MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
(SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)
(a) Yes, Madam.
(b) India is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
According to the first Biennial Update Report (BUR), India’s gross emissions of Greenhouse Gases were equivalent to 2.136 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2010. Out of this, Energy sector contributed 71%, Industrial Process and Product Use (IPPU) 8%, Agriculture 18% and Waste sector 3%. About 12% of emissions were offset by carbon sink action of forests and croplands. Therefore, the national GHG net emissions amounted to a total equivalent of 1.884 billion tonnes Gg of CO2. The sector wise emissions within agriculture in India during the year 2010 are given in Annexure-I.
(c) Though the GHG emissions from agriculture sector is much less when compared to other sectors but the overall impact of climate change on agriculture is much more as more than half of the population is dependent on this sector. Agriculture is dependent on many climatic factors like temperature, rainfall, humidity, sunshine duration etc., which are not only impacting the crop performance now; but will in future too. Climatic variations may impact crops both positively and negatively depending on the nature of crop. However, various national and global studies have shown declining trends in crop production of different crops due to climate change.
Details on Indian studies on projected impacts on agriculture (crops, livestock and fish) are given in Annexure-II.
(d) India has made a number of efforts to address climate change. The Government has launched the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in June 2008 to achieve its goals and deal with the issues related to climate change. Thirty-two States and Union Territories (UTs) have also prepared State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) consistent with the objectives of NAPCC.
As a result of domestic efforts, India’s emission intensity of GDP has decreased by 12% between 2005 and 2010.
In order to assess the impact of Climate change/variability on agriculture, Government of India through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched a flagship network project ‘National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA) during XI Plan in 2011, and from XII Plan it is referred as ‘National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture’. This programme is being implemented under four components, viz., Strategic Research (41 ICAR Institutes), Sponsored and Competitive Grants (18 + 33 Projects), Technology Demonstration (121 KVKs, 25 AICRIPAM, 23 AICRIPDA Centers), Capacity Building and Knowledge Management.
The Technology Demonstration Component (TDC) of the National Initiative (Innovations) on Climate Resilient Agriculture was initiated in 2011 to demonstrate the location specific technologies enabling farmers to cope with current climatic variability and to enhance their adaptive capacity. The programme is being taken up in 151 climatically vulnerable districts/KVKs of the country by taking one or two representative villages from each of the district.
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