Sustainability, nutritional outcomes are a must
India's foodgrains output has crossed 330 million tonnes — almost double the levels of the early 1990s. Here lies the paradox — despite producing enough to feed its population, India still hosts nearly a quarter of the world's undernourished population. More than half of Indian women and nearly two-thirds of children suffer from anaemia, while around 790 million people cannot afford a healthy diet.
Climate change, by constraining yield, has aggravated the problem across supply chains. Rising temperatures have shortened wheat growing seasons in northern India. Erratic rainfall patterns are increasing risks for rain-fed apiculture, which still supports millions of smallholders. Groundwater depletion is intensifying in the country's key grain belts.
In view of the changes, it needs to be appreciated that food policy cannot be only about feeding people; it is about building human capital., the climate-food nexus is not merely about production; it is about prices, nutrition and development.
Innovation in agricultural practices will be essential to navigate climate change pressures. Precision agriculture is a critical frontier. Digital platforms using sensors, satellite imagery and weather analytics help farmers optimise irrigation and fertiliser use.
Lengthy approval processes for new crop varieties, as is often the case, delay the deployment of technologies that could help farmers adapt to climate stress.
Public-private collaborations are expending this ecosystem. The Microsoft-NITI Aayog agri-tech initiative has supported stars-ups digitising millions of acres of farmland while Maharashtra's Climate-Resilient Agriculture Project has reported yield improvements of between 9 and 21 per cent among participating farmers.
Biotechnology and improved seed systems already offer promising pathways.
Biotechnology, genomics and data-driven crop development require substantial research investments, making intellectual property frameworks an important policy lever. Well-designed intellectual property rights (IPR) regimes can incentivise the development of climate-resilient and nutrition-enhanced crops. At the same time, ensuring accessibility for smallholder farmers remains critical. Mechanisms such as trait-specific licensing, patent pools and collaborative public-private research partnerships can help balance innovation incentives with affordability. However, apart from strong regulatory mechanisms, regulatory clarity is equally important. Lengthy approval processes for new crop varieties, as is often the case, delay the deployment of technologies that could help farmers adapt to climate stress.
The country's agricultural incentive structures also require recalibration. As shown by a 2009 paper published in the journal Wafer Policy, MSP policies and input subsidies have historically led to the shifting of acreage towards water- and resource-intensive wheat and rice, and have caused water conflicts in the water-scarce Cauvery basin. A similar situation prevails between Punjab and Haryana. Diversification towards pulses, oilseeds and millets offers a more sustainable pathway. Millets require significantly less water and are rich in micronutrients.
NSCSA encourages crop diversification, nutrient-rich crops, improved soil health and water efficient farming practices.
Lately, green water credits have been considered an incentive mechanism to encourage farmers to keep water in-stream and enhance productivity through green practices. This creates the basis fora more integrated approach, Nutrition-Sensitive Climate-Smart Apiculture (NSCSA), that seeks to combine productivity, climate adaptation, and nutritional outcomes within a single policy lens. NSCSA encourages crop diversification, nutrient-rich crops, improved soil health and water efficient farming practices.
NSCSA can be the pillar of Green Revolution 2.0. The success of Green Revolution 2.0 will be judged by whether India can nourish its people while sustaining the ecosystems that feed them.
This commentary originally appeared in The Hindu Business Line.
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Dr Nilanjan Ghosh heads Development Studies at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and serves as the operational and executive head of ORF’s Kolkata Centre. He ...
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Dr. Shoba Suri is a Senior Fellow with ORFs Health Initiative. Shoba is a nutritionist with experience in community and clinical research. She has worked on nutrition, ...
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