Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
climate change on crop production and different aspects of food security- access, utilization,
and price stability, is going to be severe (IPCC 2017). Food systems across the world already
experience multiple disruptions from extreme weather events, pest and pathogen attacks,
water scarcity, economic shocks, and depleting natural resources (FAO, 2021). The added
threat of climate change will exacerbate these disruptions and the magnitude of its impact
would be determined by context-specific vulnerabilities and the resilience of agri-food
systems. In a predominantly agrarian country with around 70% of the population almost
completely dependent on agriculture for its livelihood, climate change acts as a threat
multiplier for the Indian agrarian sector which is already reeling from multiple crises.
Increased incidence of indebtedness, stagnating farm incomes, extreme poverty, growing
distress migration, and rising farmer suicides are just some of the indicators of ongoing rural
distress.
Considering the complexity of challenges faced by agrarian economies like India, a multidisciplinary,
holistic approach is required to make the agricultural ecosystems resilient. The
pressing threat of climate change on the already ailing sector cannot be addressed in an
isolated manner by a few technological fixes without considering the existing socio-economic
context, and the local perspectives. Assessing the resilience of agroecosystems is a systemic
approach to see if they can mobilize resources, identify opportunities, implement strategies,
develop processes and transform in the face of a disturbance or unpredicted change (Cabell &
Oelofse, 2012; Darnhofer, 2014). It is predicated on the understanding that each farming
system has certain micro and macro level characteristics ranging from socio-economic
circumstances, demography, cropping systems, and farming strategies to institutions,
ecosystem health, market linkages, and its agro-climatic context. These characteristics
determine the level of resilience of a farming system to sudden shocks and long-term stresses.
This approach can provide invaluable insights for adaptive management and governance in
heterogeneous agricultural landscapes.
Methodology
While there is no dearth of research available on the sector’s vulnerability to climate change,
there exists a knowledge gap when it comes to studying the different farming practices and
comparing their relative adaptive capacities and vulnerabilities to climate change. The paper
seeks to address this gap by exploring the diversity of Indian agroecosystems to better
understand the process of developing climate resilience. Based on an extensive review of the
literature, the paper identifies two things – first, the different farming systems existing in
India; and second, the characteristics/indicators of an agricultural system that make it resilient
to climate shocks and other stressors. These characteristics will then be used in a later study
for a comparative analysis of different farming systems in India concerning their climate
resilience.
Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation
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