Answer 1

Need for sustainable development and food security keeping climate change in mind and
how the government can play a role.

Answer 2
Precipitation and monsoon extremes are projected to intensify by 20 per cent in summer
over India and South Asia, which would result in the erratic water supply to largely rainfed
agricultural areas.

Agricultural operations account for around 10-12 percent of total global greenhouse gas
emissions, according to the 2019 data, owing to the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides,
and animal manure. As a result of rising food demand from a growing global population, this
pace is only expected to increase.

Contract farming and agricultural area expansion can lead to problems like degradation of
forest cover, traditional knowledge, soil quality and an evident bias towards big farmers.
Excess fertiliser and pesticide usage, shifts toward livestock and cash crops, and land-use
change are some of the most visible consequences of intensive farming, all of which can
accelerate GHG emissions.

Being one of the top 10 leading agricultural exporters has a big impact on the environment
and has prompted questions about sustainability.

Answer 3
However, incorporation of sustainable practices in production, distribution, and consumption,
as well as management of food supply chains, becomes difficult for both fresh and
perishable products due to the products’ properties of perishability, strict regulations
regarding safety, consumers' high variation of tastes and processes, and operational
restrictions in storage, processing, and distribution. But in the wake of the global climate
crisis, it becomes imperative for agriculturalists to create stable and sustainable supply
chains.

A case in point, the recent regulation, aims to add 0.65 million hectares under oil palm by
2025-26 to reach a targeted one million hectares, up from 0.3 million hectares at present.
This would result in crude palm oil output rising to 1.1 million tonnes by 2025-26 and up to
2.8 million tonnes by 2029-30. While this might reduce offshore deforestation risk and import
dependence, it will and must also answer the question of matching India’s demand (>10
million metric tonnes) for palm oil and mapping India’s domestic deforestation risk.