Assessing the sustainability of post-Green Revolution cereals in India

Abstract

Sustainable food systems aim to provide sufficient and nutritious food, while maximizing climate resilience and minimizing resource demands as well as negative environmental impacts. Historical practices, notably the Green Revolution, prioritized the single objective to maximize production over other nutritional and environmental dimensions. We quantitatively assess outcomes of alternative production decisions across multiple objectives using India’s rice-dominated monsoon cereal production as an example. We perform a series of optimizations to maximize nutrient production (i.e., protein and iron), minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource use (i.e., water and energy), or maximize resilience to climate extremes. We find that increasing the area under coarse cereals (i.e., millets, sorghum) improves nutritional supply (on average, +1% to +5% protein and +5% to +49% iron), increases climate resilience (1% to 13% fewer calories lost during an extreme dry year), and reduces GHGs (−2% to −13%) and demand for irrigation water (−3% to −21%) and energy (−2% to −12%) while maintaining calorie production and cropped area. The extent of these benefits partly depends on the feasibility of switching cropped area from rice to coarse cereals. Based on current production practices in 2 states, supporting these cobenefits could require greater manure and draft power but similar or less labor, fertilizer, and machinery. National- and state-level strategies considering multiple objectives in decisions about cereal production can move beyond many shortcomings of the Green Revolution while reinforcing the benefits. This ability to realistically incorporate multiple dimensions into intervention planning and implementation is the crux of sustainable food production systems worldwide.

Future exacerbation of hot and dry summer monsoon extremes in India

“…It is well-known that Indian monsoon variability significantly impacts food production and, therefore, affects the socioeconomic well-being of more than a billion people 1 . Several studies have documented the relationship between agriculture and excesses and deficits in monsoon rains across various regions of India [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . Despite overall increasing rates of food production since the mid-20th century, mainly tied to technological advances and increased inputs during the Green Revolution, fluctuations in summer monsoon rainfall yet cause sharp anomalies in the yields of many staple crops.…”

Towards food supply chain resilience to environmental shocks

“…One important way to increase the resilience of agricultural production is by choosing crops, cultivars, species and breeds that are not only less susceptible to stresses such as drought, pests and salinity, but also offer other benefits for livelihoods or nutrition 17,57 . For instance, subsidy programmes in India aimed at promoting traditional climate-resilient cereals can increase iron and zinc supply, lower farmer input requirements and reduce water, energy and emission footprints 58 . The adoption of biofortified crops can potentially offer similar win-win situations; in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, orange-fleshed sweet potato is more drought tolerant than other staple crops while also improving vitamin A intake 59 .…”

Traditional Food Environment and Factors Affecting Indigenous Food Consumption in Munda Tribal Community of Jharkhand, India

“…Despite being reasonably safe and consistent in food supplies (quantity), current global food systems are struggling to meet the nutritional needs of the growing population and have placed significant strain on land, water, soil, air, and other natural resources ( 7 , 8 ). In this context, the concept of sustainable food systems and healthy diets are receiving renewed attention ( 9 ).…”