By our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Poor households globally lose 5 per cent of their total income in an average year from heat stress and 4.4 per cent from floods compared with households that are relatively better off, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said in Oct 16. It warned about the negative impacts of climate change on the farming population in India.
Senior FAO economist Nicholas Siko presented the report ”The unjust climate. Measuring the impacts of climate change on rural poor, women, and youth” in New Delhi.
The report said on-farm income sources of the rural poor in India were affected in different ways depending on the type of climate stress. In case of droughts or such events, poor households dedicated more time and resources to agricultural production to sustain themselves, as off-farm employment opportunities reduced.
The total incomes of poor households reduce compared with those of families that have not been exposed to a significant climate stressor, the report revealed. “The vulnerability of poor households to climate stressors is likely to be rooted in structural inequalities”, the report said and asked the government to take policy measures such as expanding the social security net.
Anticipatory social protection programs can be scaled up and scaled out to more beneficiaries in anticipation of an extreme weather event, the report suggested. “Providing effective livelihood support ahead of extreme weather events can help reduce reliance on adverse coping strategies and limit the number people pushed into poverty because of these events”, it added. The report recommended improving workforce diversification and enhancing off-farm employment opportunities. It urged the policy makers to address ”gendered barriers” in non—farm employment.
