- Prelims: Current events of national importance, Environmental pollution and degradation(Solar energy, Paris Agreement)
- Mains GS Paper III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation,Solar energy and its use in different sectors particularly agriculture etc.
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- The famous slogan of late Lal Bahadur Shastri, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan,” was extended by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to include “Jai Vigyan”. Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended it to, “Jai Anusandhan”.
- The innovations (anusandhan) needed to be made in the agri-food space by 2047 to have a well-fed India, with zero hunger, almost no malnutrition, climate resilience, and high incomes for our farmers.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
SOLAR ENERGY:
- India, being a tropical country is endowed with plenty of solar energy; hence, exploitation of solar energy becomes an important component of renewable energy sector
- India is endowed with vast solar energy potential.
- About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India’s land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day
- Karnataka leads India’s list of states producing solar energy, with a total installed solar power capacity of about 7,100MW; followed by Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat
- Also, India is now the fourth-largest solar power producer in the world
- International Solar Alliance: In pursuance to enhance Solar Energy production, India along with France launched the International Solar Alliance with the aim to promote solar energy in 121 member countries and to mobilize over $1 trillion of investment for the deployment of solar energy at affordable costs.
- 100 GW target: The target set by India, for installed solar energy capacity is 100 GW by March 2023 — 40 GW rooftop solar and 60 GW ground-mounted utility scale
Recent trends:
- Poultry and fisheries: Poultry and fisheries have the fastest growth, while it has been the slowest in cereal production.
- More intervention in Cereals: Government intervention is the most in cereals through the massive procurement of rice and wheat.
- While those sub-sectors that rely on market forces, no matter how imperfect, still perform better.
- The policy implication is very clear: Promote and get the markets right, which will help unleash revolutionary growth in agriculture.
Challenges:
- Per capita income: The biggest challenge will be feeding a country whose per capita income still hovers around $2,300
- The per capita income is likely to grow between 5 to 6 per cent per annum, under normal conditions.
- Safe and nutritious food: As they rise from low-income levels, people are likely to demand not just more food but safe and nutritious food.
- Aligning agri-policies: The challenge would be to align our agri-policies and strategies to the emerging demand pattern.
- Argumenting farmers income: To make the agri-food system vibrant and competitive requires significantly augmenting farmers’ incomes.
- Declining average land holding: Against the backdrop of continuously declining average holding size from 2.3 hectares in 1970-71 to just 1.08 hectares in 2015-16, cereals can not give high incomes to farmers even when their productivity is increased.
Government Initiatives:
Solutions:
- Food system as a composite entity: safe and nutritious food.We need to go beyond just increasing production.
- We need to focus on the food system as a composite entity.
- It has five dimensions:
- Production,
- Marketing
- Consumption
- The environmental sustainability of our food systems
- Nutritional outcomes
- Arrest decline in groundwater: We need to arrest the dramatic decline in our groundwater table, particularly in the northwest, rejuvenate our soils, and improve the air quality by stopping/reducing stubble burning and methane emissions.
- Developing carbon markets: We need to develop carbon markets so that farmers can be incentivised to change existing farming practices that are not compatible with environmental sustainability.
- This requires innovations in policies, technologies related to precision farming as well as institutional engineering to include millions of smallholders as we did in the case of the white (milk) revolution.
- Digitisation of agriculture: The digitisation of agriculture can help in this. We need to become a nation of innovators in agriculture like Israel, Holland, and the US.
- Value chain by involving the private sector: Diversification toward high-value crops is a must as we move forward.
- It will require building efficient value chains by the private sector.
- High value agriculture: Policies need to create an ecosystem to promote this form of high-value agriculture and reduce the risks attached to it.
Initiatives by India to shift to renewable energy:
- National Solar Mission (NSM): The 100 GW solar ambition at the heart of the world’s largest renewable energy expansion programme
- The Wind Energy Revolution: Leveraging India’s robust wind energy sector to boost clean energy manufacturing and the rural economy
- National Biofuels Policy and SATAT: Building value chains to reduce fuel imports, increase clean energy, manage waste, and create jobs
- Small Hydro Power (SHP): Harnessing the power of water to integrate remote communities into the economic mainstream.
- National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM): Exploring the commercial viability of a versatile clean fuel
- Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme: Integrating India into the global clean energy value chains
- National Biofuels Policy and SAYAY: Building value chains to reduce fuel imports, increase clean energy, manage waste and create jobs.
Way Forward
- Solar as the third crop: A few out-of-the-box innovations can almost double farmers’ incomes quickly.
- And one such innovation is to have “solar as a third crop” on fields.
- On one acre of cultivated land, which grows two crops a year, one can have more than 400 solar panels (trees) of 10 to 12 feet in height, with due spacing for regular cultivation to continue.
- Najafgarh KVK area as model: A pilot programme in the Najafgarh KVK area revealed that farmers could earn additional income of up to Rs one lakh/acre, when the capital cost is being incurred by another entrepreneur.
- This concept needs wider validation in different states with good sunshine.
- This is the “inclusive growth, green growth” model that needs to supplement the solar parks model being developed by big entrepreneurs.
- Environmental consequences: In the mid-1960s to emerging as the largest exporter of rice in the world (21mmt in FY22), we have neglected the environmental consequences that have ensued.
- It is time to wake up now and promote climate-resilient agriculture.
- Double farmers income: In 2016, the Prime Ministerhad given a clarion call to double farmers’ incomes by 2022-23.
- That can be done through a single innovation, provided he makes it a campaign and mobilizes investors, farmers, renewable power companies, and discoms in that direction.
- “Har Khet Main Saur Urja”(solar power in every farmer’s field): On the lines of” Har Ghar Tiranga” campaign can be beneficial on a wider scale.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
- Explain various types of revolutions, took place in Agriculture after Independence in India. How these revolutions have helped in poverty alleviation and food security in India?(UPSC 2017)
(200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
