Impact of Drought on Agriculture:
Challenges facing poor farmers of
Karnataka, south India
B. C. Nagaraja
Dept. of Environmental Sciences,
Bangalore University,
Bangalore – 560056,
Karnataka,
INDIA
Email: [email protected]
Background
• The tropical arid and desert regions are
threatened by extreme poverty and water
scarcity due to repeated droughts.
• Nearly 85% of farms measuring less than two
hectares -produce 80% of the world's food
• It is anticipated that yields from rain-fed farming
in some south Asian countries could fall by up to
30% by 2050 (IPCC, 2007).
• Small and marginal landholders, pastoralists and
artisanal fisher folk are particularly vulnerable to
the localised effects of climate change.
Indian scenario
• GDP declined from 46% in 1960 to 20%, in spite of 70%
of population engaged in farming
• 278 districts of 11 states of India are experiencing the
drought (chronically drought prone area – receive less
than 750mm/yr, which account 33% of India)
• Rain fed agro-ecosystem has a distinct place in Indian
Agriculture, occupying 67% of the cultivated area,
contributing 44% of the food grains
• Rearing of sheep and goats plays an important role in
the economy of India in general and sustainable
livelihood of poor people of rain fed agro-ecosystem in
particular.
Natural disaster regions of India
2002 Drought – worst
• The 2002 monsoon was one of the shortest in recorded
history.
• No other drought in the past led to such a drop in food
production
• Food grain production dipped by 29 million tonnes to
183 million tonnes (212 million tonnes in 2001).
• Production of rice fell drastically to 75.72 million tonnes
(2002-03) as against 93.08 million tonnes during the
previous year.
• Pulses fell to a level of 11.31 million tonnes. As for a
commercial crops, production of oilseeds declined by
13.7% during the 2002-03 rabi season.
• Cotton and sugarcane also recorded negative growths of
7.7% and 7.2% respectively.
• The impact of the drought of 2002-03 on hydroelectric
power generation led to a decline of 13.9%.
India’s drought – overview
• The major drought years in India were 1877, 1899, 1918,
1972, 1987 and 2002.
• The drought-prone areas of the country are confined to
peninsular and western India (Maharastra, Karnataka
and Andra) – primarily arid, semi-arid and sub-humid
regions.
• An analysis of 100 years of rainfall data reveals that the
frequency of 'below-normal rainfall' in arid, semi- arid
and sub-humid regions is 54-57%, while severe and rare
droughts occurred once every eight to nine years in arid
and semi-arid zones.
• In these zones, rare droughts of severe intensity
occurred with almost every third year being a drought
year.
Percentage departure of annual rainfall from
normal with last 34 years.
India’s Drought – overview
• Due to shrinkage of agricultural operations, the total loss
in rural employment was estimated at 1,250 million mandays putting GDP under shrink to 3.1% and the total loss
of agricultural income accounts for 3.9 billion during 2008.
• People migrate generally belong to Scheduled Tribes and
Other Backward Castes with poor land availability and
assets, skills or education.
• The data revealed that a majority of migrants to stone
quarries in Rajasthan and Karnataka, salt pans in Gujarat,
brick kilns in Andhra Pradesh, rice mills in Tamil Nadu,
and sugarcane fields in Maharashtra were from the most
marginalized sections of society.
Karnataka state of South India
Karnataka state scenario
• Karnataka stands on second place after Rajasthan, in
terms of total geographical area prone to drought.
• Nearly 90 % of the population in this semi-arid region is
dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
• The 18 of 30 districts experience drought in the state.
• In 2002, Karnataka experienced a severe drought for
three consecutive years (2001-02, 2002-03 and 200304) and 159 taluks/blocks were listed as drought
affected.
• During these periods, the state received 23% of less
rainfall.
• The agricultural production declined to 6.4 m tonnes
against the target of 10.4 m tones and the availability of
crop residues for livestock was substantially low (GoK,
2003).
