Study by Central Government institutes has found that all districts in the Central Maharashtra & Eastern Vidarbha are either moderately or highly vulnerable to the climate change.
The recent floods and extreme weather events in Maharashtra have devastated farmers and now a new study highlights how climate change impacts might get worse from here on.
Of the 36 districts in Maharashtra, 11 districts were found highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, droughts and dwindling water security. The districts account for around 40 per cent of the cropped area across Central Maharashtra. In the same way, 37 per cent of the state’s agricultural area spread over 14 districts were moderately vulnerable, which takes the tally to three-fourths of Maharashtra’s cropped regions as high to moderate vulnerable to the prevailing climate crisis.
The study - ‘Socio-economic vulnerability to climate change – Index development and mapping for districts in Maharashtra’, revealed that extreme climate conditions highly affect the livelihoods and agrarian economy of Maharashtra.
The research led by Chaitanya Adhav at Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, Haryana, revealed that Nandurbar was the most vulnerable district to cyclones, floods, droughts, changing rainfall patterns and extreme temperatures affecting its crop production. “Other highly vulnerable 10 districts include Buldhana, Beed, Jalna, Aurangabad, Hingoli, Parbhani, Nanded, Akola, Amravati, Washim,” added Adhav.
The study also lists down 14 districts as moderately vulnerable, which includes Dhule, Jalgaon, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Solapur, Osmanabad, Latur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia and Gadchiroli.
The dominant crops from these districts that will bear the brunt of the climate suggest that farming of jowar, rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, ragi, cashew nut, barley, millets could get adversely affected more in future.
Explaining it further Adhav said their findings showed that most of the highly vulnerable districts fell under the Central Maharashtra Plateau Zone, which makes up to 22.22 per cent share of total cropped area in Maharashtra. The Central Vidarbha Zone has an additional share of 6.78 per cent area as highly vulnerable.
Data was collected on 44 indicators related with climatic as well as socio-economic variables that were identified based on experts’ opinion. And it did not include Mumbai City and suburban districts for the analysis. According to the India’s Livelihoods Report 2019, farming is the prime livelihood source for 51 per cent of Maharashtra’s population.
“Mapping of districts shows that there is an instant need for focused policy efforts to address the socio-economic vulnerability in Central Maharashtra Plateau Zone, Scarcity Zone (Dhule, Part of Nandurbar and Aurangabad), and Eastern Vidarbha Zone,” Adhav said.
As per the study, field demonstration to farmers, information dissemination through early warning systems was a must- as a strategy to address these climate impacts that needs to be initiated at the village level. Additionally, the policy-making process should include inputs from as many stakeholders as possible before implementation. Ultimately, the outcome of micro-level adaptation strategies should get reflected at the state level.
“While there is a lot of discussion about impacts of climate change on agriculture, there is very little on ground action that has been taken. What we are witnessing now is concerning because on one hand the number of rainy days in a year have reduced drastically while on other hand areas in Marathwada, which usually receive very little rainfall, are now being flooded. Keeping in mind the vulnerability of districts, changing crop patterns is a solution but it's not going to be such an easy task. We need to create parallel programs (adequate drainage, drip irrigation, crop rotation etc.) to get stability in crop productivity and stable income of farmers. Only then can we divert farmers to change their crop pattern,” said Vijay Anna Borade, Agriculture Expert & Trustee of the Marathwada Sheti Sahayak Mandal (MSSM).
Nine districts including Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Nashik, Satara, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Pune were found to be least vulnerable to climate agricultural distress.
Meanwhile, climate experts said that as states like Maharashtra develop their climate action plans to tackle the climate crisis and reduce emissions, this study is indicative of the dire consequences of not acting on climate with urgency.