The Future of Food Security in India: Can Farmers Adapt to Environmental Change?

As Indo Gangetic Plains (IGP) is considered the “Food Bowl of India” contributing 80% towards wheat production and 60% towards rice production. This research examined ways to enhance or maintain yields to ensure food security over the upcoming decades, and identify potential management strategies or technologies that may make current systems more sustainable and reduce the negative impacts of this critical farming system on natural resources. It also investigates the impact of warming temperatures and to understand the factors that constrain wheat production in the IGP states.

For this research Morsel collected data on various socio-economic parameters from farmers who were involved in wheat production. For this information related to farming, irrigation systems and effect of demonetization on cultivation was collected from 2400 farmers across 12 sites in Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar (IGP regions) in 3 Waves in 3 years respectively 2017, 2018, and 2019. Morsel used a structured survey instrument “CAPI” to collect the data. The collected data will be linked to remote sensing and census datasets later.