Impacts of climatic hazards on agricultural growth in India
Pratap S. Birthal, Jaweriah Hazrana, Digvijay S. Negi
Abstract
Using a panel of state-level data for the period 1970–2018 this paper assesses the impacts of climatic hazards, viz., droughts, floods, heat-waves and cold-waves, on agricultural growth in India, and also evaluates the potential of a few important adaptation measures in mitigating their negative growth effects. The findings reveal that climatic hazards negatively impact agricultural growth, but different hazards impact it differently. Droughts and heat-waves have larger negative effects, and these effects are stronger for the poor and pre-dominantly agrarian states. Nonetheless, the findings also demonstrate that the negative effects of climatic hazards can partially be offset using the adaptation measures, ex-ante and ex-post the hazards. Irrigation and crop diversification appear to provide larger adaptation benefits, especially against droughts and heat-waves, but their benefits fall significantly in case the hazards become more frequent. The adaptation benefits of manipulations in input-use and diversification into animal husbandry are comparatively small but more sustainable in the event of frequent climatic hazards.