Why India Needs Climate-Resilient Agriculture
India’s agriculture sector is facing mounting pressure from climate change, marked by erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, soil degradation, and water stress. To ensure long-term food security for a rapidly growing population, the country must transition towards climate-resilient agriculture (CRA) supported by a coherent national roadmap.
Climate-resilient agriculture focuses on farming systems that can withstand climate shocks while maintaining or improving productivity. It relies on a mix of biotechnology and complementary technologies such as biofertilisers, biopesticides, soil-microbiome research, genome-edited crops, and AI-based advisory tools. These approaches reduce dependence on chemical inputs and promote sustainable resource use.
India’s need for CRA is particularly urgent because nearly 51% of its cultivated land is rainfed, yet these regions contribute about 40% of total food production. Rainfed agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate variability, making traditional farming practices increasingly unreliable. CRA provides science-based solutions that enhance resilience against droughts, heat stress, salinity, floods, and pest attacks.
India has already taken several steps in this direction. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture project in 2011 to strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity. Practices such as direct-seeded rice, zero-till wheat, aerobic rice cultivation, residue management, and climate-tolerant crop varieties have been successfully demonstrated in hundreds of climate-resilient villages.
In addition, the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture promotes integrated farming, efficient water use, soil health management, and resource conservation, particularly in rainfed regions. The BioE3 policy has further positioned climate-resilient agriculture as a key area for biotechnology-led growth, encouraging innovation in bio-inputs and climate-tolerant crops.
Despite these efforts, scaling CRA remains challenging. Limited awareness, affordability issues, inconsistent quality of biofertilisers and biopesticides, slow adoption of climate-resilient seeds, and the digital divide restrict progress, especially among small and marginal farmers. These constraints are worsened by ongoing soil degradation, water scarcity, and fragmented policy coordination.
To move forward, India must accelerate the development and deployment of climate-tolerant and genome-edited crops, strengthen quality regulation of bio-inputs, expand digital advisory services, and provide financial support through incentives, insurance, and easy credit. Most importantly, a unified national climate-resilient agriculture roadmap under the BioE3 framework is essential to align biotechnology, climate adaptation, and agricultural policies for large-scale impact.
