District Agriculture Contingency Plans to Address Weather Aberrations and for Sustainable Food Security in India

Abstract

Increasing food demand and changing food habits of growing population should have stable agricultural production. Livelihoods of nearly 2/3rd of Indian population are associated with the agriculture sector and its contribution to the current GDP is about 14%. The current food needs for cereals, fruits and vegetables, milk, potatoes and meat are 199, 160, 104, 37 and 9 million tonnes respectively and by the year 2030, the demand for cereals, fruits and vegetables, milk, potatoes and meat are projected to increase by 13, 30, 40, 24 and 88%, respectively. However, the stability of food production and required growth rate are affected by weather aberrations. Timely onset and distribution of rainfall are critical for achieving optimum crop yields at farm level, particularly during kharif (rainy season) along with required inputs, labour and technology. Frequent droughts, cyclones, unseasonal rainfall, hailstorms, heat wave and combination of these weather aberrations happening in some region or the other pose major challenges to food security of the country. Weather Aberrations and Impacts on Food Production in India Extreme weather events like heat wave, cold wave, untimely and high intensity rainfall, hailstorm and frost are increasingly being experienced in different parts of the country. • Deficit monsoon in kharif 2014 posed several challenges to agriculture sector across the country. • Only 24% districts received normal or above in June, 2014 whereas till September about 36% districts received deficit and 12% districts received scanty rainfall. • Deficit rainfall during crop growing season followed by Hud-Hud cyclone, in north coastal Andhra Pradesh affected the rice, horticulture and fishery sectors besides severe damage to infrastructure in 2014. • Severe droughts in 2002, 2009, 2012 and 2014 impacted negatively the growth of agriculture sector, including field crops, horticulture, livestock, poultry, and fishery particularly in rainfed regions of the country. • In 2009, heavy rainfall in Raichur district of Karnataka, Kumool and Mahabubnagar districts of Andhra Pradesh damaged standing crops in lakhs of hectares due to floods and sand casting on river banks of Krishna and Tungabhadra. During the same year, the