Policy support: Challenges and opportunities in abiotically stressed agroecosystem

Abstract

Abiotic stress causes more than 50% losses in crop productivity and hence got major concerns for food and nutritional security. Two case studies addressing the impacts of abiotic stress on agricultural sector, adaptation measure taken up and needed policy options are included. The first case addresses the impact of climatic variables in Godavari River basin of Telangana where the impact of climate change on yield of paddy, groundnut and maize crops had been assessed using the Just-Pope production function. Climate change has serious effect on groundnut (with high yield variation of 69-90%), rice (with moderate yield variation of 23-38%) and maize (with negligible yield variation). Case two discusses about different adaptation strategies followed by agro-silvipastoral farmers to manage the abiotic (drought) stress in Tamil Nadu where among the 17 strategies identified, 12 were indexed as important strategies undertaken. At the time of severe drought stress, farmers used cotton waste as livestock feed, gave vaccination and added shade to protect the livestock from cold and heat stress. Majority of the farmers are only medium adopters, and hence there is an increasing need for creating awareness among the farmers on latest stress management practices by strengthening the extension services and capacity building programmes.