg per annum of local seeds were being collected and dibbled in protected areas. Dibbling of this huge quantity of seeds does cost only a few thousand rupees. School children were involved in this activity. APPS haas acquired very useful knowledge regarding seed dibbling. The learning is summarized at the box – 4.4 below. Fire protection committees were formed at all villages. APPS spread awareness about importance of protection of green cover from the fire through school children. Various practices were introduced to prevent breaking of fire accident. People were trained and motivated to putdown fires in their common lands immediately after noticing them. APPS also become an ideal and catalyst for similar networks in other districts and regions in the state.
Box – 4.4: APPS’s Learning About Seed Dibbling in Protected Areas
1. Plantation was never successful in Anantapur district. The seedlings, which were raised
under protected conditions like daily watering, nutrient and fine soils, do not survive when transplanted on harsh conditions of poor soils, moisture stress, etc. The FD has acknowledged the fact.
2. Only local seeds should be dibbled. Non‐local seeds of even a local species have lesser
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chance of germination and survival vis‐à‐vis locally collected seeds 3. Seeds should not be dibbled on plain lands but in the bushes, under stones, etc. 4. In streams and other water bodies, species like Babul (ACASIA NILOTICA), Date Palm
(PHOENIX SYLVESTRIS), Palmyra (BORASSUS FLABELLIFER) need to be dibbled. 5. Soil should be in well‐soaked condition before seed dibbling. In other words seed dibbling
should be undertaken at the end of a prolonged rain spell. 6. Even if five out of 1,000 seeds germinate, the activity would be cost effective compare to
nursery raising, transplantation and watering, if any. 7. Germinated seedlings would be harder vis‐à‐vis transplanted seedlings. 8. The service of school children can be utilized in seed dibbling. 9. Each variety of seed should be treated as per requirement before dibbling. APPS can
provide guidance or training about seed treatment. Bhaskara Rao, G., 2004
Increase in wildlife in the protected area, increased recharge of groundwater, increased soil moisture and increased availability of green manure are major environmental benefits the villages have been experiencing. Apart from firewood, fodder and grazing, the villagers get a few minor forest products such as thatch grass, wild fruits, Tady, honey, Beedi leaves, leaf plates leaves, etc. The poor started keeping livestock due to availability of fodder for collection and good grazing area. APPS demonstrated the mother earth’s capacity to regenerate itself. However economic returns are not very attractive for the poor to participate effectively. The following few suggestions are given for replication and sustainability of the program (Ibid).
1. The green cover is sequestrating a lot of carbon dioxide. Carbon credit system should be introduced to compensate the villagers.
2. Similarly markets for watershed services should be developed. 3. Markets for various products available in the protected areas should be developed.
Subsides and promotional measures should be extended for the setting up and operation of units, which process available biomass, such Neem seeds, Pongamia seeds, Agave leaves, etc. These kinds of units have two fold benefits. They utilize available resources and provide environmentally benign products.
4. Funds, currently being utilized for costly and ineffective aforestation programs should be utilized for above suggested promotional measures.
4.6. Summary and Conclusions The SPACC project area and AP, even India, are predominantly agriculture centered economies. However, agriculture sector in the country, state and project area is moving in the unsustainable
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path with blind faith on future technical breakthroughs. The unsustainable policies, which need to be reviewed and reversed, are:
1. Heavy farm input subsidies and incentives, which encourage resource intensive crops and suitable to resourceful famers and regions. Further, these subsidies and incentives are enticing the small and marginal farmers, especially in the poorer regions, to make unsustainable investments such as bore‐wells, water intensive crops, etc.
2. Overwhelming restrictions on growing, harvesting and marketing of trees have barred the poor farmers from growing valuable trees and get benefitted from it. The poor farmers have to either take seasonal or annual crops or leave their lands fallow. Farmers are not positively inclined to raise a few trees intermittently in their field. It has adversely affected the soil quality, lead to depletion of soil nutrients and its water/ moisture holding capacity. On the other hand it lead to an acute shortage of wood and further led to the substitution of the renewable ‐ wood products with non‐renewable products.
3. Privatization of common lands also proved to be counterproductive, which led to the decline of livestock holding by the small and marginal farmers and their dependency on machinery for various agriculture operations. It also led to a steep decline in application of farmyard manure in the field. It also caused an increase in fallow lands.
4. The huge investment made in agriculture by the state and individuals proved to be costly and ineffective
5. These policies and programs need to be halted and reversed. A paradigm shift is warranted. The climate change once again reminds the need and urgency for such shifts in the agriculture.
6. SERP’s CMSA demonstrated that efficacy of paradigm shifts in the agriculture. It shows that input costs could be significantly reduced without any reduction in the yield of traditional cropping pattern and a significantly high income could be achieved through shift in cropping pattern from mono‐cropping to multi‐tier and mixed cropping. Further it demonstrated the efficacy of community based extension system.
7. Other cited case studies and programs demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of CBOs. The state WLATA 2002 proved to be ineffective. The state may introduce a community centered policies in place of WLTA 2002.
This is high time to introduce payment and marketing systems for environmental services.
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Appendix – 4.1: Select Agriculture data of Andhra Pradesh
Table – A4.1: Trends in cropping pattern (% of area of each crop in GCA) Triennium 1962‐65 1970‐73 1980‐83 1990‐93 2003‐06
Rice 26.8 24.8 29.0 29.6 26.9
Wheat 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1
Coarse cereals 36.9 34.7 29.7 14.6 11.8
Pulses 11.0 10.8 11.4 12.4 15.5
Food grains 74.9 70.4 70.2 56.7 54.2
Oil seeds 12.4 16.7 15.3 24.5 22.5
Fiber 3.8 3.2 4.3 6.2 8.6
Cotton 3.0 2.5 3.5 5.5 8.2
Sugarcane 0.9 1.0 1.3 1.4 1.7
Plantation ‐ ‐ ‐ 0.1 0.2
Spices 2.0 2.6 2.5 2.5 2.6
Remaining crops 6.0 6.0 6.4 8.5 10.2
GCA '000 ha 12,783 12,771 12,699 13,046 13,362
Bhalla, G. S. and Gurmail Singh, 2010
Table – A4.2: Productivity of Major Crops in Andhra Pradesh(In Kg. per hectare)Crop 1956‐57 1970‐71 1980‐81 1990‐91 2000‐01 2008‐09
Rice 1,163 1,359 1,991 2,442 2,936 3,246
Jowar 441 377 527 715 914 1,564
Bajra 491 516 652 728 1,038 1,019
Maize 557 1,344 2,262 2,086 2,996 4,874
Ragi 967 795 965 1,166 1,210 1,037
Green gram 181 301 320 277 354 426
Black gram 252 474 460 681 704 653
Red gram 272 305 194 214 427 455
Bengal gram 286 340 298 642 1,138 1,413
Horse grams 183 255 191 390 259 419
Ground nuts 914 785 660 947 1,145 551
Castor 190 204 100 251 344 511
Sesamum 218 206 166 199 204 234
Cotton 57 45 198 288 277 434
Tobacco 840 648 968 1,122 1,903 1,834
Sugarcane 8,178 7,959 7,859 7,281 8,277 8,035
Chilies 643 725 920 1,665 2,211 3,805 Source: ‐ Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradeshhttp://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
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Table – A4.3: Crop‐Wise Irrigated Area in Andhra Pradesh (Lakh hectares)
Category 1956‐57 1960‐61
1970‐71
1980‐81
1990‐91
2000‐01
2007‐08
2008‐09
Rice 27.52 27.52 33.21 33.78 38.3 40.41 38.5 42.5
Jowar 0.21 0.52 0.23 0.19 0.18 0.25 0.28 0.26
Bajra 0.56 0.63 0.59 0.56 0.31 0.32 0.21 0.16
Maize 0.26 0.31 0.45 0.76 0.82 1.61 3.49 4.21
Ragi 1.49 1.56 0.98 0.96 0.48 0.25 0.1 0.08
Green gram 0.03 0.09 0.05 0.03 0.07 0.44 0.06 0.03
Black gram 0.09 0.42 0.03 0.04 0.14 0.99 0.06 0.03
Red gram 0.03 0.1 N 0.02 0.14 0.43 0.02 0.01
Bengal gram 0.03 0.11 0.02 0.05 0.16 0.17 0.09 0.13
Horse gram 0.06 0.1 0.03 0.01 N N N 0.09
Ground nuts 0.033 0.55 2.37 2.14 4.73 3 0.034 2.94
Castor 0.01 0.02 0.15 N 0.09 0.05 0.06 0.04
Sesamum 0.32 0.23 0.25 0.27 0.21 0.12 0.02 0.13
Cotton 0.02 0.03 0.14 0.22 0.82 1.92 2.16 2.55
Chillies 0.53 0.5 0.94 0.69 1.39 1.55 1.78 1.69
Sugarcane 0.7 0.87 1.18 1.71 2.25 3.47 3.96 3.18
Tobacco 0.29 0.18 0.32 0.33 0.5 0.18 0.07 0.47
Food Crops 32.54 33.19 38.97 40.19 46.37 52.45 54.02 58.25
Non Food Crops 1.34 1.53 3.26 3.22 7.33 6.71 8.83 9.16
Gross area Irrigated 33.88 34.72 42.23 43.41 53.7 59.16 62.85 67.41 Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradeshhttp://www.apwaterreforms.in/irrigatedagriculture.html
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Chapter – 5: Current and Potential CC Adaptation and Sustainable Development
