Erratic weather, rising temperatures, declining water resources and labour shortages are threatening India’s bread basket state of Haryana, forcing farmers to abandon age-old practices and adopt technology to ensure food supplies for millions.
Using machines which sow rice directly, devices to inform when to irrigate and phone messages warning of infestations, thousands of farmers are learning to adapt to climate change, boost soil fertility and reduce their carbon emissions.
“At first, many farmers were unsure. It’s a big risk to change the way you have farmed for decades and try new things. Agriculture in these parts is not just a livelihood, it’s a way of life,” said Harpreet Singh, 36, a farmer in the village of Birnaraya, 130 km (80 miles) north of Delhi. “But over the last four years, through these technologies, we have learnt to save water and fertilisers, cut our costs for hired labour, improved the resilience of our crops and also reduced pollution by not burning crop residues.”
Singh is from one of 12,000 farming households across 27 villages in Haryana’s Karnal district working with scientists from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to pilot climate smart techniques aimed at sustaining one of the country’s most fertile belts.
Since India’s so-called “Green Revolution” - a massive government programme rolled out in the 1960s and 1970s which increased the use of fertilisers and irrigation to boost farm output - Haryana’s rice production has soared to almost 4 million tonnes in 2013/14 compared to 334,000 tonnes in 1966/67.
But while the Green Revolution may be credited with ending famine across the country, it has come at a cost and, coupled with more unpredictable weather attributed to global warming, India’s food security is once again at risk.
Almost half a century on, farmers face environmental problems such as depleted groundwater because of intensive pumping for irrigation, soil degradation and soil salinity. “Resources are depleting. Groundwater levels are falling, there is emerging climate variability, the soil health is worsening, and profitability is going down,” said M.L. Jat, an agronomist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre.
The Indo-Gangetic Plains - which include the rice and wheat states of Haryana and Punjab - are particularly vulnerable to climate change, say experts from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).