Climate Change and Extent of Agricultural Scarcity in Rajasthan

Abstract

Purpose: In this descriptive study, we have focused on the impact of climate change on agriculture in Rajasthan. The adverse impact of climate change has increased the vulnerability of agriculture due to its dependence on rainfall and temperature. The current study aims at analyzing the vulnerability of agriculture in Rajasthan to extreme climate events such as drought and flood in the kharif season and hailstorms in the rabi season. The basic aim of the current study is to chart out the relation between extreme climate events and the loss to agriculture in Rajasthan.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This study follows a descriptive pathway to evaluate the extent of value of crop damage and impact on livestock at the district level in Rajasthan using the agricultural scarcity data from the State Disaster Relief Department, Rajasthan. Based on this data, we quantify and describe the patterns of climate-related agricultural losses over past two decades. We have analyzed the long-term climate data, i.e., daily maximum temperature and rainfall data, by fitting a trend for all the districts of Rajasthan. The descriptive analysis of the value of damaged crops and affected cattle was done by making quintile plots, which distribute the data for a year for all the districts into five quintiles, indicating the severity of damaged crops. The plot for the proportion of damaged crop area to sown area for the 33 districts of Rajasthan highlights the extent of damage of sown crop area across districts. The quintile calculation and the plots were made using the pandas and matplotlib libraries in Python.

Findings: Climate change impacts all sectors in an economy. The outcomes of global warming have become more evident recently. The adverse impact of climate change has increased the vulnerability of agriculture due to its dependence on rainfall and temperature. The analysis reveals substantial economic repercussions from crop damage and significant impacts on livestock populations. These descriptive findings map the extent of climate-induced stress on Rajasthan’s primary sector.

Paper Type: Theme Based Paper