5.1. Introduction Indian agriculture is in crisis. It is not able to grow even a third of the Government’s modest target of 4% for last 40 years (Desai, Bhupat M. 2011). As a result of the painfully slow growth of agriculture, the country is facing enormous challenges in critical areas like food inflation, food security, growing relative and also absolute poverty. Further the inequalities, between agriculture and other sectors, and also within agriculture, are widening at alarming pace, especially in recent years. As the analysis in the previous chapter suggest that some of the major reasons for the present precarious condition of Indian agriculture are Government’s persistence with emergency ‘green revolution’ policies far too long; conversion of common lands into agriculture lands; various disincentives for growing trees on private lands; and incentives for resource intensive crops. The precarious condition of agriculture is leading to frequent farmers’ suicides on wider scale. The condition of agriculture in the state is even more worrisome, with relatively higher cost of cultivation and low net farm income compared to national average and higher incidence of farmers’ indebtedness and higher propensity of framers’ suicides. With quite low farm productivity, vis‐à‐vis state average; decreasing water resources, especially the higher percentage of draft of the groundwater; relatively higher dependency of population on agriculture, the condition in SPACC area is even more insecure. The climate change is no longer a potential future risk, but the country, state and the project area are already experiencing. E.g. early flowering of mango trees in Maliabad district, which produces famous Dashara variety of mango, was observed (D’Souza, John and Raajen Singh, 2011). Andhra Pradesh experienced the longest drought period, in the living memory, between 2002 and 2004, causing loss not only to seasonal/ annual crops but also withering of horticulture and other trees, mostly in the SPACC project area. The project area also experienced unprecedented floods in 2009; the inflow into river Krishna at the Srisailam dam in Kurnool district has broken all the past records as it touched a peak of 2.5 million cusecs34 compared to previous highest inflow of 0.97 million cusecs in 1967 (Padmanabhan, G, 2010). In 2011, about 85% of Mandals in the state were declared as drought prone districts. The above description clearly indicate that without the climate change also, the condition of the agriculture; in the country, state and project area; call for radical changes, shifts and reversals in agricultural policies and practices of the Government and individual farmers. The climate change is further accelerating and aggravating the problems. Hence the farmers as individuals and as
34 Irrigation officials say these are possibly the worst floods in this area in 10,000 years. http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/andhra_pradesh_worst_floods_in_10000_years.php
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the collectives and the Government have to act quickly and decisively to reverse the current trends in the agriculture and convert the challenges of CC into opportunities. In this chapter the options available for the farmers, in general and that of SPACC area in particular, are discussed. The options for the Government and other secondary stakeholders are described in the next chapter.
5.2. Climate Change Adaptation Options for SPACC Farmers As per the previous chapters, Important threats for SPACC project area are: (a) increase in extreme events, i.e. high intense rainfall, which may cause flash and frequent floods and prolonged dry spells and more frequent and more intense droughts; may adversely affect the crops more frequently, (b) changes in seasons, local fauna and flora, (c) more heat and heat waves and higher carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which may adversely affect the crop; may be moderately in the short run, (d) sea rise may cause permanent or temporary flooding in the low lying areas of the coastal district, i.e. Prakasam district of the SPACC project area. In this background some important and potential options for climate change adaptation are described below. The suggestions are predominantly for SPACC area.
5.2.1. Diversify Sources of Income
As mentioned elsewhere, that the people, who are heavily depended on the natural resources, are severely vulnerable to the climate change. Therefore communities have to consciously plan to multiply their income sources, especially in the non‐farm sectors. Therefore, communities have to invest in their own improvement, i.e. education of the children, vocational training for adults and look for new and emerging income and employment opportunities, especially in non‐farm sectors. Farmers and other rural people may invest in modern transport vehicles to ferry the people and goods between their interior/ rural areas and the nearby markets and towns. Invest in shops and restaurants to take advantage of booming industry and service sectors and growing opportunities in their supplementary sectors. Such shifts and changes need a lot of support and complementary changes from the government. These issues will be covered in the next chapters.
5.2.2. Plantations on Unviable Farms
Many marginal and small farmers derive a significant part of their income from migration and farm and non‐farm labor. Most of them are forced to continue their cultivation35 of their tiny holdings as they do not want sell or leave fallow their lands. Further, these holdings cannot be
35 According to NSSO Farmers Survey, nearly 40% of the farmer household dislikes their occupation. The disinclination to farming is higher among marginal farmers (44%). The main reasons for this disinclination were the lack of viability of farming, followed by its perceived risks (NCEUS, 2008).
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easily leased out and also owners are not comfortable with lease out. Hence they continue the cultivation of those lands. Such cultivation, often, is incompatible with the households’ migration and other livelihood strategies. Putting these lands under tree plantation could be one of the best option for those small and marginal farmers and also to the farmers/ families, who have left their lands fallow. Plantation mitigates the GHG emissions and climate change. But, raising of plantation needs certain institutional and policy changes. These issues would be discussed in the next chapter. 5.2.3. Agroforestry Agro‐forestry means production of livestock or food crops on land that also grows trees for timber, firewood, or other tree products. Perhaps, agroforestry is the best climate change adaptation. It provides diverse income sources, which is best strategies in the time of increasing uncertainties. Trees in agro‐forestry improve and maintain the moisture levels in the soils for longer period. It is known that trees facilitate higher percolation of rain water into the soils. Further, increased organic matter in the soil, because of leaf litter, makes the soil to absorb more rain water and retain the moisture for longer periods. Orskov, Bob (2005) research suggests that grazing of livestock under the tree plantations, not only beneficial for livestock, but also to trees; through taking seasonal crops in plantation maximizes the total income from the land. Trees have been integral part of Indian agriculture for centuries especially in semi‐arid regions. But the practice was discontinued due to many restrictions/ disincentives imposed on the farmers and individuals. Research at the Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad suggests that agro‐forestry is the best solution to all the problems of the agriculture in semi‐arid and arid regions. Availability of soil moisture only for limited periods in semi‐arid and arid region permits cultivation of only one crop. Growing up of legumes/ green manure crops to be recycled into the soils during pre or post crop periods may not always be possible. Only option left for the semi‐arid and arid regions, to get green manure, is to grow trees in the field so that the fields get leaf manure. It is well know that trees with their roots penetrated deep into the soil obtain the moisture and nutrients from deeper layers, which are usually not available to crops, which have shallow roots (Bhaskara Rao, G. 2007). As per ICRISAT research that that the profits from ‘drylands eco‐farm’ are three to five times higher than the current farming systems. Eco‐farm is an innovative trees‐crops‐livestock system for rain‐fed crop production; it involves intercropping fast‐growing trees with annual crops. Also included in the system are livestock that are appropriate for the agro‐ecosystem (Dar, Williams, 2007). Further, agroforestry reduce significantly atmospheric carbon. The standing stock of carbon above ground is usually higher than the equivalent land use without trees, and planting trees may also increase soil carbon sequestration The FAO, in a report, pointed out that the absorption of carbon by the soil is maximized under a system of agroforestry. It can be as high as from 2 to 9 tons annually. Apparently, if agroforestry were practiced worldwide, agriculture could absorb in a ten year period, i.e. by 2010, some 1.3Gt of atmospheric carbon annually. The IPCC, in its 2000 Third Assessment Report, also concludes that agroforestry yields the best results not only by increasing soil organic matter but also above‐ground, woody biomass (Goldsmith, Edward, 2003). Other research suggest that carbon sequestration under agroforestry is particularly high;
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if the wood is burnt instead of a fossil fuel, provides a double benefit through carbon sequestration and energy substitution (Ibid). When the markets for the environmental services are introduced, the agroforestry farmers may get handsome remuneration for their carbon sequestration services.
