Climate Smart Agriculture

In the backdrop of the 2070 carbon neutrality target set by India at the CoP26 in Glasgow, the Union Budget for 2022-23 has listed “climate action” and “energy transition” as one of the four priorities for the Amrit Kaal.

Announcements made in this context:

• Additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for solar PV modules.
• co-firing of 5-7 per cent of biomass pellets in thermal power plants
• sovereign green bonds
• battery-swapping policy
• chemical-free natural farming
• support for millets
• increased domestic production of oilseeds
• kisan drones

These are welcome steps. But they do not assure us that the environmental damage already brought by the agriculture sector can be undone.

The damage is largely a result of the various kinds of subsidies:

• on urea
• canal irrigation
• power for irrigation
• as well as the minimum support prices (MSP)
• procurement policies concentrated on a few states and largely on two crops, rice, and wheat

Issue of over stocking of grains:

• The stocks of wheat and rice in the country’s central pool were four times higher than the buffer stocking requirement.
• In fact, rice stocks with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are seven times the buffer norms for rice.
• This is despite the record distribution of rice in the PDS and record exports of rice (17.7MMT) in 2020-21.
• The financial value of these excessive grain stocks is Rs 2.14 lakh crore, of which Rs 1.66 lakh crore is because of excess rice stocks — as per the economic cost of rice and wheat given by the FCI.
• Interestingly, the Economic Survey 2021-22 gives an economic cost of rice and wheat higher than that reported by FCI. If one uses the survey’s figures, the value of excess stocks jumps to Rs 2.56 lakh crore, with rice accounting for approximately Rs 2 lakh crore.

Issue of GHG embedded in these stocks:

• All this does not just reflect inefficient use of scarce capital, the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) embedded in these stocks is also large.
• As per the national GHG inventory, the agriculture sector emits 408 MMT of carbon-dioxide equivalent
• rice cultivation is the third highest source (17.5 per cent) of GHG emissions in Indian agriculture after enteric fermentation (54.6 per cent) and fertilizer use (19 per cent).
• Paddy fields are anthropogenic sources of atmospheric nitrous oxide and methane, which have been reckoned as 273 and 80-83 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in driving temperature increase in 20 years’ (Sixth Assessment Report IPCC 2021).
• The amount of methane emitted from paddy fields of India is 3.396 teragram per year or 71.32 MMT carbon dioxide equivalent.

Lowering Methane emission is not enough:

• India does not report nitrous oxide emissions in its national GHG inventories.
• There is scientific evidence that intermittent flooding reduces water and methane emissions but increases nitrous oxide emissions.
• Thus, lowering of methane emissions through controlled irrigation does not necessarily mean net low emissions.
• Components not accounted for in the GHG emissions in rice production
  • Emissions due to burning rice residues,
  • application of fertilisers,
  • production of fertilisers for rice,
  • energy operations like harvesting, pumps, processing, transportation

Need of Carbon Tax:

• According to the IMF, the world needs a carbon tax of $ 75 per tonne by 2030 to reduce emissions to a level consistent with a 2 degree Celsius warming target.
• India does not have an explicit carbon-price yet, but many countries have begun to implement carbon pricing.
• Sweden leads the pack with a carbon price as high as $137 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent while EU is at $50/tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.
• It is high time for India to announce indicative carbon pricing and create a vibrant carbon market to incentivise green growth in Amrit Kaal.

Food security vs. Need to save ground water and environment:

• The Economic Survey 2021-22 points out that the country is over-exploiting its ground water resource, particularly in the northwest and some parts of south India.
• This is primarily due to paddy cultivation on 44 million hectares.
• This has helped India achieve food security, but it’s time now to save groundwater and the environment.
• This calls for revisiting policies to subsidize power and fertilizers, MSP and procurement and reorient them towards minimizing GHG emissions.

Conclusion:

• Farmer groups and the private sector can be mobilized to develop carbon markets in agriculture, both at the national and international levels.
• This can reward farmers in cash for switching from carbon-intensive crops such as rice to low-carbon-intensive crops or improving farming practices in rice systems to lower GHG emissions.
• Such a move towards “net-zero” agriculture will give India a “climate smart” agriculture in Amrit Kaal.
• If we can protect productivity levels with a low-carbon footprint, it will help India to access global markets too.