Agricultural impacts of climate change in India and potential adaptations

Abstract The research and development efforts coupled with suitable policies over decades have resulted in India becoming self-reliant in food grain production. However, the rising incidence of extreme weather events due to climate change and climatic variability over the last few decades could impact the food security of the country. The impact of these events could result in increased frequency of dry spells and floods; multiple stresses in a given season; emergence of new pests/biovars; soil health deterioration; reduced animal and poultry productivity; changes in fish species diversity; and disrupted market services. Efforts at the regional/agro-ecology level to minimize the adverse impacts through adaptation strategies have shown positive results. These efforts included a demonstration of selected technologies, enhancing awareness about impacts to the stakeholders, and operationalization of agricultural contingency plans. New investments and research-extension-policy networks over the last decade by the government of India have shown impressive results with a possibility of developing ‘Climate smart village clusters’. To ensure resilience coupled with sustainable profitability, thrust should be laid to investing on infrastructure for advanced research, packaging of farming system/agro-ecology-specific adaptation strategies, state-of-the-art knowledge management systems, skill development programs and enabling policy framework.