5.2.4. Replace inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with local and organic materials and improved farm practices
SERP’s CMSA demonstrated that by introducing and rejuvenating the micro organisms in the soils, the soil fertility could be increased manifolds. The micro organism could be introduced through an application of microbial. See Box – 5.1 about rationale, preparation and application of one such microbial – Jiwamrita. In conventional organic farming or INM, the focus is on external supply of plant nutrients, i.e. external vermi‐compost but ignores the role of native earthworms in the soil, so it is not focusing on reactivating local earthworms in the soil which is critical for tropical countries. In organic farming, stopping fertilizer application leads to a sudden drop in yields and the produce has to secure premium rates to compensate for yield loss. In CMSA, yields do not drop as fertilizer reduction is gradual and it is coupled with the application of tank silt, plough back crop residues, mulching, dung based inoculants, and the application of azolla in paddy fields, etc. The use of azolla in paddy fields can reduce by 50 percent the amount of urea now applied, in one stroke. CMSA considers soil as a living organism and a bank for crop nutrients. The focus is on building soil microbial activity. Every crop removes substantial amount of nutrients, but the formation of the grain only takes 15 percent of those nutrients. The remaining 85 of nutrients remain in stalk, which can be incorporated back into the field directly or as the cattle manure (SERP, undated‐a). These practices not only reduce the use inorganic fertilizers, but also the pesticides as plants get all required nutrients and grow strong and healthy and less susceptible to diseases and pest attacks. These practices reduce the cost of cultivation significantly (Vijay Kumar, T. undated and Vijay Kumar, T. et al. 2009). As World Bank (2006) study pointed out that the less the cost of cultivation, lesser would be farmers’ vulnerability.
Box – 5.1: Jiwamrita (Miracle Microbial Culture)
According to Subhash Palekar, a farmer scientist, depletion of soil nutrients is not the real problem. The loss of micro organism, which converts various elements from the soil and atmosphere into soil nutrients, is the big tragedy in the modern farming system. According to him that natural dense forests grow profoundly without application of any fertilizers, pesticides, etc. Fruit trees in those forests invariably give bumper harvest year after year. Usually the wild fruits would be more delicious than the fruits (of export quality) rose with all kinds of care in the modern agriculture. Plants in natural dense forests, where every inch of land is under green cover throughout the year, get the natural soil nutrients year after year without any sign of depletion. It implies that natural soil nutrients are renewable resources How the soil nutrients
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are spawned year after year in the forests? If one takes a handful of soil in the forest one will probably see some insects and may also feel some form of life in it. If one takes a handful of soil from any typical crop field, normally he won’t find any insects, definitely no useful insects, and won’t feel any life form in it. Clearly the difference between soils in the dense forests and crop fields is presence and absence of micro organism. It is well known that in vermiculture, the earth warms convert anything and everything, which are bio‐degradable, into high quality and valuable soil nutrients. Now vermiculture is becoming very popular. If one earth warm can make such a wonder, one can imagine the impact of millions and millions of micro organism that present in forests. The entire micro organism including insects like earth worms have disappeared from Indian crop lands because of continuous use of chemicals either in the form fertilizers, pesticides, etc. If the field soil has enough micro organisms, plants would get variety of nutrients, which would be useful for plant growth and health. It would save farmers from applying costly fertilizers and pesticides and reduces the cost of the cultivation significantly. It enhances the quality of outputs, i.e. food grains, oil seeds, fiber and fodder. It in turn enhances the health of human beings and livestock, who consume and use the crops’ outputs. Scientist also realized this problem and advocating the use of bio‐fertilizers and bio‐pesticides along with farmyard manure and vermicompost in crop lands. Now the concepts like integrated pest management (IPM), integrated nutrition management (INM), etc are gaining popularity. The essence of all these is nothing but increasing micro organism in the fields. The problems with present bio‐chemicals are: (a) they are not easily available, (b) they remain a mystery to Indian farmers, (c) most of them are cultured at laboratory conditions and do not effective, when transferred to field conditions, and (d) Indian own problem of adulteration. Hence it is better that the farmers themselves prepare such biochemical – microbial and apply in their fields. Jiwamrita, a miracle microbial culture, overcomes all above limitations of bio‐chemicals and perhaps the best solution to the problems Indian farmers. It is developed by Mr. Subhash Palekar, an advocate of natural forming. He understood that deficiency of micro organism in fields is the major problem. Therefore he started experiments to increase micro organism in cost effective manner. After 10 long years of research and experimentation, he came out with Jiwamrita. He started with identification of things, which have or attract micro organisms quickly. He zeroed on four items, i.e. cow dung, cattle urine, Jaggary and gram flour. After a series of experiments he comes out of right quantity of each item. Preparing Jiwamrita is very easy. Collect 10 kg of indigenous cow dung, 5 to 10 liters cattle urine, 2 kg of black Jaggary and 2 kg of gram flour in plastic container stir it nicely. Allow it to develop for at least two days. Stir it twice a day with a stick. It can be applied anytime after two days but before 7th day. Applying of Jiwamrita in field is very simple. Mix it with farm yard manure of one to two quintal and make it dry granules and applied it like fertilizers. The above amount of Jiwamrita is enough for one acre for one month. After one month, it has to be applied again. The process has to be continued from jest before sowing/ transplanting of the crop to the harvesting of the crop. It can be used
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in both irrigated and unirrigated conditions and on all crops. A farmer need not keep a herd of cows to make Jiwamrita. One cow is sufficient to provide Jiwamrita up to 30 acres holding. Preparation and application of Jiwamrita does not need much labor hours. Source: Bhaskara Rao, G. undated 5.2.5. Mixed cropping Mixed cropping is the traditional practice of the Indian farming. Farmers used to take as many as nine crops at a time, which include cereals, pulses, oil seeds and other crops. These provide all subsistence needs of the family. It proved to be best strategy to meet climate related uncertainties. As some crops fix the nitrogen in the soil, and each crop draw different kinds of nutrients and soil moisture from different layers, there is very good balance in soil nutrient and moisture management. As each crop mature at different periods and have different moisture requirements at different stages, one or two crops may fail in any year of untimely rainfalls or no rainfall, but remaining crops will survive and provide at least some returns to the farmers. All crops together fail very rarely, may be once in 40 or 50 years. Because of this wonderful tradition, the farmers in the SPACC project area withstood the frequent droughts for centuries in the region. Though the region has long tradition of droughts, but farmers’ suicides are of recent origin. Further, as crops stand for longer period in the field, the soil exposures to heat and erosions are minimized. It is highly labor intensive practice. Because of growing labor shortage, breakthroughs in certain crops and new social practices like migration, free grazing, etc, farmers discontinued the mixed cropping. Recent evidence suggests that mixed cropping yields much more biomass and net farm income (Shiva, Vandana, 2011; Vijay Kumar, T. undated; Vijay Kumar, T. et al. 2009; and Ramanjaneyulu, G. V. and Krishna Soujanya, 2011). The higher biomass productions contribute for reduction of GHG in the atmosphere and enable farmers to keep additional livestock and increase the production and farm‐application of the farmyard manure.