Nearly 70% of the states geographical area falls under ‘arid’ and
‘semi arid' climatic zones, where rainfall is scanty
Farmer suicide in Karnataka
source: state police department records
Year
Men
Women
Total suicides
1996
1548
531
2079
1997
1509
323
1832
1998
1564
475
2039
1999
2002
377
2379
2000
2105
525
2630
2001
2153
352
2505
2002
2008
258
2340
Total
12889
2841
15804
Observation – Karnataka
• In 2002 alone 143 talukas, which went up to 159 in the subsequent
year, out of 176 taluks in the state, were declared as drought areas.
• In total 29,193 villages faced drought. Out of which 4499 villages
come under the category of “acute drought” and 2712 under “
moderate drought. ”.
• Among Southern districts, a large number of agricultural labourers
migrated to Bangalore and Mysore region for employment.
• In the Northern region of Karnataka, people from Bijapur and
Bagalkot districts make annual trips to Goa to earn their livelihood
during the off-season. Farmers from Raichur migrate to Bangalore
city to work as construction labours.
• The ill effects of climate change can also be seen on women
farmers, especially poor women farmers because of their low social
and economic status. They also have lesser accessibility to
livelihood resources and land holdings.
Drought affected regions
Challenges of poor farmers
• Food paucity is a serious issue as most of the States in
India and raising inflation on essential commodities
(India had imported 2.5 m tonnes of pulses in 2008)
• This has put a agriculture dependants and agricultural
labourers to the risk of starvation, malnutrition and
ultimately death.
• Access to fresh water and explitation of ground water
• Livestock rearing is integral part of the rural econmy,
repeated drought alng with lack of CPR resulted in
decrease in its population.
• Large-scale permanent migration of marginal farmer and
agriculture labour to cities leading to slums (recent UN
report states that 20-25 m people will be displaced due
to climate change, of which majority are from India)
Mitigation/Adaptation options
• The small and medium irrigation projects need to be
given urgent priority than big dams as the symbol of
modern India.
• Implemnting PDS and NREGS programmes to minimise
hunger and migration.
• Loan waiver (major reason for farmer suicide) schme –
but it helped large farmer than small farmers
• Minimum support price for food crops.
• Drought resistant crops
• Second green revolution – organic based
• Mono-croping to multi-croping – Agri-horti-silviculture
Past experiences of Drought
Management in India
• India still does not have a well-defined drought policy, although it
began considering an 'anticipatory drought management approach'
in 1966
• The task of drought forecasting is entrusted to the India
Meteorological Department (IMD).
• There is no common or approved pattern for the states, the revenue
minister heads the system and the coordination of the entire
operation is usually in the hands of the state's chief secretary.
• The building of dams and irrigation systems should have been
undertaken along with the revival and strengthening of traditional
knowledge in water harvesting and conservation.
• Today, drought management is equated with reliance on large-scale
resource transfer in the form of income, food, water and fodder to
drought-affected regions. This has been proved to be unsustainable.
• Drought-prone communities, villages and areas have to learn to
adopt and sustain drought-proofing methodologies.
Strategies for mitigation of drought
• Currently India is spending 2.5% of its total GDP to
control the adverse impact of climatic change, rather a
big sum for any developing nation.
• The Prime Minister announced that the repayment of
loans taken from banks will be rescheduled.
• Framing and implementing crop insurance policy for
farmers in drought-prone areas.
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS) programme has launched “A Pond in Every
Farm” in all most all the villages, which is intended to
mitigate the adverse impacts of droughts.
Strategies for mitigation of drought
• Effective implementation of Drought Prone Areas
Programme (DPAP), the Desert Development
Programme (DDP), Integrated Wasteland Development
Programme (IWDP), Integrated Watershed Development
Programmes (IWDP) and Employment Assurance
Scheme (Watershed)
• Preparation of weather codes for every agro-climatic
zone in the country, they should indicate the pro-active
measures such as building Seed Bank and moisture
management.
• Training members of every panchayat – as Climate Risk
Managers in data collection and interpretation
Rain water harvesting
Conclusion
• The complex and multidimensional nature of
drought requires a long term, well organized and
coordinated research plan and action involving
all the stakeholders.
• The Green Revolution in 1971 only boosted
food production in some of the North Indian
States, but lead to pollution, hence India need
second green revolution – organic farming
• India’s agricultural policy encouraging cashcrops rather than food crops, or marketable,
water-intensive food crops rather than rain-fed
food crops.
Thanks