By: G Seetharaman

Date: May 8th 2016

Source: The Economic Times

Just as we hit Karnal, 130 km north of New Delhi, in Haryana on National Highway 1, a noxious odour and a mild haze are all but obvious. As we turn left off the highway, their source comes into view: large stretches of agricultural fields coated in various shades of black, with the embers still fresh on some.

Burning the residues of the rice crop after harvest in winter, and of wheat in March-April, is quite common among the farmers of Haryana and Punjab and the effects of the pollution are felt even in the national capital.

But in Taraori village, most fields are populated by wheat residues a few centimetres to a couple of feet tall. Known for its export-quality basmati rice, Taraori is among the 27 villages in Karnal district which are showing the rest why it makes much sense to not burn the crop residues and why it is even essential. 

Playing Smart These villages are part of a research project of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The five-year-old global project on climate-smart agriculture, which covers 21 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, looks to make agriculture sustainable and resilient to climate change while at the same time increasing food production and farm incomes. CGIAR, or the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, is an umbrella body of 15 research centres. 

Among the 27 villages, Taraori has emerged as a model climate-smart village of sorts with farmers who are progressive and receptive of new technologies, helped by the efforts of a farmers' group in the village. 

Vikas Chaudhary, who is secretary of the group, says eight out of ten farmers in Taraori did zero tillage on their land this rabi season and very few burned the residues. 

Tilling involves the digging and overturning of soil to prepare it for farming every season. Zero tillage improves water and nutrient retention, and is one of the key components of climate-smart agriculture. 

"All it takes is for farmers to see how we do things differently and most of them are quick to adapt," says 35-year-old Chaudhary, a graduate in political science and geography, who has followed his father into agriculture. 

HS Jat of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, a unit of CGIAR, who has been involved with the project, says zero tillage along with residue management and diversification of crops reduce the fertiliser requirement by a fifth after three years. 

A tonne of rice and wheat residues, about 40% of which is carbon, is said to contain 5-8 kg of nitrogen, 1-2 kg of phosphorus and 11-13 kg of potassium. Som Dutt, a farmer from near Karnal city, says that in the last five-six years, he hasn't burned the residues or tilled his land, and as a result his wheat yields have gone up from 16-17 quintals to 20 quintals an acre. "My diesel use has also come down 80-85% in zero tillage compared with conventional tilling." 

Even direct seeded rice, which involves the sowing of rice seeds directly, compared to the traditional method of sprouting rice in a nursery and transferring the seedlings to a field with standing water, reduces methane emissions by 40% and water use by 25%. 

Among the tools to optimise fertiliser use is a sensor called Green Seeker which, when held over the crop, gives a reading. The data is fed into an app for the farmer to know how much fertiliser he should use. There is also a leaf-colour chart to help farmers decide how much nitrogen the crop needs. Farmers also use weather information and a technology to measure soil moisture. 

Tackling Climate Change What makes climate-smart agriculture all the more important are occurrences of climatic variability, making farming more vulnerable to the vagaries of nature. For instance, the number of rainy days Karnal has every year has dropped from 40-45 two decades ago to 25 days, and the intensity of rainfall has risen, which is counter-productive to groundwater recharge because of the runoff of rainwater. 

Moreover, unseasonal rains have also been witnessed in February over the last couple of years, something which other parts of the country have also experienced. 

Warmer summers and droughts have also made agriculture, which more than half the Indian population relies on for a living, riskier. Last year was the world's hottest year on record and 2016 is expected to be even warmer, with the global average temperature being 1.14 degree Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels. This is worrying because over 170 countries have agreed to cap the increase at 1.5-2 degree Celsius this century. 

Climate-smart agriculture assumes even greater significance given its link to food security. According to a World Bank-commissioned study in 2013, total crop production in India is expected to rise 60% by the 2050s without climate change, but in the event of a temperature increase of 2 degree Celsius since the industrial revolution, the increase will only be 12%. Moreover, it will have to import twice the amount of food grains than in a scenario without climate change. 

Pramod Aggarwal, South Asia regional programme leader, CCAFS, says we should not get lost in the debate of the magnitude of climate change. "The trend (in climate change) is clear and farmers are already suffering. We should develop strategies to address that." Aggarwal adds that since CGIAR is only a research body it is up to the government and the farmers to scale up climatesmart agriculture.

Helping Oneself Looking at the success of the trials in Karnal, the Haryana government has planned to take them to 500 more villages. Bihar is also looking to scale up climate-smart agriculture. The CCAFS project now includes 70 villages in Punjab, Odisha and Karnataka, besides Haryana and Bihar. Punjab and Haryana were among the states transformed by the Green Revolution in the 1960s. 

A similar project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, called National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture, has now covered 151 villages across the country and plans to add another 100. 

Alok Sikka of the International Water Management Institute believes climate-smart agriculture is so structured that in a good monsoon year, the rains are sufficient for farming; in a bad monsoon year, there are water management and conservation practices which come to the farmer's rescue; and in a very bad year, the farmer can turn to crop insurance. The CCAFS project is developing customised, region-specific crop insurance schemes based on short-term and long-term climatic risks. 

As stories of farm and farmer distress, for which climate variability is partially responsible, have become more common over the years, it is very clear that for agriculture to be a viable source of livelihood, and to ensure India's food security, the government and farmers themselves will have to ensure the latter's land and crops are more sustainable and climate-resistant in the long run. 

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