With global temperatures recorded at its highest in 137 years globally agricultural practices are failing to bear fruit and crop yields are down.
Many like Tamil Nadu’s Rani whose husband gave up his life by drinking pesticide has lost interest in farming. She has little hope of good monetary returns from farming practices.
Speaking to TIME the 44 year old, one of hundreds of farmers agitating says ” There are no rains. Even for drinking, we get water only once in 10 days.”
A new study by National Academy of Sciences says India will see tragedies as climate change brings hotter temperatures that damage crops and exacerbate drought. For every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming above 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) during the growing season in India, there are 67 more suicides on average.
Experts tell TIME, India’s average temperatures expected to rise another 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F) by 2050.
Agriculture supports more than half of India’s 1.3 billion people, farmers have long been seen as the heart and soul of the country. Farmers have seen a drop in economic clout in the past three decades. It now contributes only 15 percent of India’s $2.26 billion economy.
India’s farmers bear the brunt due to strong storms, extreme drought, heat waves and other extreme weather events.
Researcher Tamma Carleton studying the scenario in India writes in a report, “I estimate that warming temperature trends over the last three decades have already been responsible for over 59,000 suicides throughout India.”
This study helps explain India’s evolving suicide epidemic, where suicide rates have nearly doubled since 1980 and claim more than 130,000 lives each year.
If Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is to be believed, he has said there were 11,458 farmer suicides in 2016 — the lowest number in two decades.
Number of farmer suicides have gone up by about 9 percent in each of the previous two years, both marred by drought.
Over half of India’s working population is employed in rain-dependent agriculture, long known to be sensitive to climate fluctuations.
The Indian government established a $1.3 billion crop insurance plan to reduce suicide rate, but it is unknown if that will be sufficient or effective.
MS SWaminathanan ,a noted geneticist in the country has been quoted saying “Suicides occur due to extreme economic despair. Suitable crop insurance and a prompt compensation of losses due to climate-related factors will help to avoid a sense of hopelessness that leads to suicide.”
In response, the Indian government established a USD 1.3 billion crop insurance plan aimed at reducing the suicide rate but it is unknown if that will be sufficient or effective, researchers said.
More than half of India’s working population is employed in rain-dependent agriculture, long known to be sensitive to climate fluctuations such as unpredictable monsoon rains, scorching heat waves, and drought. A third of India’s workers already earn below the international poverty line.
Commenti