{"id":50411,"date":"2024-03-27T13:47:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T13:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=50411"},"modified":"2024-04-03T11:17:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T10:17:39","slug":"what-will-it-take-to-protect-indias-farmers-from-climate-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2024\/03\/27\/what-will-it-take-to-protect-indias-farmers-from-climate-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"What will it take to protect India’s angry farmers from climate threats?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indian farmers – struggling with erratic weather, shrinking water supplies and falling incomes – have quit their fields in a major new wave of protest, and plan to keep up the pressure on the government ahead of national elections starting on April 19.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debt-laden growers want an existing government procurement system to be made legally binding and to raise the minimum price for a wider range of crops – which could help them move away from thirsty rice and wheat farming.<\/p>\n

But some agricultural analysts argue that bolstering the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for produce would not resolve the wider climate problems farmers face, nor ease demand for scarce water resources.<\/p>\n

Expectations mount as loss and damage fund staggers to its feet<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Deedar Singh, a 50-year-old farmer from Patiala, joined a march towards Delhi in mid-February and spoke to Climate Home at a camp on the Punjab-Haryana border, 200 km from Delhi. He participated in a similar mobilisation back in 2020 that lasted for just over a year.<\/p>\n

With a family of nine to support, he complained that his five-acre landholding and meagre income of 200,000 rupees per year ($2,400) cannot provide a decent quality of life, especially as weather extremes worsen.<\/p>\n

“If untimely rain destroys our rice or hot temperatures shrink the wheat grain, our crops are ruined, leaving us unable to even cover the costs of the next cropping season,\u201d said Singh. Most people in his village rely on financial support sent by their children who have migrated abroad, he added.<\/p>\n

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Farmers gather at the Shambhu border, between Punjab and Haryana, to burn effigies of political leaders and shout slogans in support of the protest, February 27 2024 (Photo: Kanika Gupta)<\/p><\/div>\n

Globally, India accounts for 10% of agricultural output<\/a> and is the second-largest producer of rice and wheat. It is also the biggest consumer of groundwater. Its 260 million farmers depend heavily on depleting water reserves to irrigate their crops.<\/p>\n

That means they are also struggling with climate change, as about 65% of the country’s cropped area depends on rainwater<\/a>. Erratic rainfall and shorter winters are harming yields, with heavy downpours causing flooding and a sudden spike in temperatures a year ago causing wheat grain to shrink.<\/p>\n

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) reports that for every 1C increase in temperature, wheat production suffers a significant decline of 4-5 million tonnes.<\/p>\n

Debt drives suicides<\/h3>\n

Water resources are running low and farmers\u2019 input costs have soared – yet the government-administered minimum support price (MSP) has not risen accordingly, said Ramandeep Singh Mann, an agriculturist and member of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, an umbrella body spearheading the current protest.<\/p>\n

That has left farmers with no money to pay for contingencies and has forced many to take on high levels of debt, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point your back breaks. When that happens, there is no other solution but to take extreme steps,\u201d he added, referring to suicides among indebted farmers.<\/p>\n