According to a study conducted in Telangana, India, 96 percent Marginal farmers and 94 percent Small farmers are "Extremely Vulnerable" to the impacts of climate change.
Also, 87 percent of Semi-medium farmers, 69 percent Medium farmers, and 26 percent Large farmers are Extremely Vulnerable to climate change, according to the study.
Marginal farmers are those who own less than 1 hectare(ha) farmland, Small farmers - 1.1ha to 2ha; Semi-medium farmers - 2.1ha to 4 ha; Medium farmers - 4.1ha to 10 ha; Large farmers - 10ha and above.
The research paper containing findings of the study — Household Vulnerability to Climate Change and Identification of Target Beneficiaries to Implement Household-Specific Adaptation Strategies: A Quantitative Assessment — has been published in the Asian Journal of Agriculture and Development (AJAD).
The authors are Swamikannu Nedumaran, Ravi Nandi, Jyosthnaa Padmanabhan, Srigiri Srinivasa Reddy, Dakshina Murthy Kadiyala, and Shalander Kumar from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, German Development Institute, Bonn, and Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University.
As part of the study, the researchers investigated the climate change vulnerability of 6,214 households in the drought-prone districts of Telangana state - Mahabubnagar, Wanaparthy, and Nagarkurnool.
Of the 6,214 households, 9.74 percent were marginal farm households, 17.8 were small, 32.7 percent were semi-medium, 32.59 percent were medium, and 7.11 percent were large.
Overall, 79 percent of the 6,214 surveyed households are found to be "extremely vulnerable", 11.2 percent "moderately vulnerable", and 9.65 percent were "resilient" to climate change.
Courtesy: The research paper on 'Household Vulnerability to Climate Change and Identification of Target Beneficiaries to Implement Household-Specific Adaptation Strategies: A Quantitative Assessment', published in AJAD.
Five Principal Components Of Vulnerability
For assessing the vulnerability to climate change, the researchers considered five principal components - (1) access to irrigation; (2) credit access, landholding, and income from agriculture; (3) household size and income sources; (4) access to information and climate-smart adaptation practices; and (5) social capital.
The households were classified into three clusters based on the varying degrees of impact of climate change on them - Extremely vulnerable, Moderately vulnerable, and Resilient.
Regarding the households classified as Extremely vulnerable, the researchers point out, "These households had the least access to irrigation, credit facilities, and climate information; had a smaller household size and fewer income sources; and had adopted the fewest climate-smart adaptation practices. In this category, the proportion of irrigated area to the total landholding was low. Moreover, households in Cluster 1 (extremely vulnerable) had a smaller social network compared to resilient and moderately resilient household groups."
Impact Of Climate Change On Indian Agriculture
In 2013, the Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) came out with the 'Atlas on Vulnerability of Indian Agriculture to Climate Change'.
To develop the atlas, the CRIDA researchers considered close to 40 indicators to quantify the three components of vulnerability to climate change — sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity — and developed a Vulnerability Index.
According to the atlas, of the then 572 districts in India, the vulnerability to climate change was 'Very high' (115 districts) or 'High' (115 districts) of nearly half of all the districts.
The 'high' or 'very high' vulnerability was mainly due to a combination of the indicators - Projected decrease in July rainfall, Low Rainfall, Low groundwater availability, Projected increase in the number of drought years, Projected rise in minimum Temperature, High Net Sown Area and Low Net Irrigated Area.
What Needs To Be Done?
In their study, the ICRISAT, GDI, and ANGRAU researchers highlight three policy-level measures to combat the impact of climate change on agriculture :
Allocation of resources in the Leximin order
The researchers explain, "A Leximin rule entails redistribution to the most affected along some criterion as a matter of priority. After the needs of the most vulnerable have been met, attention is directed to redistributing to the next affected."
They further explain, "Ideally, policy formulation can target identified households, and enabling policies can be rolled out to enhance the adaptive capacity of said households based on the identified reasons for vulnerability for each of the categories. Consequently, this can increase the adoption of context-specific climate-smart adaptation technologies. Compared to a "one size fits all" approach, a tailored policy approach can potentially increase the resilience of households by enhancing their adaptive capacity."
Improved extension services
The researchers mention, "Agricultural extension services should be improved to ensure that farmers receive climate information and information on climate-smart adaptation strategies. Given the paucity of agricultural extension personnel, providing group extension, or linking extension services through producer organizations or local farmer associations, can advance the transfer of information and technologies cost-effectively. The government should work with private entities and non-government organizations with proven extension models in public-private partnerships."
Improving low-cost technologies
According to the researchers, "There is a need to explore opportunities for donors to invest in low-cost infrastructure such as improved irrigation systems, improving credit access, and establishing more weather stations that can precisely predict weather conditions in a specific village or groups of villages."
