An index for monitoring the effectiveness of climate-smart agriculture practices: How it can help

An index for monitoring the effectiveness of climate-smart agriculture practices: How it can help

Subject: Environment

Section: Climate change

Index to evaluate Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices:

• Developed by: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Forest Management (Bhopal) and Solidaridad Network
• Aim: To evaluate Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in India, aiming to enhance environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, income, and sustainable farm production.
  • These practices include interventions like improved seeds, integrated nutrient management practices, crop residue management practices, direct seeding of rice, zero tillage farming, mulching, and agroforestry, supported by government initiatives across various states.
• Introduced by the FAO in 2010, CSA’s evaluation involved 34 indicators across five dimensions: governance, farm management practices, environment management, energy management, and awareness and training, with the latter being identified as the most critical for CSA adoption.

Climate Smart Agriculture: Characteristics

Contrary to conventional agricultural development, CSA systematically integrates climate change into the planning and development of sustainable agricultural systems. CSA‟s three primary pillars are interrelated concerns-increased productivity, enhanced resilience and reduced emissions. However, the resultant trade-offs often cannot maximize the pillars simultaneously, only optimize them. v CSA maintains ecosystem services: Ecosystems provide the agricultural sector with a number of unpaid services –clean natural water, materials, food, sunlight etc. CSA attempts to ensure the sustainability of these services, preventing their degradation. CSA is not a rigid set of particular practices, technologies or methodologies- it is only a concept amenable to adaptation. It has multiple entry points, ranging from the development of technologies and practices to the elaboration of climate change models and scenarios, information technology, insurance schemes, value chains and the strengthening of institutional and political enabling environments.

Key Government Initiatives on CSA

National Innovation on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA):National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) is a network project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched in February, 2011 with an outlay of Rs.350 crores. The project aims to enhance the resilience of Indian agriculture, covering crops, livestock and fisheries to climatic variability and climate change through development and application of improved production and risk management technologies. National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) The Government is implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which provides the overarching framework for climate actions, through national missions in specific areas.

The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the Missions under NAPCC, includes programmatic interventions like Soil Health Card, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mission Organic Value Chain Development for Northeastern Region, Rainfed Area Development, National Bamboo Mission and Sub-mission on Agro-Forestry. The NMSA works through adoption of sustainable development pathway by progressively shifting to environment friendly technologies, adoption of energy efficient equipments, conservation of natural resources, integrated farming, etc. Besides, the NMSA aims at promoting location specific improved agronomic practices through soil health management, enhanced water use efficiency, judicious use of chemicals, crop diversification.

The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC): The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) was established to meet the cost of adaptation to climate change for the State and Union Territories of India that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This Scheme was implemented during 2015-16 mainly for supporting concrete adaptation activities dealing with mitigating the adverse effects of global climate change in various sectors including agriculture. Under the NAFCC, various projects have been sanctioned in different states i.e., Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, J&K, Meghalaya, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh etc.

Climate Smart Village: Climate-smart village (CSV) is an institutional approach to test, implement, modify and promote CSA at the local level and to enhance farmers‟ abilities to adapt to climate change. The CSV adopts a portfolio of interventions to tackle the climate challenges of the agriculture sector that cover the full spectrum of farm activities. Various Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers and national research organisations are putting their concerted efforts into the CSVs in India. CSVs were piloted in two states of India: Karnal district of Haryana state and Vaishali district of Bihar state which later spread into districts of Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi SinchayeeYojna (PMSKY): This Scheme was planned and formulated to give more priority on water conservation and its management in agriculture with the vision to extend the area under irrigation from 1 July 2015. The main motto of this Scheme is ‘Har Khet Ko Paani’ to improve water use efficiency. ‘More crop per drop’ scheme provide end-to-end solutions in water on source creation, distribution channels and its management.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY): The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) introduced in the country from Kharif 2016 season is voluntary for States/UTs as well as for farmers. States/UTs can participate in the scheme keeping in view their risk perception and financial considerations etc. From inception of the scheme till 2020-21 cumulatively 2,938.7 lakh farmer applications for a sum insured of Rs. 10,49,342 crore have been enrolled under the scheme.

Soil Health Card Scheme: This Scheme was launched in February, 2015 to issue soil health cards (SHC) to the farmers providing detailed information on test-based soil nutrient status of their own land along with recommended dose of fertilizers for improving productivity through judicious use of inputs. The Government of India targeted to issue 10.48 crores of SHCs since inception of the Scheme.

National Water Mission (NWM): A Mission was mounted to ensure Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) for conserving the water sources and minimizing its wastage, and also to optimize Water Use Efficiency (WUE) by 20 per cent including agriculture sector.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY): It is an extended component of Soil Health Management (SHM) launched in 2015 under NMSA with the objective of supporting and promoting organic farming through adoption of organic village by cluster approach, which in turn result in improvement of soil health. Biotech-KISAN: It is a scientist-farmer partnership scheme launched in 2017 for agriculture innovation with an objective to connect science laboratories with the farmers to find out innovative solutions and technologies to be applied at farm level. Under this scheme, so far 146 Biotech-KISAN Hubs have been established covering all 15 agroclimatic zones and 110 aspirational districts in the country. The scheme has benefitted over two lakhs farmers so far by increasing their agriculture output and income. Over 200 entrepreneurships have also been developed in rural areas.

Neem Coated Urea: It is a form of urea fertilizer coated with neem extracted material, which acts as a slow releaser of nitrogen reducing the pest and disease infestation ultimately minimizing the usage of chemicals in farming by achieving the overall increase in crop yield.

Sub-mission on Agro-forestry: This Mission was launched during 2016-17 with the objective of planting trees on farm bunds. Agro-forestry has the potential to bring sustainability in agriculture and also achieving the optimum productivity by mitigating the impact of climate change.

National Livestock Mission: This Mission was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and got commenced from 2014-15 focusing mainly on livestock development through sustainable approach ultimately protecting the natural environment, ensuring bio-security, conserving animal bio-diversity and farmers’ livelihood.

CSA and farm productivity:

• A new study found a strong correlation between farm productivity and CSA, utilizing a multidimensional indicator-based framework to calculate a “climate smartness” score at the farm level.
• The research, conducted in Madhya Pradesh across three districts with diverse agro-climatic zones,analyzed data from 315 farmers during the 2019-2020 cropping seasons.
• It highlighted the importance of training and awareness in adopting CSA practices, showing no significant difference among the indicators but underscoring training as key to implementation success.
• This study suggests that the framework could aid policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in designing and upscaling CSA practices, which is vital as the global population grows and climate change impacts agriculture, necessitating a shift towards more sustainable practices.

Source: DTE