Farm-level cost of adaptation and expected cost of uncertainty associated with climate change impacts in major river basins in India

Purpose: Researchers and policymakers are figuring out the adaptation technologies to cope with the changing climate. Adaptation strategies for crop production followed by the farmers at selected study locations had ranged from 6-30 per cent only, and this was mainly due to lack of awareness about the actual cost associated with adaptation and non-adaptation of these strategies. Design/methodology/approach: Hence, this study aims to address the cost of adaptation for rice using joint probability distribution of rainfall and crop prices. Findings: Cost of adaptation varied from INR2,389 to 4,395/ha for System of Rice Intensification (SRI); INR646 to 1,121/ha for alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and INR8,144 to 8,677/ha for well irrigation (WI), whereas expected cost for not using these technologies has ranged from INR6,976 to 9,172/ha for SRI; INR4,123 7,764/ha for AWD and INR10,825 to 17,270/ha for WI. Hence, promotion of the adaptation technologies itself will minimize the income losses to the farmers. Research limitations/implications: Even though, there are many ways for farmers (other than technology), to adapt to climate change (such as out-migration to cities, selling farm assets, focus on children’s education, etc.), this report, given the framework of the major research study undertaken, addresses only farm-level adaptation of the technologies to enhance farm income. Originality/value: Public–private partnership in providing the technologies at cheaper costs, capacity building in handling the technologies and creating awareness about the technologies to minimize the expected cost of adaptation are suggested to improve the adoption level

Climate change and food security of India: adaptation strategies in the irrigation sector

Creation of a large irrigation potential has been the cornerstone of India’s agricultural growth and past food security. It is estimated that the irrigation sector in the country will be affected considerably by climate change due to a projected increase in absolute rainfall, intensity of precipitation, glacial-melt and flood, as well as drought events. These changes are projected to modify the supply of both surface and groundwater in each region. Climate change is likely to increase the demand for groundwater to manage increasing intermittent periods of limited water availability. Simulation studies on Indian river basins have shown that the availability of water in some parts of the country may decrease while there may be an enhanced intensity of floods in other parts of the country. Several adaptation strategies are available for the irrigation sector. These include increasing the availability of usable water by conserving water resources, increasing the recharge and use of industrial and sewage wastewater. Other options are improving the efficiencies for water use, management of groundwater, water transfers between basins, trans-boundary cooperation and the increased use of modern tools in water resource management, such as remote sensing and GIS, and real time weather forecasts. It is concluded that demand management options will have a higher adaptation payoff than supply options

Analysis of economic incentives for managing risk at the farm level in the context of climate change

Weather indexed crop insurance has the potential of offering risk management to high-risk populations in poor areas, by lowering transaction costs of managing contracts and payouts, thereby offering affordable insurance even to poor farmers. Lower transaction costs relative to multiperil yield-based insurance, can be achieved through use of local weather data, rather than on-farm crop cutting experiments, that lowers verification costs, while maintaining, or even lowering basic risk

Water pricing experiences in India: emerging issues

The debate on growing water scarcity and the need to use the available water more efficiently among different sectors has once again brought in renewed focus in India. In this debate, a large part of the emphasis has been on the pricing of irrigation water, the sector which accounts for almost 80 % of the total water use but for which water is charged at a fraction of the supply cost. Low water rates, apart from encouraging the inefficient use of water, result in low revenue collections and contribute to the growing burden of government subsidies. Efforts to increase revenue collection through institutional reforms motivated mostly by international lending agencies have yielded mixed results. However, given the increasing demand for water and the resulting competition among sectors, there is scope to price water. In this context, the chapter aims to examine the issues relating to water pricing in India with a case study from Andhra Pradesh

Industrially feasible alternative approaches in the manufacture of solid dispersions: A technical report

The purpose of this report was to compile relevant technical information on various alternative strategies that can be used as feasible approaches in the development of solid dispersions. The technologies discussed in the report are spray coating on sugar beads with a fluidized bed coating system, hot melt extrusion, direct capsule filling, electrostatic spinning, surface active carriers, and supercritical fluid technology. The focus is on basic principles, the equipment involved, and the relevant scale-up work. These technologies have been found to eliminate several drawbacks posed by the conventional methods of manufacturing of solid dispersions such as laborious preparation methods, reproducibility, scaling up of manufacturing processes, stability of drug, and vehicle