Editorial 1: Nutrition in a warmer world
Context:
Recently, at the Hiroshima Summit 2023, the G7 nations (the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, and Canada) stressed on achieving a global Green House Gas (GHG) emissions peak by 2025. They also committed to an “Acceleration Agenda,” for G7 countries to reach net-zero emissions by around 2040 and urged emerging economies to do so by around 2050. China has committed to ‘net zero’ by 2060 and India by 2070.
Status of Global Warming:
- Looking at the economic costs of the climate emergency, India was singled out in a 2020 report by Oxford Economics, a global forecasting firm, which predicted that the country's GDP could fall 90% by the end of the century if it doesn't improve on current policies.
- For the first time ever, global temperatures are now more likely than not to breach 1.5°C (2.7°F) of warming within the next five years, as per World Meteorological Organization report 2023.
- Global near-surface temperatures are likely to increase by 1.1°C to 1.8°C annually from 2023 to 2027.
- 2016 was the warmest year ever, the annual mean temperature that year being 1.28 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial times (average of the 1850-1900 period).
- The year 2022 was 1.15 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial average which made it the fifth warmest year on record since 2021, as per Indian Metrological Department (IMD) report 2023.
- The last decade was the hottest in the history of India.
- Global temperatures were around 1.15°C higher than the average over 1850-1900.
- Sea level has risen to 4-8 inches in the last 100 years and will continue to rise between 4 and 36 inches in the next 100 years.
- According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), limiting warming to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030;
- The global average per capita GHG emissions was 6.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) in 2020. India remains far below the world average at 2.4 tCO2e.
- As per IPCC, staying within a remaining carbon budget of 580 GtCO2 implies that CO2 emissions reach carbon neutrality in about 30 years, reduced to 20 years for a 420 GtCO2 remaining carbon budget
Status and Potential of food security in India:
- India’s grain production has been breaking records at 330 million tonnes in 2022-23.
- The rice stocks with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are more than three times the buffer stock norms for rice.
- The wheat procurement has been sufficiently good (touching 26MT) to meet the requirements of the public distribution system (PDS) — around 22 MT.
- Livestock has been growing at more than double the rates of growth of cereals, and so is the case with horticulture.
Challenges in Agriculture and Food & Nutritional Security due to Warming:
- Hydro-meteorological calamities, including heavy rainfall and floods, have damaged 33.9 million hectares of India’s cropped area between 2015-16 and 2021-22, as per the Ministry of Agriculture.
- India suffered average annual loss of $87 bn from extreme weather events as per UN report.
- Impact of rising temperatures on crops, livestock and fisheries, will be more in identified 151 climatically vulnerable districts across India.
- Warming is reducing the number of fishing days as well as fishing stock.
- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal research found that heat stress could adversely impact the fertility of cows and buffaloes.
- Decrease in the nutritional value of significant crops due to the rising CO2 levels.
- The lower concentrations of micronutrients like zinc and iron in major food crops could be attributed to a sharp increase in carbon emissions.
- The IPCC report also warned that the protein content of rice, wheat, barley and potatoes could fall by 6 to 14%, putting close to 15 crore more people at risk of protein deficiency.
- Rain fed or un-irrigated crops, which are cultivated on nearly 60 percent of cropland, will be mainly impacted.
- Since agriculture contributes 16% of India’s GDP, climate change causes about 1.5% loss in GDP. By 2030, rice and wheat are likely to see around 6-10% decline in yields.
- A 1-2 degrees Celsius rise could potentially decrease rice production by about 0.75 tonnes per hectare (t/ ha) in inland zones and 0.06 t/ha in coastal regions.
- At the same time, a 0.5C increase in winter temperatures is projected to reduce wheat yields by 0.45 t/ha.
- Since agriculture contributes 16% of India’s GDP, climate change causes about 1.5% loss in GDP. By 2030, rice and wheat are likely to see around 6-10% decline in yields.
- Unstable investments in Research Intensity (RI)—
- ARDE as a percent of agri-GDP—has experienced an upswing from 0.55% in 2005-06 to its peak of 0.70% in 2010-11, before declining to 0.48% in 2019-20
- Unbalanced and skewed allocation of ARDE by sector:
- Crop husbandry sector, whose relative share has marginally increased but shares for soil, water conservation, and forestry sectors with animal husbandry, dairy development, and fisheries have decreased despite most of GHG emissions (54%) within agriculture comes from the livestock sector.