5.2.6. Increase water storage and water efficiency As mentioned above the coming days may see more fluctuations in rainfall; more intense rainfall in fewer days leads to flash floods and prolonged dry spells. In such situations, as indicated by Government of India (undated), storage of rainfall is critical. Rain water storage could be done in many ways such big dams, artificial recharge of groundwater, various storage structures on the farm and on common places, tanks, etc. Among all kinds of storages of rainwater, the storage in the form of soil moisture36 is perhaps the most cost effective method. Increase organic content in the soils enable it to absorb more water and retain the moisture for the longer periods (see e.g. Hanumatha Rao, T., 2003). If carbon content improves, the soils/ crops could withstand dry‐spell of 20 – 30 day duration (Ibid). Agro‐forestry or green cover on fallow and unviable holdings and common lands contribute immensely for increase of organic content in the soils.
36 It is referred as green water in scientific terminology see Dar, Williams, D., 2007
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Incorporation of green manure, crop residues, farmyard manures in the fields also increases the organic content in the soil.
A worldwide study on Climate Change – Impact on Agriculture and the Cost of Adaptation by IFPRI, suggests that South Asia needs to focus on irrigation efficiency (Nelson, Gerald C, et al. 2009). Perhaps it is truer in SPACC project area. Given the criticality of the water in the project area, farmers/ communities should adapt all kinds of water saving methods. These include taking of less water intensive crops in place of high water intensive crops, adopt water saving techniques such as ‘system rice intensification’ (SRI), drip irrigation, sprinkle irrigation, twin‐row irrigation, etc. Experiences of APFAMGS and traditional tank management may give useful insights
5.2.7. Proactive role in conservation and management of common pool resources Common pool resources (CPRs) such as grazing lands, trees on vacant public places including the road side and water bodies play a critical role in stabilizing the local environment and sustaining the local agriculture. CPRs also help the poor to overcome the hardship in times of droughts and other calamities. CPRs provide many environmental and economic benefits for the local communities and agriculture. These include silt, green manure, water, fodder, food items, minor wood and space for certain agriculture operations and livestock rearing by the poor. CPRs have been declining due to assignment and encroachments. The remaining CPRs have degraded due to overuse and gross neglect in their protection and management. The villagers should understand the importance of CPR and should proactive in their protection and utilization. The villagers suffer huge losses due to degradation and decline of CPRs. Such losses are clearly visible in some instances and not so visible in some instances. E.g. in SPWD tank restoration, about Rs.1.25 lakh was invested in filling a breaching in the tank bund in 1999 at Peddipalli village of Roddam Mandal of Anantapur district. The farmers immediately got bumper Paddy crop worth Rs.15 lakh and net profit of about Rs.3.75 lakh. The tank remained in disuse for five years before restoration in 1999 (Bhaskara Rao, G., 2003). Had the farmers acted on their own immediately after breach, they would got at least Rs.20 lakh net profit. Instead of acting immediately, the farmers waited for outside support, primarily from the Government and incurred huge losses. In many instances of protecting CPRs, such as putting down fires, controlled grazing, controlled extraction of other products, prevention of breaches to water bodies, seed dibbling, etc, do not involve any significant expenditures, but yield very good results. APFAMGS experience indicates that by treating the groundwater as common resources and managing it collectively, significant benefits could be realized and unwarranted losses could be avoided (FAO, 2008).
5.2.8. Focus on local species and seeds The world wide evidence clearly suggests that fauna and flora are quick to adapt to the climate change. It imply that local species ranging from micro organism to domestic livestock and tiny weed to banyan trees have adapted to local conditions and evolving as per the changes in the local climatic conditions. Farmers should aim at building on the local species and seeds rather
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than depending on exogenous species and seeds, which may be risky in changing conditions. The APPS experience also emphasizes the suitability and superiority of the local species and seeds. Farmers may give importance for production and use of local seeds. Such practices will reduce the chances of crop failures and also reduce the cost of cultivation significantly, thus reduce the farmers’ vulnerability. 5.2.9. Optimum farm practices Normally the farmers in SPACC project area give too much importance to irrigation. Apart from investing heavily on irrigation infrastructures such as bore‐wells, wells, drip irrigation, etc, also devote a lot farm inputs to the irrigated area. The farmers invest minimum inputs in rainfed areas. The farmers’ strategies appear to be ‘rational’, given the high cost of external inputs and uncertainties involved in rainfed cultivation. It appears that most of the farmers in rainfed agriculture are practicing the similar strategies. As per ICRISAT research in four rainfed crops, viz. Groundnut, Soyabeen, Pegenpea and Chickpea indicate that there are huge gaps between crop potential and actual yield at average farm level. On average the actual farm level yields are about 40 to 45% less than model farm level yields, which were achieved with progressive farmers through prescribed farm practices in the same local areas. The model farm level yields, themselves are about 20% less than the experiment station level yields (Bhatia V. S. et al., 2006). The reasons for such huge variations between model farm level yield and actual district average yield are (a) uncertainties related to rainfall and (b) under investment by the farmers. The research further indicates in times of drought or other extreme conditions the yield gap get reduced significantly (Ibid). It implies the farmers are adopting risk aversion strategy. Another possible reason could be that farmers are not able to invest adequately due to non‐availability of credit at reasonable interest rate and other limitations.
SERP CMSA and other similar experiment suggest that modern inorganic fertilizers and pesticides could be effectively replaced with inexpensive local organic material and microbial application without losing on yield. Farmers in SPACC project area may shift to sustainable agriculture inputs like farmyard manure, green manure, microbial, etc, which are cheap and locally available; and adapt optimum farm management practices even in rainfed areas. 5.2.10. New agriculture extension Traditional extension services provided by the Government officials and the input suppliers proved to be ineffective. Recently experimented extensions systems like community resource persons (CRPs) in CMSA and FF/ volunteers in APFAMGS proved to be effective. Sustainability of such systems, in the long run, may depend on the farmers’ patronage. The farmers in SPACC may support and take full advantage of such extension system. Further, Government of India is providing farm advice through Kisan call centers. Some news papers and TV channels are also providing farm advice through variety of programs and features. The farmers may watch these and use them optimally. Because, knowledge is going to be the critical and most important agriculture input in coming years. The World Bank (2006a) emphasized the point.
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5.2.11. Adaptation to sea rise Because of sea level rise, some parts of Prakasam district may get exposed to frequent flooding of sea water and sea water may ingress into the groundwater. The possible adaptations strategies include develop and use of salt tolerant crops and trees; and diversification into tree crops and fish and prawn culture. New desalination of sea water technologies may come into use in the near future. The farmers and communities may watch for such technologies.
5.3. Summary and Conclusions From rising of the temperature and increasing CO2, there may not be big yield fall in the near future; however, the yields may fluctuate widely due to increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events. The SPACC area may experience intense rainfall in fewer days, which may cause flash floods and prolonged dry spell. The agriculture in the SPACC area is already in precarious conditions due to Government of India’s unsustainable agriculture policies. However, some experiments and ongoing programs such as CMSA, Four Waters concept, Groundwater as CPR, community based agriculture extension, restoration of tanks, etc have some very interesting and useful lessons for the farmers of SPACC area and the state. The potential options include: diversification of income into non‐farm sources; raising of trees on unviable holdings and fallow lands; agrforestry; replacing the inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with local organic materials and improved farm practices; taking multi‐tier mixed cropping in place of mono‐cropping; increase water storage and water efficiency; proactive role in protection and management of CPRs; focus on local species and seeds; new agriculture extension, etc.
