Economist and chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation Madhura Swaminathan has said that a farmer-friendly crop insurance policy is imperative to support small-scale farmers.
Handling a session on ‘Climate change and small farmer’ at a three-day workshop that concluded here on Friday, Dr. Madhura said crop insurance in the country was a failure as it could not support the vulnerable sections of society, the small scale farmers whose operational holdings is below two hectares, properly.
“We must not romanticise the small farmer’s role in terms of being more organic or bringing in more crop diversity. Instead, we must focus first on how to support them better for greater income,” she said.
Dr. Madhura pointed out that in agriculture, aspects of biodiversity or climate change impact could be addressed only when income issues were sorted out. Giving details of a study on small farmers, conducted across nine States, she said only 2% of small farmers actually got crop insurance.
Small farmers are key communities who preserve agricultural biodiversity, but they first need financial support. The current variability in climate is a window to the future, which is climate change, Dr. Madhura said, adding that the parameters of crop insurance should be modified to mitigate the financial crisis of the community.
Handling a session on the ‘Impact of climate change on coastal biodiversity’ , Saleem Khan, Senior Scientist, Climate Change, MSSRF, Chennai, spoke of the need for the media to communicate climate change risks, especially with regard to coastal biodiversity.
“Sea-level rise is a major threat of changing climate. It has adverse impact on ecosystems, biodiversity, and dependent human communities of the coast,” Dr.Khan said.
He spoke of the need for more research of the Kerala coast and its potential impact due to climate change since there were only limited studies on this.
The three-day workshop, ‘Bringing biodiversity into the media space’, was organised jointly by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) for select journalists in southern India.
