Climate Risks to Indian Agriculture: the Landscape of Policy Pilots
Climate change is a complex policy problem that is characterised by a high degree of uncertainty. Since the 1960s, India has launched several policy pilots in the agriculture sector to address production risks and uncertainties.
Indian agriculture is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability and change. Nearly two-thirds of the agricultural land in India is rain-fed and over 600 million people depend on it for their livelihoods and sustenance. The sector also accounts for nearly 90 percent of the total water use in India.
Focusing on uncertainties due to climate variability and change, one way of categorising these pilots is based on their contexts. In this case for example, it relates to whether there has there been a low or high change in climatic variables (primarily rainfall and temperature) and accordingly, has there been a low or high change in the policy response? Following this, pilots are broadly classified into four types...
Originally published on 1 November 2015 in the Global-is-Asian digital platform of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
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