Rainfed Agriculture

Climate related natural disasters and agriculture in India

Climate related natural disasters are predicted to threaten crop productivity and thereby food security in the future in India where the damage would be severe with more than 50 percent people being directly dependent on agriculture and with about 43 percent of cultivated lands being rainfed. 

In rural India, where agriculture remains a primary livelihood, access to basic amenities is often lacking, contributing to low livelihood security. The presence of extensive wasteland, particularly in regions like West Bengal, exacerbates these challenges, especially in socially marginalised areas.

Agricultural productivity continues to be low in South Asian economies such as India. For example, the average paddy production per hectare in India is 3590 kg, which is much lower compared to 6686 kg per ha.

As high as  0.6 million Indians suffer from high to very high water stress because of insufficient availability of freshwater.

The tank irrigation systems of South India

The availability of water is crucial for meeting a range of developmental challenges from poverty, food security to gender equity and can have a significant impact on health, education and livelihoods.

India is the second-largest cereal exporter globally, making its cereal production vital for both domestic and international food security. Three major states in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal - account for 30% of India's total food production and are considered the food bowl of India.

Marathwada is one of the most drought-prone regions of India and the increasing severity of droughts and their adverse impacts on socioeconomic conditions in the region have been of major concern in recent years. Majority of the area of Marathwada is under rain-fed agriculture and the summer monsoon rainfall is crucial for agricultural production in the region.

The Union Budget 2023 has given significant relief to the middle classes; however, India’s vast majorities of working people in rural areas and the cities need more focused attention. We may have come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the precarity of employment continues.

Climate change has become a major threat to agriculture and rural livelihoods and can lead to rural poverty and migration and cause overexploitation of natural resources such as water, land and forests informs this study titled 'Is crop diversification vulnerable to climate, agricultural and socio-economic facto