If these options are put into operation, the SPACC farmers could effectively transform the challenges of climate change into good opportunities, which may result in higher farm yield, less cost of cultivation, increased soil quality and health and less/ no health risks to human beings and livestock, increased carbon sequestration, which may provide the farmers with additional incentives, etc. However, putting the suggested options into practice require a lot of policy changes and other supports from the Government, scientists, financial institutions and others. These issues are discussed in the next chapter.
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Chapter – 6: Support Framework for Climate Change Adaptation
6.1. Introduction The previous chapter described some potential options for climate change adaptation for individual farmers and their associations such as: diversification of sources of income into non‐farm sectors; raising of trees on unviable holdings and fallow lands; agrforestry; replacing the inorganic fertilizers and pesticides with local organic materials and improved farm practices; taking multi‐tier mixed cropping in place of mono‐cropping; increase water storage and water efficiency; proactive role in protection and management of CPRs; focus on local species and seeds; new agriculture extension, etc. It further mentioned that if these options are put into practice, the farmers could effectively transform the challenges of climate change into good opportunities, which may result in higher farm yield, less cost of cultivation, increased soil quality and health and less/ no health risks to human beings and livestock, increased carbon sequestration, which may provide the farmers with additional incentives, etc. However, putting the suggested options into practice requires so many changes or paradigm shifts at technology, financial, institutional and policy level. These are discussed in this chapter.
6.2. Technologies One cannot overemphasize the importance of technologies. However, the technology choices have larger influence on farm profitability and poverty alleviation. Already companies like Monsanto with its Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) technologies is trying to position itself as ultimate savior (Shiva, Vandana, 2011)37. The World Bank (2008) laid the foundation for such claims with assertion that “the current pace o f change in the world’s climate is unprecedented in recent human history and experiences accumulated to date are unlikely to be sufficient to provide a clear way”. But it should be keep in mind that when the future is completely uncertain, perhaps, the past knowledge should be the starting point, how so inadequate it may be. Further, more and more evidences indicate that traditional agriculture is the sustainable agriculture (Goldsmith, Edward, 2003). Recent evidence from CMSA and similar experiments suggest that with sustainable agriculture practices like agro‐forestry, bio‐diverse farming, use of organic inputs, etc, more farm output could be achieved with low cost of cultivation. Further, these practices reduce the GHG emissions, which may slow down and reverse the climate change. Further, with complete emphasis on local species and seeds, the sustainable agriculture is building on the natures own adaptation. Further, evidence from many research studies
37 With the following advertisement across the world in recent months “9 billion people to feed; A changing climate; Now what? Producing more; Conserving more; Improving farmers lives That’s sustainable agriculture; And that’s what Monsanto is all about” (Shiva, Vandana, 2011)
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suggest that single or few uniform solutions may not be effective in so many diverse conditions, hence local, context specific solutions would be more effective. As mentioned in the previous chapter, according to ICRISAT research study, current actual district average yields of four important rainfed crops ‐ Soyabeen, Groundnut, Pegenpea and Chickpea, are just a little over half of the yields obtained in local ‘model farms’ and about one – third of yields obtained in the regional experimental stations (Bhatia V. S. et al., 2006). It implies, the country’s immediate need is to realize the crop potentials with better farm management practices and addressing current constraints faced of the farmers, including credit, marketing and dwindling quality of the natural resources, especially the soil quality. With improved farm management practices the current yield and production levels of many crops could be doubled. The quality of natural resources, especially the soils could be easily improved with shift to agroforestry and multi‐tier mixed cropping and application of organic materials include microbial. GMO crops may not be immediate need of the hour.38 Further, current GMO technologies are quite rudimentary without complete understanding of their implications, hence hazardous to adapt (Goldsmith, Edward, 2003). It should be kept in mind that the present agriculture technologies and practices contributed for significant GHG emissions. It does mean that the technologies did not serve any purpose. They did, but so many complementary measures such as irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, elaborate extent services and price support contributed immensely. With so much elaborate complementary support structure, the traditional seeds/ crops and technologies could also give good yields. In the present context, technologies should focus on demystifying certain traditional practices in sustainable agriculture and building on further. Some possible required technologies are:
1. Compatible species in agroforestry and bio‐diverse farming 2. Shade tolerance species and shade management in the agro‐forestry 3. Yield improvement in rainfed agriculture 4. Understanding of arid and semi‐arid eco‐systems and optimum utilization of those
systems in coming uncertain periods 5. Conversion of agriculture waste such as vegetables and fruits into energy 6. Conversion of livestock waste – dung, droppings and urine into energy and manure.
Build on the current practices like biogas, microbial, composting, etc 7. Mainstreaming of the practices like IPM, microbial, green manure, etc 8. Water efficiency
38 There are so many claims and counter claims about GM crops. The purpose of this paper is not to assess the relevance of the GMO crops. While proponents claim that GM cotton seeds lead to significant increase in the yield levels and is being adapted at rapid space; they themselves admit that GM cotton seeds have been adapted in many instance due to non‐availability of other hybreed seeds and farmers have been applying the pesticides even in the GM cotton. Further, Monsanto admitted in 2010 that cotton pest‐‐pink bollworm‐‐has developed resistance to its much‐touted Bt cotton variety in Gujarat.
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9. Reducing methane emission from livestock 10. New agricultural extension systems
Such reorientation in agriculture research calls for appropriate changes in the curriculum of agriculture courses in the country. Traditional agriculture practices should be included in the curriculums and research agenda. Vijay Kumar (undated) pointed that CMSA is finding difficult to get suitable technical people.
6.3. Financial services and support Realizing the importance of financial services, especially the credit for the farm sector, Government of India took several measures since independence, such as nationalization of banks, setting up regional rural banks (RRBs), establishment t of NABARD and introduction of priority sector lending, etc. As a result of these measures, the financial services in rural areas and to farmers have increase significantly over the years. According to different All India Rural Credit Surveys and All India Debt and Investment Surveys, the rural households, who have institutional credit has increased from 8.8% in 1951 to 17.3% in 1961, to 29.2% in 1971, to 61.2% in 1981. But it has declined from 61.2% in 1981 to 53.3% in 1991 due to the collapse of cooperatives. The declining trend continued since then due to initiation of financial sector reforms in the early 1990s. According to NSSO (59th Round) Situation Assessment Survey of farmers in 2002 – 03, over 48% of total farmers were indebted (NCEUS, 2008). The incidence of indebtedness39 is relatively high in developed states like Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh; and low in poorer states like Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand. The incidence of indebtedness is more at 57.8% in case of medium and larger farmers. The same is 46.8% for small and marginal farmers. In these indebted farmers, relatively more sub‐marginal and marginal farmers borrowed from informal sources and relatively more number of medium and larger farmers borrowed from institutional sources (Table – 6.1). Heavy dependence of marginal and sub‐marginal farmers on informal sources/ money lenders increases their vulnerability and also checks their entrepreneurial initiatives to invest in agriculture to increase productivity and income levels (NCEUS, 2008). Though overall credit/ indebtedness situation is high in AP and SPACC area, but institutional credit availability falls short of demand/ requirement, hence, farmers’ dependency on informal credit is also high in the state. Women
39 Perhaps ‘accessed to the credit’ may be more appropriate phase.
Table – 6.1: Prevalent rate of indebtedness by
farm size in India (%)
Land Size (ha) Formal Informal Both Total
< / = 0.40 12.7 30.3 3.5 46.5
0.41 – 1.00 18.8 21.7 4.6 45.0
1.01 – 2.00 25.9 17.9 7.0 50.8
> 2.000 34.7 14.4 8.6 57.8
Total 20.4 23.0 5.3 48.6
Source: adopted from NSEUS, 2008
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SHG bank linkage is a great success in the state due to several support measures by the state government, especially those aimed at promoting a good sense of credit discipline/ repayment. The Government of AP may initiate similar program for farmers/ men. The following measures are suggested for improving the institutional credit to the poor, small and marginal farmers (Bhaskara Rao, 2011).
