Ms. Rutuja P. Shinde will present her APS as per the details below:
Date: 24th September 2025
Time: 0915 - 1015 hrs.
Venue: Conference Room No.1
Title: Modeling Impacts of Climate Extremes and Farm-level Decision Making on Crop Productivity for Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations
Guide: Prof. Parmeshwar D. Udmale
RPC Members: Prof. Priya Jadhav, Prof. Karthikeyan Lanka
Abstract:
The agriculture sector contributes 18.3% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has a significant share in employment and livelihood generation for about 58% of the population. Currently, agriculture is facing numerous challenges, including increasing food demand, economic uncertainties, and climate change. Climate change leads to extremes such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves. Variability in climate impacts agriculture in various ways, such as changes in sowing time, flowering and maturity time, and attacks of pests and diseases on crops, which lead to losses in crop productivity and quality. Around 60% of rural districts in India are vulnerable to climate change. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India, 69 million hectares of cropped area have been lost to hydro-meteorological extremes such as drought, excess rainfall, and floods between 2015-16 and 2021-22. About 77% of cropland in Maharashtra is vulnerable to climate change-related extremes. According to the Department of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra, the state has lost 36 million hectares of crops in the last five years (2017-18 to 2022-23) due to the impact of climate extremes. These events have varied impacts on farmers, including crop yield losses, economic setbacks, and the nation's food security.
Changing climate is one of the factors influencing cropping patterns. Therefore, crop diversification is a key tool for facing both socioeconomic and environmental challenges. Crop diversification is a critical factor in increasing agricultural production, creating jobs, reducing poverty, and ensuring nutritional security. Specific crops dominate the regions where the agroclimatic conditions are suitable for the crop. Over time, Socio-Economic and Environmental (SEE) factors such as literacy and awareness, irrigation water availability, fertilizer application, technological interventions, and access to good-quality seeds have diverted farmers to diverse cropping practices. Farmers are shifting from cereal-based cropping systems to high-value crops. Crop diversification, as well as the SEE parameters, influences the productivity of major crops of the region. The climate extremes also play a key role in the determination of the crop yield. This study mainly focuses on the sorghum crop, one of the critical crops contributing to food security, as well as the fodder for livestock and raw material for the biofuel industry. This study aims to analyse the spatial and temporal variation in cropping patterns, crop diversification, and sorghum crop productivity variations in Maharashtra at the district and sub-district levels to understand the determinants of cropping patterns and productivity change in Maharashtra.