Climate-Resilient Agriculture For UPSC IAS Exam

Why in the News?

India is accelerating the expansion of Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA) to address rising climate-change risks to food security, rainfed farming systems, and farmers’ incomes.
Increasing climate unpredictability, declining soil health, and environmental degradation have made conventional agricultural practices inadequate, especially in rainfed regions.
With nearly 51 percent of India’s net sown area being rainfed and contributing about 40 percent of food production, climate variability has emerged as a systemic risk to agricultural sustainability.

Climate-Resilient Agriculturerefers to farming systems that sustainably increase productivity while enhancing the capacity of crops, soils, and farming communities to adapt to climate variability and extreme weather events.
It integrates biotechnology, ecological practices, and digital technologies to reduce dependence on chemical inputs while maintaining or improving yields.
The approach seeks to balance food security, farmer income stability, and environmental protection, making agriculture adaptive rather than reactive to climate stress.
CRA also contributes to mitigation goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions where possible and converting farms into carbon sinks through conservation practices.

High Dependence on Rainfed Agriculture
- Nearly half of India’s cultivated land depends on rainfall, making agricultural output highly sensitive to erratic monsoons, droughts, and floods.
Rising Climate Variability
- Increasing heat stress, irregular rainfall, salinity ingress, and extreme weather events are directly reducing yield stability and farm incomes.
Limits of Conventional Farming
- Input-intensive farming methods show declining returns under climate stress and have contributed to soil degradation, groundwater depletion, and pollution.
- Scientific models suggest that staple crop yields, such as rice and wheat, could decline by 3–22 percent by the end of the century, and even exceed 30 percent in worst-case scenarios.
Food Security and Population Pressure
- With a rapidly growing population, India requires stable and reliable agricultural productivity to avoid food shortages and price volatility.
Strategic and Environmental Imperatives
- CRA reduces reliance on food imports, strengthens strategic autonomy, restores soil health, and supports long-term ecological sustainability.

Biotechnology-Based Interventions
- Use of biofertilizers, biopesticides, and microbial soil enhancers to improve soil health and reduce chemical dependence.
Genome-Edited and Climate-Tolerant Crops
- Development of crop varieties tolerant to drought, heat, floods, salinity, and pest pressures.
Digital and AI-Driven Tools
- Application of artificial intelligence and data analytics to integrate climate, soil, and crop variables for location-specific advisories.
Resource-Efficient Farming Practices
- Techniques such as zero tillage, direct seeding of rice, aerobic rice cultivation, and precision irrigation to conserve water and energy.
Sustainability Orientation
- CRA aligns productivity enhancement with environmental protection by restoring soil organic carbon and reducing emissions.

National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA)
- Launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 2011, it focuses on strategic research, technology demonstration, and capacity building.
- Climate-resilient practices have been demonstrated across 448 climate-resilient villages, enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacity.
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
- It aims to improve productivity in rainfed areas through integrated farming systems, water-use efficiency, and soil health management.
BioE3 Policy
- It identifies Climate-Resilient Agriculture as a key thematic area for biotechnology-led solutions, supporting the scaling of bio-inputs and resilient crops.
Digital Agriculture Ecosystem
- Agritech startups and institutions provide AI-enabled advisories, crop-health monitoring, precision irrigation, and yield prediction tools.
Private and Institutional Support
- Companies such as IFFCO, GSFC, and other biological input producers contribute to reducing chemical dependence in farming systems.

United States	Integrates CRA through the USDA Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry initiative with large-scale public investment
European Union	Embeds CRA within the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy to reduce chemical inputs and enhance sustainability
China	Focuses on climate-tolerant crop breeding, water-saving irrigation, and agricultural digitalisation
Brazil	Leads tropical climate-resilient crop development through biotechnology research driven by EMBRAPA

Low Adoption among Small and Marginal Farmers
- Limited awareness, affordability constraints, and lack of access reduce adoption rates.
Quality Issues in Bio-Inputs
- Inconsistent quality of biofertilizers and biopesticides undermines farmer trust.
Slow Rollout of Resilient Seeds
- Despite the availability of climate-resilient varieties, lab-to-field transfer remains uneven across States.
Digital Divide
- Low digital literacy and rural connectivity limit the reach of AI-based precision agriculture tools.
Structural and Policy Constraints
- Fragmented policy coordination, soil degradation, water scarcity, and rapidly accelerating climate volatility compound implementation challenges.

Accelerating Climate-Smart Crop Deployment
- Fast-track development and distribution of genome-edited and climate-tolerant crop varieties.
Strengthening Bio-Input Regulation
- Improve quality standards, supply chains, and regulatory oversight to build farmer confidence.
Expanding Digital Access
- Provide affordable digital tools and climate advisories tailored to small landholders.
Financial and Risk Support
- Enhance access to climate insurance, affordable credit, and targeted incentives during the transition phase.
Coherent National Roadmap
- Develop an integrated CRA roadmap under the BioE3 framework, aligning biotechnology, climate adaptation, and agricultural policy.