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: nagenvi@gmail.com

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 man-days 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 2003-04) 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 cash-crops rather than food crops, or marketable, water-intensive food crops rather than rain-fed food crops.

Thanks