Decarbonising Indian Agriculture
- March 31, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Decarbonising Indian Agriculture
Subject: Environment
Section: Climate Change
Context- Decarbonization of Indian Agriculture has to be carefully calibrated to avoid an adverse impact to over 120 million marginal farmers who are still in the ‘survival phase’ of their socio-economic development.
Concept-
Agricultural Emmissions:
- As per India’s third Biennial Update Report, in 2016, agriculture and livestock emitted 407,821 Gg of CO2e, around 14% of total emissions.
- Out of this, 3% is linked to livestock.
- Apart from livestock, the major constituents of agriculture GHG emissions are rice cultivation (17.5%), fertiliser application (19.1%), and field burning of agricultural residues (2.2%).
- India, with 75 million sq km arable land and a 300 million cattle population has 160 million rural households with agriculture being the main source of livelihood.
- Hence, decarbonisation has to be carefully calibrated to avoid an adverse impact to over 120 million marginal farmers who are still in the ‘survival phase’ of their socio-economic development.
Decarbonization:
- Deep decarbonising pathways would include:
- reducing biogenic methane from cattle and rice cultivation;
- inculcating resource efficiency by reducing consumption of irrigation water, chemical fertilisers, and energy for cultivation/ harvesting/transport as well as farm waste processing;
- reducing waste in the food supply chain;
- and building climate resilience through deploying automation and technology.
- The following factors are critical for both decarbonisation and sustainability:
- Soil:
- Fertile soil enhances farm yields and incomes apart from being a carbon sink.
- Healthy soil holds more moisture and soil conservation methods reduce erosion.
- The co-products of biogas/biofuels plants are compost/bio-char, which enrich soil, mitigate environment pollution, and displace chemical fertilisers.
- Freshwater:
- Agriculture consumes over 80% of freshwater in India, making conservation critical.
- Micro-irrigation with automation and adoption of low water-intensive species and farming practices is essential.
- Areas under water intensive crops must be reduced through crops diversification, examples being oil seeds, pulses, horticulture, and forage crops.
- Alternate cropping:
- This contributes to GHG mitigation and is an emerging area in climate-smart farming.
- For example, seaweed cultivation as additive to cattle feed reduces biogenic methane emissions, improves feed quality, and enhances milk production.
- Agro-forestry:
- Trees act as windbreaks, reduce soil erosion, enrich soil, and filter water.
- Studies suggest that 5% increase at 5 yearly intervals to the existing 16 mha area can help mitigate India’s projected emissions.
- Bio-energy from farm waste:
- Manure-based community biogas plants can support clean cooking and distributed power.
- India’s National Policy for Biofuels/ SATAT scheme set a medium-term target of 15 million tonnes of bio-CNG.
- IEA’s India Energy Outlook 2021 estimates the potential being of 30 million tonnes Bio-CNG.
- BECCS (Bio Energy with Carbon Capture & Storage) involves capturing CO2 from bioenergy plants and permanent storage. This will lead to carbon removal as well as negative emissions.
- Soil: