‘Climate change will affect farm productivity’

Geneticist M.S. Swaminathan has said that climate change demands anticipatory action from scientists and policymakers.

Mr. Swaminathan was speaking at a consultation on climate change and food security on Monday at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, of which he is founder. It was part of a project, called Clima Adapt, which is being supported by the Norwegian Embassy in India. The programme was also attended by Jon Georg Dale, Norway’s Minister for Agriculture and Food.

In his speech, Mr. Swaminathan described how temperature, precipitation and sea level rise affects agriculture. “We have made a study that showed that, as a result of higher temperature, the duration of wheat crop in the Punjab will go down by one week....This will bring down the wheat production in the country which will go down by 5-6 million tonnes,” he said.

Alternate farming

Mr. Swaminathan said that rising temperatures will necessitate alternate methods of growing potato. “We grow 50 million tonnes of potato; 30 years ago, we grew five million tonnes. How did this sudden potato revolution take place? It was because of a method developed for sweet potato production during what we call aphid-free-season. Now, when the temperature goes up, the aphid-free-season will be gone,” he said.

Minister Dale, who began by noting that Chennai has the same population as Norway, said that such projects are a win-win for both countries. “The experience from such projects have been used in several projects in Asia and Africa,” he said.

The Minister said that MSSRF’s work on sea water farming was of particular interest to his country. “We are committed to a policy approach which sees water and water-related ecosystems are protected and managed sustainably,” he said, repeating a G20 pledge.

The Norwegian minister also hoped to an end to the Syrian conflict. “Syria is important for this world. We hope that Syria, at the end of this horrible war, can resume agricultural production,” he said.

He said that agricultural policy will be affected by climate change. “We must adapt food production and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from the agriculture sector....Agriculture must, as far as possible, take its share of (greenhouse gas) reduction,” he said. Mr. Dale concluded by quoting Mr. Swaminathan: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing can go right.”