Global warming has not impacted Indian crops: Pawar

Global warming has not adversely impacted India's agriculture production which has been increasing over the last five years, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.

"In the last five years ... wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton production has not dropped, but increased," agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said during Question Hour. "In fact," he said, "except for Nigeria, no negative impact of global warming has been reported globally so far". Pawar said a number of reports by several organisations about possible impact of climate change on global agriculture revealed that there would be a 14% deficit in wheat production, 11% in rice and 9% in maize by 2020.

"Indian studies conducted under ICAR Network Project on Climate Change, however, indicate that climate change may reduce yield of timely sown irrigated wheat by about 6% in 2020. While late and very late sown wheat is taken into consideration, the projected impact could reduce the yield by 18%, if no adaptation measures are followed," he said.

Pawar said climate resilient practices on farmers' fields in 100 most vulnerable districts were demonstrated as part of a Rs 350-crore national scheme in 2011, but "by and large, we have not seen impact". Attributing post-harvest losses in fruit and vegetables to shortage of cold storages, he said that during the last three years, 1,066 cold storages with a 5.56-million tonne capacity were set up with a Rs 656.33-crore government subsidy.