Agriculture and allied sector has shown a resilient growth (though undulating) during the last two decades (2005-06 to 2024-25period) with the average annual growth rate of 3.9 per cent. The sector employs 46.1 percent of the workforce and contributed to 18 percent of the country’s Gross Value Added in 2024-25. This sector also has the responsibility to feed 1.4 billion populations. India is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and jute, and ranks as the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. Long-term changes in average temperatures, rainfall, and climate variability is a threat to agricultural production, food security, and the livelihoods of farming communities in India. While adaptation of Indian agriculture to climate change is necessary to assure food security and safeguarding livelihoods of poor farmers, mitigation of GHG emissions can abate the extent of climate change and future adaptation needs. This report estimated state-wise agriculture Green House Emissions (GHG) emissions for 2022-23 using Tier 2 methodology of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (IPCC 2006) with country specific emission factors. The activity data was obtained from ‘cost of cultivation survey’, ‘fertilizer statistics’, ‘land-use statistics’, ‘agriculture statistics at a glance’ and the ‘20th livestock census’, published literature and government reports.
During 2022-23, the total methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from production of crops (includes emissions related to rice cultivation, agriculture soils and residue burning) and livestock (includes emissions related to enteric fermentation and manure management) were estimated to be 490 Million Tonnes (MT) equivalent of carbon dioxide (CO2 eq). After including the emissions related to electricity consumption in agriculture, the total agriculture emissions amounted to 688 Mt CO2 eq. The sector has the potential to mitigate 130-150 Mt CO2 eq GHG emissions, through water management in rice, conservation agriculture, fertilizer use efficiency, balanced ration diet and feed additives for livestock, and solarisation of agriculture. By mitigating these emissions, farmers can earn carbon credits and profit by its trade. The Energy Conservation (Amendment) bill of December 2022 proposed a domestic carbon credits market, which can act as a thrust for decarbonising agriculture. The centre and state governments could align existing natural farming, regenerative farming, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, crop diversification, livestock programs and agriculture solarisation schemes to encourage farmers to participate in carbon credit programmes along with the associated organizations. To ensure quality credits from agriculture, government should fix minimum floor price of $ 20 per credit. Agriculture sector does not have emission reduction targets so the smart move is to begin by offering other sectors and domestic entities to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits from farmers.
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