1. Micro‐credit to the poor: Overwhelming evidence suggests that agriculture is getting
less and less bank credit within the priority sector, due to dilution of priority sector
composition. Further high end loans are crowding out the weaker sessions within
agriculture. At the moment even Rs.100 crores loan to MFIs get labeled as priority
sector lending. Therefore NCEUS (2008) has recommended for limiting of agriculture
credit to small and marginal farmers under priority sector and taking out big loans
(above Rs.5 lakh) out of agriculture quota of priority sector. Similarly Raghuram Rajan
committee also pointed out that ‘efforts at financial inclusion need to move away from
sectors to segments of people that are excluded’. Therefore, the Government may
consider to fix a proportion (may be 10% to 20%) of bank credit for direct lending as
microfinance (small loans). Under microfinance small loans (may be up to Rs.1 lakh per
head) may be provided to the poorer sections without asking the purpose. The
microfinance loans could be used for all purposes such as consumption, working
capital, life‐cycle ceremonies, health, education and debt swapping of high cost
informal loans. Affordable financial services/ credit, itself, is a livelihood service.
2. Lending Micro‐credit to Groups Instead of Individuals: Recent experience clearly
suggests that lending to groups is more profitable vis‐à‐vis individual lending. It reduces
operational cost as percentage of loan amount and reduces significantly loan defaults.
SHG model proved to be more appropriate to Indian culture. It can also help in optimum
utilization of one of the largest financial institution infrastructure in the world. The
number of financial institutions in rural India including Primary Agriculture Credit
Societies (PACS) is over 160,000. Evidence from many parts of the country suggests that
the SHG – bank linkage not only helped the groups and members but also the banks, in
optimum utilization of their vast network of rural branches. Earlier studies by NABARD
suggest that SHG banking is a viable and more profitable business option to the banks.
Many rural bank branches, especially RRBs and to some extent cooperatives, have
turned around in their profits due to SHG banking. SHG lending constitutes a major
portion of total bank lending in almost all rural bank branches in Andhra Pradesh.
Clearly SGH model proved to be boon to both members and banks. Other weaker
sections/ traditionally excluded sections like share croppers, artisans, traditional
occupational groups could be organized in SHGs. NCEUS, (2009) pointed out that linking
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the marginal and small farmers’ groups to banks is an essential step towards
adequate flow of institutional credit to these farmers. This linking could be done on
the pattern of the existing SHG‐bank linkage program. The objective is that adequate
institutional credit should be able to reach all marginal and small farmers, whether
owners or tenants. NABARD has initiated ‘group lending’ program for sharecroppers
and artisans. But it has named those groups as Joint Liability Groups (JLG). One may get
confused these JLGs with Grameen JLGs. NABARD may rename these groups.
3. Banks’ investment in SHG institution building: If banks are compelled to lend a certain
percentage of their net credit, as micro loans either to individuals or groups, they may
find investing in SHG institution building is more profitable and may invest in SHG
institution building.
4. Interest subsidy: As per current guidelines and practices, banks have to make cross
subsidization of their rural operations and small size loans. This is, perhaps, one of the
principle reasons for banks to reduce their exposure to rural areas and small loans.
Banks may be allowed and encouraged to fully recover their economic cost of lending to
the poor and rural areas either through direct lending or through banking
correspondent/ agency model. The full economic cost, including ‘profit margin’ could be
around 14% to 18%. These rates are much lower than microfinance institutions/ money
lenders’ charges. Further government may provide interest subsidy on the micro‐loans
linked to credit discipline, as given in Andhra Pradesh SHG banking. If the credit
discipline increases in the micro‐loans, the economic cost of lending would reduces and
volume of business also increases, which further reduces the operational cost of banks.
In turn the need for interest subsidy may come down over a period of time.
5. Credit infrastructure and environment: As Raghuram Rajan Committee suggested there
is need for creating the credit/ lending infrastructure like credit bureaus, legal reforms,
etc (Government of India, 2009a). The credit discipline is often vitiated by the
government actions like loan waivers, directions, targets, interferences, etc. Instead of
loan waivers, the government may implement direct cash transfers.
Crop Insurance The performance of agriculture insurance programs is far from satisfactory. The first rainfall‐indexed insurance in developing countries was introduced by ICICI‐Lambard in collaboration with BASIX in SPACC area in 2003. Subsequently it was extended to 36 locations in six states. It was found that there is no/ low correlation between rainfall‐index and actual crop yields, which may result in payment problems (World Bank, 2008). Perhaps, the farmers need employment
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transition rather than appropriate insurance to cope with the climate change, which may encourage them to remain in their current vulnerable occupations (Ibid).
6.4. Institutional shifts
The success of Indian economic reforms proves that deregulation and decontrols can work wonders. However, the economic liberalization, so far, is confined to economic sphere, especially, to manufacturing and service sectors only. There is need for similar reforms in agriculture, natural resource management and governance. Major problems of Indian agriculture are related to too much centralization of resources, technologies, schemes, programs and projects. In the country of India’s diversity, centralized development paradigm does not work. The country needs thorough decentralization. The principle of subsidiarity should be adapted for effective natural resource management and good governance. Subsidiarity principle imply that all tasks that an individual capable of taking up should not be taken up by a small group/ organization; similarly all tasks that a small group/ organization can effectively discharge should not be taken up the larger group/ organization, and so on. Similarly what can be done by a Village Panchayat ought to done by a Village Panchayat, what can not be done by a Village Panchayat to be done by a Mandal (sub‐district) Panchayat, what can not be done by a Mandal (sub‐district) Panchayat only should be taken up by a District Panchayat, what cannot be done by a District Panchayat only should be taken up by a State Government, and so on. At least in the management of the natural resources, what can be done by a Village Panchayat can not and should not be done by a higher level institutions of the governance. Because the protection and management of natural resources, especially the CPRs such as putting down forest fires, forest thefts, prevention of breaches in water bodies, encroachment of CPRs, etc, need actions in real time and context specific. Hence Panchayat Raj Institutions need to be strengthened with greater devolution of powers, functions and resources.
The model projects/ programs described in chapter – 4, which may provide very useful insights
for coping with the CC, are centered on people’s institutions (PIs). As mentioned above, almost
all households in Andhra Pradesh are able to access bank credit on regular basis through SHG
bank linkage program. The central and state governments recognized the importance of the
people’s participation in development programs and have been providing opportunities for
people’s participation in development programs and projects.40 Lakhs of People’s Institutions
have emerged during last 20 – 30 years to facilitate the participation of poor/ people in the
development process, to overcome the poor people’s challenges like exclusion, deprivation,
40 During last quarter century, the community/ poor people’s participation in the development process became the orthodoxy not only in India, but also the world‐wide. ‘It is now difficult to find a rurally based development project which does not in one way or another claim to adopt a participatory approach involving bottom‐up planning, acknowledging the importance of indigenous knowledge, and claiming to empower local people’
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resource deficit, exploitation, etc. There are significant economic and social gains due to PIs.
However, the experience of the people’s participation in the development, in India and other
countries, proved to be mixed both in the process and impact. In most of government promoted
PIs, the major reason for the lackluster performance is that the concern authorities seldom
delegate powers to those institutions and the primary stakeholders have fewer stakes in those
institutions. Among all government promoted people’s institutions in AP, SHGs proved to be
more successful, because unlike other PIs, which operate with grants and subsidies, SHGs
function with credit/ loan funds and their own funds/ savings, i.e. by design and defaults, the
primary stakeholders play the major role in SHG institutions.41 Another advantage of SHGs is
that unlike most of the government sponsored PIs, which were linked with a particular project/
program and have lifespan corresponding to the concern projects/ program, SHGs can function
in perpetuity. Similarly, thousands of PIs, which evolved voluntarily from the bottom proved to
be successful and function in perpetuity, because the primary stakeholders have larger stakes in
them. To get genuine peoples' involvement in their institutions, the following principle should
be adhered (Bhaskar Rao, G., 2011):
Transparency is the foundation for meaningful participation. If people know the budget,
constraints, etc, they can prioritize their needs in such way to maximize the impact of
project/ investment.
To develop a sense of ownership of project/ program, involvement of people should be
from the planning stage itself.
