Climate change is undermining the very agricultural systems that ensured India's food security. Discuss with reference to the dairy sector.

Q. Climate change is undermining the very agricultural systems that ensured India's food security. Discuss with reference to the dairy sector. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

India's White Revolution made it the world's largest milk producer — 247.87 million tonnes in 2024-25, about a quarter of global output [1]. Rising heat is now eroding this very base of protein and rural income security.

Climate stress on the agricultural base - Government assessments confirm rising temperatures, erratic monsoons and extreme events are depressing crop yields and farm incomes [2]. - Livestock, long the buffer against crop failure, is losing that shock-absorber role as the same warming hits animals directly.

How warming hits the dairy sector - Heat stress physiology: lactating animals divert metabolic energy from milk synthesis to thermoregulation and cut feed intake; high-yielding animals suffer sustained milk yield losses of 10–30% under thermal stress [3]. - Trans-Gangetic belt at risk: research on Haryana's Murrah buffalo system finds milk yield, conception rates, feed availability and water resources are the most climate-sensitive indicators [4]. - Compounding stressors: fodder scarcity, water shortage and wider spread of vector-borne disease raise input costs [4]. - Feedback loop: livestock is itself a major methane source, so the sector both drives and absorbs climate damage [3].

Food security and livelihood consequences - Milk is the cheapest animal protein for poor households; per capita availability of 485 g/day is at stake [1]. - Smallholders and landless dairy farmers, lacking cooling sheds or insurance, bear losses disproportionately, weakening the supplementary income that sustains rural households.

Building climate resilience - Rashtriya Gokul Mission conserves indigenous breeds valued precisely for heat tolerance and disease resistance — a genetic adaptation lever [5]. - NMSA under NAPCC integrates crop-livestock farming systems for climate resilience [6]; scaling shade and misting infrastructure, fodder banks and heat-advisory extension can operationalise it.

Climate change is thus converting India's dairy strength into a vulnerability. Mainstreaming heat-resilient breeding, fodder security and cooling infrastructure into livestock extension can protect both nutrition and rural incomes, aligning with SDG-2 on zero hunger and safeguarding the food-security gains the White Revolution delivered.

(~330 words)

Sources: 1. PIB — Release of Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2025, National Milk Day — 247.87 MT output, ~25% of global milk, per capita availability 485 g/day 2. PIB — Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture — warming and erratic monsoon depressing crop yields 3. FAO — An analysis of the effects of climate change on livestock — 10–30% milk yield loss under sustained heat stress; livestock emissions feedback 4. Scientific Reports — Perceived sensitivity of Murrah buffalo-based livestock production system to changing climate (Trans-Gangetic Plain) — Haryana buffalo belt sensitivity: milk yield, conception, feed, water, disease 5. DAHD — Rashtriya Gokul Mission — indigenous breeds' heat tolerance and disease resistance 6. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NAPCC) — integrated crop-livestock systems for climate resilience