Devastating floods followed a delayed monsoon, which hit parts of rice-producing states in the country. Many believe this vast variation in rainfall is due to climate change among other factors. In a report by The/Nudge, it tried to bring forth the implications of climate change on smallholder farmers.

The/Nudge report stated the variability in rainfall and pests or diseases are the major challenges for smallholder farmers. While this study was conducted with a small sample size of just 145 farmers, it tries to understand challenges faced in eight districts across six states and five agro-ecological zones.

Ashish Karamchandani, President, The/Nudge Institute told CNBC-TV18, "Farmers are being severely impacted by climate. Two-thirds of them have had a major crop loss in the last three years and the primary reason is unseasonal rain.”

This year as well, unseasonal rains have caused crop damage in various states. The massive floods that swept parts of north and west India added to the woes. Commenting on the impact, Ruchit Garg, founder and CEO of Harvesting Farmer Network, said, "Many farmers that I work with are telling me that floods have impacted them. Other than changing market dynamics, climate change is a growing worry.”

Garg added, “The landscape is changing with soil erosion. I strongly believe climate change is for real. But at times floods make a fertile land less productive and turn a barren land fertile.”

Garg added that such climatic changes especially related to unseasonal rain hit the overall cropping cycle, which can even result in shortage.

The ‘Smallholder Farmer and Climate Change’ report stated, “75 percent rainfed farmers cited rain as their top concern; whereas 52 percent of irrigated farmers cited pests/disease.” Further, the survey found that three in every four rainfed farmers have experienced significant crop loss (at least 50 percent) and mentioned rain as the primary reason for the loss. Meanwhile, 55 percent irrigated farmers have experienced significant crop loss and mentioned rain as the primary reason, closely followed by pests/disease.

Karamchandani added, “The report does not touch upon marginal farmers. This is largely because we wanted to ensure we focus on farmers with a couple of acres of irrigated land or 5-7 acres of rainfed land.” This translates into focusing on smallholder farmers who earn 60-90k a year from agriculture.

Meanwhile, 4 out of 5 rainfed farmers whose yield decreased in the last 5 years cite rain as the reason while among irrigated farmers whose yield has decreased 54 percent believe pests or disease as the reason and 29 percent blame it on rain.

Most smallholder farmers are using more chemicals today compared to five years ago. Meanwhile, 3 in 4 farmers are using more pesticides and half of them are using more chemical fertilisers. "While this does lead to longer term soil degradation (which many farmers are also aware of), chemical usage is also the most common contributing factor among farmers that saw an increase in yield over the last few years," the report stated.

Meanwhile, the report stated, “64 percent farmers have changed their seed variety — buying more hybrid seeds.” Experts say modern practices like non-native seeds at times pave the way for short-term gains in terms of yields, but can have a lot of long-term implications.

Even Garg argues that more and more farmers are switching to non-native seeds, which could have been more resistant to drought or floods. “You gain some, and lose some.”

(Edited by : Keshav Singh Chundawat)