El Niño is a warning: Why India must regenerate its agriculture now
As El Niño continues to disrupt traditional rainfall patterns, India's agricultural sector faces a critical turning point. Restoring ecological foundations is no longer optional but essential for survival.
El Niño, characterized by the warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific, poses a severe threat to the Indian monsoon, often resulting in prolonged dry spells and erratic rainfall. For millions of smallholder farmers, this translates into deepening instability. However, experts like Nityananda Dhal argue that the real crisis is the gradual erosion of agriculture's natural resilience, driven by decades of synthetic input reliance, intensive tillage, and monocropping.
These practices have degraded soil health and diminished biodiversity, stripping the land of its inherent ability to buffer against climate shocks. The path forward requires a shift from 'climate-proofing' individual crops to regenerating the entire farming ecosystem. A healthy soil, rich in organic matter and microbial life, acts as a biological sponge, storing moisture and nutrients, which is essential for surviving both droughts and extreme monsoon events.
Regenerative strategies—such as composting, mulching, cover cropping, and the use of biological inputs—are being proposed as the new foundation for Indian farming. By moving away from monocultures toward diversified systems like agroforestry, mixed farming, and growing climate-resilient crops such as millets and pulses, farmers can significantly lower the risk of total harvest failure due to heat or pest outbreaks.
Water management is equally critical. While India receives approximately 4,000 billion cubic meters of rainfall annually, the lack of adequate infrastructure means that much of this water is lost. Investing in rainwater harvesting, farm ponds, and efficient drip irrigation is essential to capture and utilize water efficiently as rainfall becomes increasingly unpredictable. Community-driven water conservation committees are cited as vital institutions for this transformation.
Ultimately, building resilient communities is as important as building resilient farms. Through self-help groups and farmer producer organizations, producers can share knowledge and reduce reliance on expensive, external synthetic chemicals. By fostering biological strength and improving local soil health, agriculture can evolve from a sector vulnerable to climate change into a key contributor to the solution, effectively sequestering carbon and restoring the ecological balance of rural India.