- Despite the expenditures on ARDE, the overall RI in agriculture falls short of the target of ‘1% of the Agricultural Gross Value Added (AGVA)’ recommended by the government of India’s as well as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
- Obsolete Basic Staples Approach: Major policies and programmes are stuck with the legacy of basic staples like rice and wheat.
Steps Taken by the Government:
- National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA): It is a part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in India. It includes initiatives like Soil Health Card, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mission Organic Value Chain Development, Rainfed Area Development, National Bamboo Mission, and Agro-Forestry.
- Initiatives like Integrated Watershed Management Programme promote rainwater harvesting.
- Krishi Sinchai Yojana lays impetus on adopting precision farming techniques such as micro-irrigation.
- PM-Garib Kalyan Yojana is providing more than 800 million people with free rice and/or wheat (5kg/person/month). So, they are well protected from cereal inflation.
- Improved budget allocation for agriculture and allied sectors in India by more than 5 times in 10 years from 2013-14.
- Good performance in the agriculture sector, contributing to global food security with food grain production, registering a significant growth in exports, and exports of agricultural and allied products have crossed Rs 4 lakh crore.
- Use of Technology:
- The AI for Agriculture Innovation initiative is transforming the agriculture sector in India by promoting the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies.
- Biotech-KISAN : It is a scientist-farmer partnership initiative for agriculture innovation that was started in 2017 to connect science laboratories with farmers to identify creative ideas and technologies to be utilised at the farm level.
- Micro Irrigation Fund is established under NABARD, and it will provide money from the fund to the states at a reduced interest rate in order to encourage micro-irrigation practices, which now cover just 10 million hectares of land out of a gigantic potential of 70 million hectares.
Suggestions for increasing agriculture efficiency:
- Research at ICRIER indicates that investing in agri-R&D yields much greater returns (Rs 11.2) compared to every rupee spent on fertiliser subsidy (Rs 0.88), power subsidy (Rs 0.79), education (Rs 0.97), or roads (Rs 1.10).
- Thus, increased emphasis on Agricultural Research, Development, Education and Extension (ARDE) can help achieve higher agricultural production in the face of climate change.
- Use of Technology and Innovation:
- Development of seeds that are more heat resistance is already a reality.
- Precision agriculture, such as drip irrigation, can result in large water savings.
- Implementing sensor-based irrigation systems, for example, enables automated control.
- Fertigation and development of nano-fertilisers can help save not only on the fertiliser-subsidy front but also improve the carbon footprint.
- Implementing such innovative farming practices and/or products can surely help use water and other natural resources more efficiently, resulting in higher output with fewer inputs, while lowering GHG emissions.
- Research at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) clearly shows that mulching not only contributes to higher soil organic carbon (SOC) but also saves water and reduces GHG emissions.
Way Forward:
- Need is to limit the impact of climate shock through evidence-based policy actions.
- Scaling up pilot and innovative experiments is critical for wider, more sustainable impact.
- Larger and balanced allocations of funds for agri-R&D.
- India needs to almost double its budgetary allocations for ARDE. In this context, If the Union government can reduce its fertiliser subsidy and state governments their power subsidy, and those savings are redirected to agri-R&D ensuring RI at 1% at the very least, towards meeting the challenge of climate change.
- Need to shift from the policy legacy of basic staples like rice and wheat. This needs to change to give us better nutrition and less GHG emissions.
Conclusion:
A well-managed and flourishing agriculture sector, in times of global warming, has a huge potential in catalysing the economy, poverty alleviation and upliftment of the weaker sections of society especially the small and marginal farmers. It will help in achieving the targets of Doubling the Farm Income apart from ensuring Food and Nutritional Security along with Sustainable Development. It will ultimately push India towards becoming a $5trillon economy by 2024.
Editorial 2: Ringing in the new, letting the light in
Context: Recently, new building for Parliament of India was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in Delhi. This new building would be considered as a symbol of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” and a “temple of democracy” for Independent India.
About:
- The Parliament House in New Delhi is the seat of the Parliament of India. It houses the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha which are lower and upper houses respectively in India's bicameral parliament.
- As part of India's Central Vista Redevelopment Project, a new parliament building was constructed in New Delhi. It was inaugurated on 28 May 2023 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Designed by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design, Planning and Management under architect Bimal Patel, the new structure –inaugurated on May 28 – has been built by Tata Projects Ltd.
Need for a new Parliament Building:
- The design was never suitable to accommodate a bicameral legislature. It was built as a ‘Council House’.
- The upcoming delimitation in 2026 has been expected to raise the number of seats in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha which will be more than the existing capacity of the Parliament.
- Existing structure is highly stressed on account of low capacity, poor infrastructure, outdated technology and safety features.
- Distressed infrastructure: The addition of services like water supply and sewer lines, air conditioning, firefighting equipment, CCTV cameras, etc., have led to seepage of water at several places and impacted the aesthetics of the building.
- Fire safety is a major concern at the building, the official site says.
- Obsolete communication structures: Communications infrastructure and technology is antiquated in the existing Parliament, and the acoustics of all the halls need improvement.
- Narrow seating space for MPs: The present building was never designed to accommodate a bicameral legislature for a full-fledged democracy. The number of Lok Sabha seats is likely to increase significantly from the current 545 after 2026, when the freeze on the total number of seats lifts.
- Safety concerns: The current Parliament building was built when Delhi was in Seismic Zone-II; currently it is in Seismic Zone-IV, says the website. This raises structural safety concerns.
- Inadequate workspace for employees: Over the years, inner service corridors were converted into offices which resulted in poor-quality workspaces. In many cases, these workspaces were made even smaller by creating sub-partitions to accommodate more workers.
Key Characteristics of the New Parliament Building as compared to the old one:
- Can accommodate more parliamentarians: The new building, which sits next to the existing Parliament House, will be able to accommodate 888 parliamentarians in the Lok Sabha and 384 in the Rajya Sabha, up from the existing 543 and 250, respectively after the new delimitation exercise in 2026.
- Lok Sabha chamber to be used for joint sessions: The new building does not have a Central Hall like the one in the existing Parliament, instead the Lok Sabha chamber will be used for joint sessions.
- New Parliament Building Sengol: ‘Sengol’, a Chola period traditional sceptre from Tamil Nadu, which was received by India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, to represent the transfer of power from the British and was kept in a museum in Allahabad, is now installed in the Lok Sabha.
- State-of-art technology in new building: In the old building, fire safety was a major concern as it was not designed according to the current fire safety norms, as per the Central Vista website.
- Embracing sustainable development, the new complex is a platinum-rated green building, underscoring India’s commitment to environmental conservation.
- The building would have modern equipment, be earthquake-safe and accommodate up to 1,224 MPs during joint sessions in the Lok Sabha chamber.
- Biometrics for ease of voting, digital language interpretation or translation systems, and programmable microphones.
- It has been reported that the interiors of the halls will be fitted with virtual sound simulations to set the right levels of reverberation and limit echoes.
- The new Parliament will be divyang friendly, and people with disabilities will be able to move around freely, says the website.
- Art and Architectural Details: The present Parliament House, which is a colonial-era building, was designed by British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, whereas the new building has been designed by Ahmedabad-based HCP Design, Planning and Management led by architect Bimal Patel.
- The new Parliament building and the restored one will be jointly used to house all the facilities that are today located in the existing Parliament building.
- It has three main gates – Gyan Dwar, Shakti Dwar and Karma Dwar – and separate entrances for VIPs, MPs and visitors.
- Triangular shape reflects the importance of triangles being a sacred geometry in various religions, while its interiors will have three national symbols as their main themes -- Lotus, Peacock and Banyan Tree.
- Lion Capital, the national emblem to adorn the top of the building.
- Interestingly, traditional Indian architectural principles like vaastu shastra have been the guiding principles.
- With carpets from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, bamboo flooring from Tripura and stone carvings from Rajasthan, the new Parliament building reflects India’s diverse culture. Similarly, teak wood was sourced from Maharashtra’s Nagpur, and the red and white sandstone from Sarmathura in Rajasthan.
- Old building circular architecture was popularly believed to be inspired from 11th-century Chausath Yogini Temple in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. The Chausath Yogini Temple, also known as the Ekattarso Mahadeva Temple, is one of the few such Yogini temples in the country which is in good condition.
- Expenditure: Moreover, being built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore, the new building is part of the Central Vista project, which also includes a joint Central Secretariat, revamp of the Rajpath, a new Prime Minister’s residence, a new Prime Minister’s Office as well as a new Vice President’s enclave. Construction of the old Parliament House building had taken six years (1921-1927) and cost Rs 83 lakh.