The Cost of Food: How The Climate Crisis Impacts Farming Labour

Notes from the Session

• Impact on farmers 

Unprecedented hot summers and delayed monsoons have become recurring features across India. These conditions are all the more exacerbated in Central India, where Dr. Ruchika Singh works with farmers. She spoke of the heat’s direct impact on the farmers: reduced crop yields, loss of worker productivity, and working hours—all leading to income loss. “According to the IPCC, in South Asia, a predicted rise in temperature from one to four degrees Celsius is going to cause a decline in maize and rice yields. Besides the impact of extreme weather events on household income and our production systems, Ruchika added, “farmers’ physical health is also affected.” She explained the complexity of the problem and how it needs to be approached “more holistically.” 

Climate in the Coffee Landscape

While Ruchika spoke of a broader context, Arshiya Bose focused on the landscape of coffee production in India—where she works with smallholder producers. Since the terrain is largely hilly, weather changes and climate events differ from those faced in the plains. 

Arshiya began by contextualising coffee production in India: “A very important part of coffee’s origins in many landscapes is that the indigenous communities who were previously dependent on the forest for food—through the collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFPs) like lichen, soap nut, tubers, wild leafy vegetables—are now entirely dependent on coffee, a global cash crop.” 

However, coffee is not essential for food security. While coffee producers may not consume coffee, they derive their livelihood from it. This is because of a dwindling market for NTFPs, and the increasing climate susceptibility of other foraging practices. A shift to coffee production—a remunerative, highly-valued, and exportable cash crop—provides a relatively sustainable livelihood: “Coffee is the second-most valued product after petroleum, and India is the seventh largest exporter of coffee,” Arshiya shared. 

Notwithstanding its profitability, climate uncertainty has also affected coffee production. Arshiya observed how episodic climatic events reduce yield, as reflected in coffee’s market price—it has risen six times in the past 10 years, and 25 percent just in the past year. Although “coffee likes heat—unlike farming in the plains for millet or rice—we’re seeing other impacts of it,” Arshiya added. The warm temperatures, however, are conducive to plant pests and diseases. So, she posed, how can farmers simultaneously tackle reduced yields and pests, while also continuing to be organic, regenerative, and natural? 

Other Concerns 

Both speakers highlighted the gendered dimension seen in farming in India. “Who’s working in the field and doing intensive labour activities?” questioned Ruchika. According to the Observer Researcher Foundation, in India, 77 percent of rural women are engaged in agriculture, but most are classified as “unpaid helpers.” Ruchika noted, likely, the impact on women farmers will only compound with heat. According to FAO, as of 2023, resources, among other constraints, make women more vulnerable to climate change, and less likely to adapt.

Further, Ruchika briefly discussed the impact of El Niño’s on food shortages. El Niño, due to warm ocean waters, typically increases global temperatures, driving extreme weather and rainfall patterns—with predictions for above average temperatures nearly across the country from June to August. Ruchika assured that on a national consumption level, government godowns are sufficiently stocked, alleviating the threat of food insecurity. However, food production is impacted, especially in India, where most farms are rain-fed and lack irrigation facilities.

• Strategy

To mitigate climate and livelihood uncertainty, farmers adopt reactive strategies, given it is a matter of survival. They cope by selling their livestock, among other smaller assets—sacrifices often made by the women. Ruchika referred to their response as “distress sales”. They also find alternative forms of income, through migratory labour for instance, or rely on government schemes.

How are the mainstream and corporatised coffee markets dealing with this? Arshiya disdained their investment in expensive research and development to find climate-resilient varieties. Most carry on with “business as usual,” without interrogating how coffee is grown or whether there is any scope for redesign. Arshiya’s PhD research—Why do so many sustainability certifications fail to bring about real change?—revealed that mainstream coffee certifications were limited, top-down, and hardly addressed deeper issues of power, livelihoods, and biodiversity.

On the other hand, Black Baza, “a small organisation that is much more rooted, and doesn’t have the resources, looks back to traditional ecological knowledge to tell us about what makes spaces and farms resilient.” Arshiya and Ruchika conceded, the answer lies in agroforestry—agricultural practices that incorporate native trees in farming.