E-Paper
11 districts in Maha highly vulnerable to extreme weather events: study
PUNE As farmers from Maharashtra have been hit by recent floods, a latest study highlights how such extreme weather are more likely the norm, than the exception; cue climate change
PUNE As farmers from Maharashtra have been hit by recent floods, a latest study highlights how such extreme weather are more likely the norm, than the exception; cue climate change.
As per the study, from 36 districts in Maharashtra, 11 were found highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, droughts and dwindling water security. These districts account for 40% of the farmland across Central Maharashtra.
Similarly, 37% of the state’s agricultural area, spread over 14 other districts, is moderately vulnerable, which takes the total tally to three-fourths of Maharashtra’s farmland being impacted by what the report cites as climate change.
The study, entitled, ‘Socio-economic vulnerability to climate change – Index development and mapping for districts in Maharashtra’, revealed that extreme climate conditions affect the livelihoods and agrarian economy of Maharashtra.
The study was conducted by Chaitanya Adhav at Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR )- National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, Haryana, under the guidance of Dr R Sendhil from ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research.
The study claims that Nandurbar is the most vulnerable district to cyclones, floods, droughts, changing rainfall patterns and extreme temperatures, all affecting crop production.
The other highly vulnerable 10 districts include Buldhana, Beed, Jalna, Aurangabad, Hingoli, Parbhani, Nanded, Akola, Amravati, and Washim.
The 14 districts listed as moderately vulnerable, includes Dhule, Jalgaon, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Solapur, Osmanabad, Latur, Yavatmal, Wardha, Chandrapur, Bhandara, Gondia and Gadchiroli.
The dominant crops from these districts that will bear the brunt of the climate changes are jowar, rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton, ragi, cashew nut, barley, and millets.
Explaining it further Adhav said their findings showed that most of the highly vulnerable districts fell under the Central Maharashtra Plateau Zone, which makes up a 22.22 percent share of the total farmed area in Maharashtra. The Central Vidarbha Zone has an additional share of 6.78 percent area as highly vulnerable.
The authors explained that to quantify the climate change-induced risk, a socio-economic vulnerability index (SEVI) was calculated using key climatic parameters, such as exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of districts to climate vulnerability.
“Mapping of districts shows that there is an instant need for focused policy efforts to address the socio-economic vulnerability in Central Maharashtra Plateau Zone, Scarcity Zone (Dhule, parts of Nandurbar and Aurangabad), and Eastern Vidarbha Zone,” Adhav said.
Vijay Anna Borade, agriculture expert & trustee of the Marathwada Sheti Sahayak Mandal (MSSM) said, “While there is a lot of discussion about impact of climate change on agriculture, there is very little on-ground action. What we are witnessing now is concerning, because on one hand the number of rainy days in a year have reduced drastically, while on other hand areas Marathwada, which usually receives very little rainfall, is now being flooded. Keeping in mind the vulnerability of districts, changing crop patterns is a solution, but it’s not going to be such an easy task. Another option is controlled farming which also has financial limitations. Thus, we need a viable and sustainable plan to enable Maharashtra to tackle the impacts of climate change on farming.”
Nine districts including Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Nashik, Satara, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Nagpur and Pune were found to be least vulnerable to agricultural distress.
