1. NABARD’s initiatives on Climate
Change
Dr B R Premi
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (NABARD)
Maharashtra Regional Office, Pune
www.nabard.org
2. Contents
• About NABARD
• Over view of Indian Agriculture
• Impact of climate on agriculture
• Initiatives of NABARD
• Expectations from the forum
4. Mission Statement
Promote sustainable and equitable
agriculture and rural prosperity
through effective credit support
related services, institutional
development and other innovative
initiatives
5. Functions
• Credit Functions
– Refinance to Banks
– Cofinance in association with banks
– Direct Loan to State Government from Rural
Infrastructure Development Fund
– Grant cum credit programme
– Venture Capital Assistance to Dairy and
Poultry
• Regulatory Functions
– Regional Rural Banks
– Cooperative Banks
6. Functions
• Promotional Role
– Rural Non Farm Sector
– Farm sector – Water shed development, Natural
Resource Management Programme
– Micro credit and Self Help Groups
– Farmers clubs
– Augmenting Subsidy through Govt of India scheme
• Advisory Services - NABCONS
7. Indian Agriculture - Strengths
• Varied agro climatic conditions – Tropical,
Subtropical, Temperate & Dry Temperate
• Plenty of sunshine (Short day and Long day)
• Variety of soil types (Sandy soils – Black Cotton)
• Occupies first three ranks in world in number of
agricultural products
• Largest livestock population in World
• Longest coastline in world
8. Indian Agriculture - Weaknesses
• Fragmented land holdings (>80% in 0.5-2.5 acre)
• Larger dependence on monsoon
• Rainfed farming (45% net cultivated area irrigated;
18.7% in Maharashtra)
• Dependence to Agriculture declining (>80%
population before 1990s to 55% popln in 2007)
• Share of agriculture to GDP declining (36.4% in
1982-83 to 18.5% in 2006-2007
• Share of capital formation in agriculture to GDP
declining (8.6% in 2000 to 5.8% in 2007)
• Low Yield per Ha (1716 kg/ha; 924 kg/ha in
Maharashtra
9. Climate Change and Agriculture
• Climate change will have far-reaching
consequences for agriculture
• Crop failure and live stock deaths due to sever
diseases and epidemics.
• The impact already started to occur leading to
huge economic losses undermining food security
• The impact difficult to assess
• Survival of the poor at high risk
• Developing countries most vulnerable
10. Climate change - Five main factors
• Changes in temperature
• Variation in quantum of precipitation
• Changes in carbon dioxide fertilisation
• Climate variability
• Surface water runoff
11. How to overcome?
• Adapting to climate change
– Outside financial help most crucial
– Crop and livestock insurance
– New and innovative irrigation techniques
– R&D on flood, heat and drought resistant crops
– Strong agro metrological data support
• Mitigating climate change through agriculture
– Livestock and crops responsible for CO2 emission
– Agriculture accounts for 15% of global GHG emission
– Agriculture based deforestation, the contribution goes
upto 26-35% of global CHG
12. NABARD’s initiatives
• Watershed development programme – more than 2 lakh Ha
treated in Maharashtra itself.
• Wadi development programme originated in Gujarat
• Umbrella Programme on Natural Resource Management
• Farmers’ clubs & self help groups
• Dissemination of weather information through SMS
• Setting up of Bio Carbon Fund
• Farmers’ Technology Transfer Fund
• Rural Innovation Fund and Farm Innovation & Promotion
Fund
• R&D Fund
13. Expectations
• Forecasts on monsoon not enough for farmers, but
regular agri advisory services most crucial
• The forecasts skewed towards drought situation,
focus on other parameters need to be given.
• Meteorological agencies to play a crucial role in
crop and livestock insurance
• Farmers’ club network as a channel of information
flow on weather & climate change (38,000 nos) ?
• The Govt. agencies like IMD, IITM, SAUs, KVKs
etc. to have partnership with agencies like
NABARD on the lines of Reuter Market Lite
14. Looking forward
• R&D Proposals on adaptation to climate
change
• Partnership with Indian & Global agencies
to strengthen the initiatives
• Guidance from experts on the field on how
to address the issue at the grass root level
