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Informist, Thursday, May 29, 2025

--NITI Aayog Chand: Agri adding to climate change, invisible carbon emission 

--CONTEXT: NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand at CII Annual Business Summit 

--NITI Aayog Chand: Climate change affecting farm yield, output 

NEW DELHI - The agriculture sector is contributing to climate change through largely unnoticed carbon emissions, NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand said Thursday. The sector's impact on climate change often goes under the radar due to the "invisible" nature of its greenhouse gas.

The agriculture sector faces a dual challenge as it is a contributor to climate change and also one of the most vulnerable sectors to its effects, Chand said, speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry's Annual Business Summit here. "Unlike many other sectors, emissions from agriculture are invisible," Chand said. Paddy emits greenhouse gases, while the cow the farmer rears releases methane, he said. 

Farmers often "feel offended" when held responsible for emissions, "partly because emissions are invisible," Chand said.

"If you calculate the instability index of agriculture production you see there is a sharp decline... so how do you then relate climate change that is ongoing with performance of agriculture," Chand said. However, Chand stressed that this does not undermine the reality of climate change—it only highlights the scientific advancement in reducing its early impacts. 

Chand said while climate models had predicted a 4% decline in wheat yields over 30 years, innovations in crop varieties and farming techniques rather led to a 20% yield increase. Scientific advancements in agriculture has not only offset the anticipated damage but exceeded yield expectations, he said.

However, Chand warned of a "tipping point," a stage beyond where climate change impacts cannot be mitigated through technology and innovation. "There will come a time when we exhaust the genetic and technological tolerance we can build into crops, especially for extreme heat or weather variability. Beyond that point, adaptation becomes very difficult," he said.

According to Chand, structural distortions in both input and output pricing are major drivers of higher carbon emissions in agriculture. He pointed out that water-intensive crops like paddy often receive high minimum support prices and even additional bonuses from some state governments.

He also underlined how input subsidies—particularly free electricity for irrigation—indirectly fuel carbon emissions. "If you are not giving free power, then a farmer will calculate whether the marginal cost of irrigation equals the marginal return, and be encouraged to adopt technologies like alternate wetting and drying," Chand explained.

On the downstream side of agriculture, experts highlighted how solar-powered cold storages are helping reduce carbon footprints and benefiting even small-scale farmers. These cold storages are slowly penetrating in horticulture and dairy sectors. "Bulk milk collection is a massive network in India. Again, here the solar powered bulk milk collection system is dramatically changing the paradigm of diesel usages and completely decarbonising some of the milk collection sectors," P Ravichandran, president, Danfoss India, said. 

However, experts at the event pointed out a key barrier in scaling climate-friendly food products. "The average consumer is not attuned to thinking about food as having a positive environmental impact—so how do you capture that premium?" said Usha Barwale Zehr, executive director at Grow Indigo.  End

Reported by Afra Abubacker

Edited by Saji George Titus

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