Climate change and investment in agricultural research: Policy challenges in India

Agriculture will continue to be the major sector supporting the Indian economy. On the other hand, the reported and projected impact of climate change raises question against its sustainability and stability. The present paper through reviewing of the relevant literature therefore aims to address three interrelated issues. The first issue on climate change reflected that the annual temperature increase by 0.5°C during the period 1901–2003 and to counteract the negative impact of climate change, the farming community resorted to adaptation strategies, mainly adoption of resistant cultivars. Concerning this need, the Central Government initiated the mega project National Initiatives on Climate Research Agriculture (NICRA) with a budget of 200 crores during the year 2010–11 and the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) scheme with a budget support of 1, 08, 000 crores in order to provide resilient to agriculture with one of the main components on the development of crop cultivars. Emphasizing the need for research in agriculture particularly under the climate change scenario the third issue on the status of Agricultural R&D investment in India was discussed and revealed that the level of Agricultural Research Indicator (ARI) is below the recommended level of 2% being only 0.43% during the year 2012–13. Meeting the need of the farming community coupled with the objectives of the mentioned Government initiatives and the target set to attain 2% of ARI during the twelve plan the study recommended that Agricultural R&D investment needs to be strengthened to maintain the viability of Indian agriculture.