How can India reduce its impact on global warming-

Subject: Environment

Context:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pointed out that since the industrial revolution, which started around 1800,human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to fuel burning and other ‘greenhouse gases’ such as methane, nitrous oxide, and compounds of sulphur, phosphorous, ozone into the atmosphere, changing the earth’s climate.

Alarming increase-

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by over 40%, from 280 ppm in the 18th century to 414 ppm in 2020, and greenhouse gases (GHG) level by over these 200 years.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) site points out that we have a rural population that constitutes 70% of the country, and their main occupation is agriculture. This gives us a total foodgrain production of 275 million tonne.
India is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts.
It, thus, becomes important that India reduce its carbon footprint, more in its farming sector.

Efforts to reduce the agricultural GHG emissions–

The use of solar panels in the agricultural fields, so that farmers can avoid diesel for groundwater pumps.
Climatefriendly Agriculture offers new income sources and is more sustainable.
India’s carbon emissions could drop by 4562 million tonnes annually.
The government and professional groups have helped rural farmers put in solar panels to save money and gain greater Income.
India, with its many rivers, has a vast coastline which is rich in fishes. And fishes have high nutritional value and help in reducing carbon footprint.

India’s agricultural output–

Indian farmers grew about 121.5 million tonnes of rice and 109 million tonnes of wheat during the year 2020-2021.
They also produce other foodgrains such as millets (bajra), cassava and more.
They grow about 12 million tonnes of millets annually.
Likewise, the amount of maize produced per year is about 28.6 million tonnes.
It may also be added that millets have more proteins (7.3 m per 100 g), fat (1.7 g per 100 g) and fibre content (4.22g per 100g) than rice (protein content 2.7 g per 100 g; fat content 0.3 g per 100 g; and fibre content 0.4 g per 100 g).
It is, thus, healthier for us to add more millets in our diet, besides rice and wheat.
And wheat is superior to rice as it has more proteins (13.2 g per 100 g), fat (2.5 g per 100 g), and fibre (10.7 g per 100 g).