Insist on peoples' contribution and collect equitably and openly.
Felt needs should be the starting point to inspire peoples' participation.
Partnership should be on equal basis and in letter and spirit.
Mutual learning.
Utilization of local resources and techniques.
Inspire people’s confidence so that they will come out with the solution from their
region specific knowledge, which evolved over centuries.
Many larger and inactive PIs could be rejuvenated through organization of the primary
members of those PIs into small thrift and credit groups through deduction method, as
it was found that saving and credit are most effective binding factors to keep the groups
alive and active for longer periods.
Similarly effective larger PIs like federations, commodity cooperatives and producer
companies could be organized on the foundation of existing small groups like SHGs –
‘thrift and credit groups’ through inductive method to address larger issue, which the
small and informal groups could not tackle.
41 Even SHGs proved to be ineffective when integrated with Government of India subsidy program – SGSY, in most of the states.
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True decentralization is the best possible method to get genuine peoples’ participation in their institutions, development process and governance.
6.5. Policy shifts Implementation of all the suggested options for individual farmers and their association and some of the above suggested changes and shifts need certain policy shifts and changes. These are elaborated below.
1. Employment transition: The CC is going to have more severe effect on the poor and vulnerable sections, which are over dependent on the natural resources and agriculture. In India still about two‐thirds of people are engaged in agriculture and the overall condition of agriculture is precarious, causing large number of farmers’ suicides. The condition of the marginal and small farmers is even more worrisome. At the movement the government is investing/ focusing on human resource development through education, skill development, assistance for setting up of micro‐enterprises, various incentives for small scale industries, etc. These are only supply side interventions. The individuals could take care of these. The government should focus on promotion of large and medium scale labor intensive manufacturing and services industries, which can offer really higher remunerative employment opportunities to the people. Present NREGA could be effective only as social security measure. As the mid‐term review of the 11th Plan indicates, NREGA cannot be a substitute to the large scale employment transition. Even the government patronage for the setting up individual micro‐enterprises cannot be a substitute for the employment transition, because, overwhelming percentage of people engaged in exiting micro‐enterprises are not able get incomes sufficient to move above the poverty line (e.g. Bhaskara Rao, G., 2011). Present controversy about land acquisition prompts the urgency of the employment transition. An arrangement to provide jobs to the land owners in the industries to be set up on the acquired lands may ease the controversy. There is already a lot of disguised unemployment in Indian agriculture and agriculture became source of income and employment to majority of people by default. About 40%farmers are not interested to continue in agriculture. All these emphasize the need for the employment transition. Other measures, which the individuals or their associations cannot do and the Government must attend, are development of physical infrastructure like roads, transport, communications, market linkages, effective and affordable financial services, etc. If such support structure is available the local people themselves can start micro‐enterprises and get benefitted from greater access to markets.
2. Abolish state controls on growing and marketing of trees: The state restrictions on
trading of forestry species was a part of the British period’s Indian Forest Act. But it is still in force. These restrictions were imposed basically to prevent smuggling of valuable
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forest species from forest areas. This piece of legislation miserably failed in preventing the smugglings from the forests. The worst implication of this law is that farmers completely stopped raising valuable timber other forest species. E.g. Sandalwood, which used to grow as a weed, in crop lands in Mysore area, was completely removed by the farmers because of state restrictions. These in turn resulted in huge shortage of timber and other high value forest products. Now the country is replacing wood, which is a renewable product, in many industries and uses with non‐renewable products like cement and steel. This is going to have an adverse impact on the environment and natural resources in the long run. If state restrictions are removed, farmers would start growing these high value species either as block plantations or as agro‐forestry and get good returns. The economy gets good supply of wood and other high value products. Growing of these trees increases carbon sequestration and improves climatic conditions. It also improves the soil quality. It also reduces smugglings from forests. Some may oppose this move on the grounds that removal of state restrictions may result in large scale conversion of crop lands into plantations and it may leads to shortage of food‐grains and other agriculture products, along with large scale smugglings from forests. The answers for such apprehensions are (1) India’s cherished goal of bringing one‐third of geographical area under forestry/ tree cover would be achieved only through this reform. (2) As mentioned above that growing of trees in fields enrich the soil quality and improve climatic condition, which in turn increase the yield levels in remaining crop lands. (3) Now the country is in a position to import easily agriculture products from other countries. (4) Raising incomes of the farming community and others depended on agriculture make them to afford higher prices of food‐grains. (5) Raising incomes of rural areas would also bring a shift in demand pattern in rural areas. (6) The apprehension that opening up of trade in forest species would result in large scale smuggling from forest appears to be misplaced.42Similarly the apprehension that freedom to fell trees in the homesteads and other vacant lands in the urban areas may unleash the people’s spirit to plant and grow trees in all kinds of vacant areas, until those lands were put to other uses such as construction or extension of houses, buildings and other non‐agriculture uses.
3. Reorganize agriculture subsidies and incentives: The Government of India and state government together have ‘elaborate farm input subsidy programs’ and support price to a few crops and other welfare programs for the farming communities. These proved to be ineffective and regressive. As elaborated elsewhere in this report that the farm input subsidies and price support programs resulted in cultivation of more resource intensive crops with costly external inputs. World Bank (2008) recommended for replacement of present subsidies with smart subsidies to obtain desirable cropping pattern. World Bank
42 India’s own experience suggests that lifting ban on import of gold and electronic goods not only eliminated completely the smuggling of these goods, they also proved to be no drain on India’s foreign exchange.
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(2006) also echoed similar suggestion. The implications of various farm subsidies and other promotional programs and possible alternatives are discussed at Box – 6.1.
Box – 6.1: Implications to major farm support programs and alternatives
Subsidy/ support Implication Alternative
Fertilizer subsidy It is a huge subsidy, crossed one lakh crores in 2008 – 09. It resulted in excess use and adversely affected the soil quality. The farmers with large holdings get large amount of subsidy. The developed or irrigated areas are using more quantities, thus getting more benefit. These subsidies gave raise to so many vested interests including smuggling out of fertilizers to Bangladesh and Nepal.
Direct Cash Transfers (DCT) to target farmers and complete withdrawal of fertilizer subsidy. It may encourage farmers to optimize fertilizers use and look for alternatives.
Price support to
rice, wheat, cotton,
sugarcane
Lead to cultivation of resource intensive crops in
place of less resource intensive crops.
Extend effective price
support to all crops; at
least one lead crop in
each of 15 agro‐
climate regions
Distribution of rice
and wheat in PDS
Procurement in few pockets and distribution
across the country lead to mounting food miles;
adverse impact on cultivation, consumption and
(local) marketing of the coarse cereals; which
are less resource intensive and highly suitable to
poorer regions and rainfed areas
DCT and withdraw PDS
or make
decentralization of
procurement and
distribution, covering
all varieties of food
grains
Control on bank
interest rate to
farmers
Results in cross subsidization by the banks.
Hence banks try to minimize their exposure to
the farm sector and try to focus on developed/
highly irrigated regions, where risks are less.
Further, banks try to minimize their cost of
operations in the rural areas.
Allow banks to charge
as per their economic
cost. Introduce the
interest subvention as
practiced in AP SHG –
bank linkage
Loan waivers Expected to relieve the debt ridden farmers. But
it is adversely affect the credit discipline/ culture
in the country, especially in the rural areas; and
bank credit flow to the farm sector and rural
areas.
DCT
Power subsidy Regressive in nature, i.e. larger farmers get more Introduce DCT to
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benefit; lead to wasteful use of power and water target farmers
NREGA Lead to shortage of labor; which in turn may
lead to labor replacement technologies,
practices and cropping pattern, including crop
holidays. Labor replaces one kind of
employment with another kind of employment
with limited additional benefits. Generate low
quality productive assets, waste of precious
national resources
DCT to target people
Like any other welfare scheme the Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) is also has certain potential problems. The shortcomings are mostly related to leakages, mis‐targeting and intra‐household inequality. These shortcomings are very common to all Government schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Public Distribution System (PDS), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) etc. Compare to its peer programs, DCT is conceptually superior. It does not distract the labour market as the case with NREGS (Recent crop holiday announced by the farmers in Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh has some relation with NREGS) and cost effective compared to PDS (the amount that government spends on the PDS administration could be saved) and does not affect the participants preferences like SGSY). The generic problems like leakages, targeting, etc could be easily overcome in DCT with technologies and Adhaar Cards, etc.
Government may provide effective price support mechanism to all crops, especially to the less resource intensive crops like coarse cereals. Towards this, the Government may set up agriculture price stabilization fund. For balanced growth, the Government may extend price support to one major crop in each of 15 agro‐climatic zones. Instead of centralized procurement of rice and wheat, a decentralized procurement of all food grains in different areas and distribute in the same area may be considered. As mentioned elsewhere in the report according to ICRISAT research that farmers in different parts of country are not investing adequately in rainfed areas due to many uncertainties and reaping less yields. Price stability may give them some sort of certainty. Such incentives may reverse the current unsustainable practice of shifting to mono and resource intensive crops.
4. Protect CPRs: Evidence from different parts of the country suggest that quality CPRs,
especially the water bodies, contribute significantly to the quality of agriculture lands and high agriculture production and smoothening of poor people’s income and consumption, etc.
5. Introduce payments and develop markets for environmental services: India is rightly emphasizing the obligations of developed countries towards GHG emissions and CC and demanding their commitments and actions. Within the country, there are huge
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inequalities among the different reasons and different sections of the people in terms of GHG emissions (see e.g. D’Souza, John and Raajen Singh, 2011). E.g. the developed states like Delhi, Punjab and Haryana have very less forest, yet emit very high per capita GHGs. But there are no restrictions and penalties on these states. Whereas the North‐east has about 80% land under forest and they emit very less GHGs, yet there were strict restrictions on wood extraction in the region. The saw mills, one of the main sources of income and employment were closed without any compensation to the people and region. The government may impose some sort of tax on the states/ cities and habitats, which do not have certain minimum forest/ tree cover; and provide incentives/ compensation to the states, cities and habitats, which have large proportion of area under forest/ tree cover. Similar payments could be introduced for GHGs emissions. Such mechanism enhances the green cover in the country, mitigate CC and improve local climate condition and agriculture. Such practices may provide valuable insights for the internal communities.
6. The international community should also adapt such environmental payment system to prevent the deforestation in many developing countries, which hold the richest biodiversity and genetic materials.
Other necessary measures to help the people to cope with challenges of the CC are thorough decentralization, encouragement to traditional Indian herbal medicines, reorganization of agriculture and medical education and research with due emphasis on Indian traditional knowledge and practices, improve weather monitoring, forecast and measurements, disaster preparedness, etc. Apart from above facilitation measures, the Government has to focus on redesigning of infrastructure and habitations and careful planning about the location of various kinds of infrastructure such as roads, dams, habitations, etc, investment in research including metrological research.
6.6. Summary and conclusions The agriculture, in the country, state and project area, is heading in the unsustainable path and the climate change may have devastating effect on the agriculture in the country, food security and livelihood security of the poor. If the measures suggested in previous chapter are implemented by the farmers and communities, the agriculture could turn around and may progress in sustainable path. For that the country need several paradigm shifts, especially in the spheres of technology, financing, institutions and policy.
Under technology, it should be acknowledged that current agriculture technologies and practices are causing significant GHGs emissions and hence need a thorough review. At the moment the yield levels of almost all crops in country/ state/ project area are quite low
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compared to many other countries and even yield levels obtained in the local model farms. Major reasons for such abject low yields are poor and deteriorating quality of natural resources, especially the land, sub‐optimal farm practices due to uncertainties about crop production and revenue and inability of farmers to invest in agriculture including in post harvest storage, processing and marketing. With the climate change even these low yield may experience wide fluctuations in the short run and may decline significantly in the long run. One cannot overemphasize the importance of technologies. Already the multi‐national companies and their national counterparts are projecting themselves as last saviors. One should keep in mind that in the country of India’s diversity, dependence on one or two technologies/ solutions are not desirable, especially on alien solutions. The immediate required tasks are – improvement of the quality of natural resources – land, improvement of the farm practices and capacitate farmers to make adequate investments in agriculture, including in post harvest processes. Regarding financing, majority of Indian farmers, especially in backward states, make inadequate investment in agriculture. Major reasons are unviable holding sizes, unwanted farming and lack of access to formal financial services. Only about 20% of farmers have access to formal financial services. This percentage is as low as 13% in case of sub‐marginal farmers, i.e. holding size of less than one acre. The holding size and lack of interest need to be addressed through land consolidation and employment transition. For financial access measures like shift from priority sector lending to micro‐loans (small loans); lending to groups instead of individuals; allow the banks to charge their economic cost instead of compelling them to cross subsidized, interest subvention by the government to promote credit discipline, avoid vitiation of credit discipline in the rural areas, development of credit infrastructure and environment. Institutional changes: The success of Indian economic reforms proves that deregulation and decontrols can work wonders in the country. However, the economic liberalization, so far, is confined to economic sphere, especially, to manufacturing and service sectors only. There is need for similar reforms in agriculture, natural resource management and governance. Major problems of Indian agriculture are related to too much centralization of governance, resources, technologies, schemes, programs and projects. In the country of India’s diversity, centralized development paradigms do not work. The country needs thorough decentralization. The principle of subsidiarity43 should be adapted for effective natural resource management and good governance. The model projects/ programs described in chapter – 4, which may provide very useful insights for coping with the CC, are centered on people’s institutions (PIs). Almost all households in Andhra Pradesh are able to access bank credit on regular basis through SHG bank linkage program. The central and state governments recognized the importance of the participatory development and have been providing opportunities for people’s participation in development programs and projects. Lakhs of People’s Institutions have emerged during last 20
43 Subsidiarity means that what can be done by a Village Panchayat can not and should not be done by higher level institutions of the governance. Similarly whatever can be done by individuals effectively should be left to the individuals only.
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– 30 years to facilitate the participation of poor/ people in the development process, to overcome the poor people’s challenges like exclusion, deprivation, resource deficit, exploitation, etc. There are significant economic and social gains due to PIs. However, the experience of the people’s participation in the development proved to be mixed both in the process and impact. Lack of effective delegation of powers is the major reason for the lackluster performance of PIs. To elicit genuine people’s participation, the development programs and projects should focus on transparency, locally felt needs, building on local resources including indigenous technologies, knowledge and practice, seeking significant contributions from the primary stakeholders, involvement of primary stakeholder from the planning/ initial stages, etc. In other words the primary stakeholders must be treated as a partners/ participants rather than as beneficiaries. True decentralization is the best possible method to get genuine peoples’ participation in their institutions, development processes and governance. On the policy front, the Government should give top priority to the employment transition. Current practices of promoting micro‐enterprises and small scale industries proved to be ineffective to provide remunerative income and employment opportunities to the people employed in those units, including the owners/ proprietors. Even land reforms and assignment of Government/ common lands proved to be ineffective, if not counterproductive. The State may review and reverse some of current major agricultural policies such as input subsidies, centralized procurement, price protection to a few resource intensive crops, privatization and neglect of CPRs, etc. The Government should remove all restrictions on growing and marketing of trees and allow farmers to grow forest species as part of their farming. The State has to extend all necessary support to the agro‐forestry including development of markets for environmental services. The state has to invest heavily on physical infrastructure such as road, transport, communications and marketing, etc. Current education and research in the areas of agriculture and medicines have to be reorganized to cover India’s traditional knowledge and practices. There is a need for a thorough redesigning of agriculture insurance. Present input subsidies apparently are resulting in inefficient and wasteful use inputs and causing climate change and adversity affecting the quality of natural resources and are accruing disproportionately to the well off farmers and regions. The above challenges could be overcome through introduction of direct cash transfers (DCTs) to the target people. DCT is also most cost effective method.
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