Source: The Hindu
Context: India has strong food production and buffer stocks, but must build a climate-resilient, sustainable food-security system to protect agriculture, supply chains and the PDS from rising temperatures, erratic monsoons and groundwater depletion.
What Climate-Proofing Means
- Redesigning national agricultural, procurement, storage and public distribution policies to withstand climate change
- Shifting focus away from volumetric calorie production through monoculture
- Toward “sustainable food and nutrition security”
Five Pillars of a Climate-Resilient Food System
- Diversified procurement: Expand MSP beyond rice and wheat to millets, pulses and oilseeds suited to local climates.
- Diversified PDS: Add millets and pulses to PDS, PM POSHAN and Anganwadi programmes for better nutrition and lower water use.
- Climate-proof storage: Develop flood-resilient silos, temperature-controlled storage and cold chains.
- Weather-based planning: Use IMD forecasts for buffer stocks, MSP procurement and district-level contingency planning.
- Sustainable farming: Promote micro-irrigation, climate-resilient seeds and weather-indexed crop insurance under PM Fasal Bima Yojana.
