Experts Urges India to Raise Wheat Production Decline Issue at COP27

Ali, a 75-year-old farmer in Uttar Pradesh, has had a difficult year, losing 35% of the wheat crop he sowed in his two-hectare field due to the heatwave. The harvest's quality was also deplorable. His paddy crop was also affected, but not as badly as the wheat crop. Ali believes that 2022 will be the worst farming year of his life.

"I sowed the wheat seeds in December and harvested it in April, but the heatwave in March resulted in crop loss," said the resident of Kodia in western Uttar Pradesh. owns the field next to Ali's and was fortunate to sow mustard this year as well. Because the mustard harvesting season is shorter than that of wheat, the crop was unaffected by the heatwave.

"The loss I suffered from wheat was offset by mustard." However, wheat and paddy are staple crops that we cultivate. We can change our pattern for a year, but we can't do it every year. "We just don't know what the weather will be like next year," he explained.

Drought and heavy rainfall were considered abnormal just a decade ago, but they are now the new normal, according to Kamal. "Farmers like me are struggling to deal with this crisis." Rishi, a farmer from Pilakhana village in western Uttar Pradesh, said he has decided to grow crops with shorter harvesting seasons, such as peas and maize, alongside wheat so that he is not entirely reliant on one crop.

"It may result in less wheat production, but we cannot do so at the expense of our earnings," he added. In the 2021-22 crop year, India's wheat production is expected to fall by nearly 3% to 106.84 million tonnes. The decline is most likely the result of a heatwave that caused shrivelled grains in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

The government denied reports that India was planning to import wheat due to the shortage. This March was India's warmest in 122 years, with a severe heatwave scorching large swaths of the country. In April, the average temperature across India was 35.05 degrees Celsius, the fourth-highest for the month in 122 years.

Agriculture experts, on the other hand, emphasised the importance of raising the issue of climate change's impact on India's food security at the COP27 meeting in November. They stated that COP27 could be a watershed moment in linking food security and nutrition to climate change.

Food security and green energy must be balanced, according to Shweta Saini, a senior consultant at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

"For countries like India, where malnutrition is very high and agriculture is a major industry, we believe that the commitment to food security and green energy must be balanced." So, while India is discussing biofuel, the question we should be asking is whether food can be used as fuel," she explained.

The 2018 National Policy on Biofuels allows for the production of ethanol from damaged food grains such as wheat and broken rice. At COP27, Devinder Sharma, a food policy and agricultural trade expert, stated that countries like India must abandon their "obsession" with GDP.

"Nothing will change until the economy is structured in a way that radically challenges the climate crisis," he said. "This is something that needs to be brought out in the discussions at COP27."

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's main decision-making body is the COP. It includes representatives from all of the UNFCCC signatory countries. The COP compares the effects of the parties' measures to limit climate change to the overall goal of the UNFCCC.

Agriculture experts have noted a recent increase in mysterious diseases causing crop dwarfing, suggesting that this, too, may be the result of climate change. "There is dwarfing (of crops) occurring in Punjab and Haryana, which is mysterious because no one knows why." "We need to see how closely it is related to climate change," Saini explained.

Sharma also speculated that climate change could be to blame for the mysterious disease that causes dwarfism. Saini and Sharma also mentioned that climate change had an impact on other Rabi crops. "The heatwave that we predicted five to six years ago has already occurred." It impacted the wheat crop, as well as other crops and most Rabi crops harvested at the time, such as barley. "Monsoon had an impact on vegetables as well as paddy," Sharma explained.

According to Saini, heat does not always affect crops, but it does cause pest attacks at times, which is another symptom of climate change. "We still need to figure out if climate change is a factor," she added. Sharma stated that not only India, but all countries, must focus on food self-sufficiency.

"There is no way out if we don't have enough supplies." We'll be standing with a begging bowl, causing food riots. Climate change has become a major factor in our country's geopolitical situation, and we must recognise that," he added. The first impact of climate change was felt on food security, according to Saini, and this needs to be addressed.

(Source- The Print)