Methane Emissions

Context:

• The International Energy Agency, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UNEP-convened Climate and Clean Air Coalition jointly released the report named ‘’The Imperative of Cutting Methane from Fossil Fuels- An Assessment of the Benefits for the Climate and Health.’’

Highlights of reports:

• Methane Emission Scenario: According to the report, methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is estimated to have been responsible for 30 percent of global warming since the Industrial Revolution. Although it remains in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide.
  • Around 580 million tonnes (Mt) of methane is emitted annually globally, 60 percent of which comes from human activities, according to the latest assessment cited in the report.
  •  In 2022, fossil fuel operations alone were responsible for around 120 Mt of methane emissions.
  • Under current trajectories, total anthropogenic methane emissions could rise by up to 13 percent between 2020 and 2030.

Benefits of Methane Emissions:

• Achieving methane reduction targets will prevent 95 million tonnes of crop losses for wheat, rice, soy and maize (corn). These savings are equivalent to roughly 60 percent of the wheat, rice, soy and maize produced in Africa in 2021.
• Avoiding such losses of crops, labour and forestry will provide direct economic benefits valued at more than $260 billion between 2020 and 2050.

Source: DTE

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Context:

• India’s factory-output growth based on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose to a 14-month high of 10.3% in August. 

Index of Industrial Production (IIP); Key Highlights

• Electricity production: In August 2023 grew 15.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 8.1% sequentially, this rise could be attributed to deficient rainfall. 
• Manufacturing output: It was up 9.3% in August and sequentially the output of the sector rose by 1.2% indicating an uptick in manufacturing activity. 
• Mining Activity: It remained flat during August, even after growing 12.3% on year on account of the low base effect.  
• Use-Based Category: All the six sectors recorded y-o-y growth with infrastructure goods’ output growing at 14.9%, followed by capital goods at 12.6% and primary goods at 12.4%. 

What is Index of Industrial Production (IIP)?

• Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index that tracks manufacturing activity in different sectors of an economy.
• Base Year: The base year was changed to 2011-12 from 2004-05 in the year 2017.
• Publishing Authority: CSO under Ministry Of Statistics And Programme Implementation is responsible for the publication of Index of Industrial Production since 1950. 
• Components:  Eight core industries comprise about 40 percent of the weight of items included in the IIP in decreasing order of their weightage are refinery products, electricity, steel, coal, crude oil, natural gas, cement,and fertilisers.
• Uses of IIP Data:  It is used by various government agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), private firms and analysts, etc. for analytical purposes. 
  • The data is also used to compile the Gross Value Added (GVA) of the manufacturing sector in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on a quarterly basis.
• Sectors: 
  • Broad Sectors: Mining, manufacturing and electricity.
  • Use-Based Sectors: Basic goods, capital goods and intermediate goods.

News Source: Financial Express

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Context:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) initiated a pilot program for the wholesale segment of its central bank digital currency (CBDC),  also known as Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), in the interbank call money market.

What is digital rupee and how it works?

• Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a form of digital rupee issued by a country’s central bank. They are similar to cryptocurrencies, except that their value is fixed by the central bank and equivalent to the country’s fiat currency.
  • Fiat money is a government-issued currency that is not backed by a commodity such as gold.
• CBDC Pilot: Also known as Digital Rupee-Wholesale (e-W), it was started for the government securities market in November 2022. 
  • It was restricted to facilitating the settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities. 
  • Subsequently, the pilot for the retail CBDC commenced in December.
• The Operational Process: For the digital rupee pilot remains the same, except for the settlement, which will now be carried out using the CBDC. 
  • The settlements will be in T+0 mode, indicating that trades will be settled on the same day.

Call Money Market:

• Call money rate is the rate at which short term funds are borrowed and lent in the money market.
  • Duration: The duration of the call money loan is 1 day. 
• Call Money Market: Banks engage in short-term borrowing and lending activities among themselves, with interest rates determined by prevailing market conditions.
• MIBOR (Mumbai Interbank Offer Rate): MIBOR is the benchmark interest rate used as reference rate at which banks in India lend to one another in the interbank market. 
• Other interbank offer rates: 
  • LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate
  • Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate)
  • TIBOR (Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate)
  • HIBOR (Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate)
  • SIBOR (Singapore Interbank Offered Rate) 

News Source: Business Standard

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Context:

• India’s retail inflation eased to 5.02% in September on an annual basis as against 6.83% in August, showed data released by the Ministry of Statistics.

Inflation: CPI and WPI as Key Indicators

• Definition: According to the International Monetary Fund, inflation measures how much more expensive a set of goods and services has become over a certain period, usually a year.
• Indicators: The two main indicators of inflation in India are the wholesale price index (Wpi) and the consumer price index (cpi). India uses CPI to measure inflation.
  • Retail Inflation: CPI tracks retail inflation which measures the changes in prices from a retail buyer’s perspective.
• Controlling inflation: RBI acts to control retail inflation through its monetary policies while the government does that by using fiscal policy instruments like regulating its expenditure through governance, infrastructure development etc.

Retail Inflation: Key Findings

• Food Price Inflation: For September stood at 6.56% as 9.94%  in August. 
• Rural and Urban Inflation: Stood at 5.33% and 4.65%, respectively.
• Fuel and Light Segment: Deflated 0.11% in September. 
• CPI Inflation: RBI projected it will ease from 6.6% in the September quarter to 5.5% in the December quarter. 
  • RBI has set its 2024-25 CPI target at 4.5 per cent, which remains above the mandated target of 4 per cent.
• Core Inflation (CPI excluding food and fuel): Stood at 4.9% for the September quarter. 
• Reasons for Decreasing Inflation: Falling prices of vegetables along with cost reduction in housing, clothing, non-essential commodities etc.
• Uncertainty: Israel-Hamas conflict, fall in kharif sowing for key crops like pulses and oilseeds, low reservoir levels, and volatile global food and energy prices. 

News Source: Economic Times

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Context:

• The European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite made the recordings of a large ozone hole over Antarctica as part of the EU’s environmental monitoring program.

What is ozone hole and how is it caused?

• The ozone hole is not technically a “hole” where no ozone is present, it is the region over Antarctica with a total ozone of 220 Dobson Units or lower in the stratosphere. 
  • The Dobson Unit is the most common unit for measuring ozone concentration.

• Size: The size of the ozone hole over Antarctica fluctuates each year, opening each year in August and closing again in November or December. 
  • This hole was 26 million square kilometers in size, roughly three times the size of Brazil, one major reason may be the volcanic eruptions at Hunga Tongain Tonga. 
• Climate Change: Experts believe the hole in the ozone is not likely to increase warming on the surface of Antarctica and is not a concern for climate change.
• Ozone Holes Grow and Shrink Every Year: The ozone hole opens up because of the rotation of the Earth causing special winds over the closed landmass of Antarctica. 
  • The winds create a mini climate, creating a shield over Antarctica preventing it from mixing with surrounding air. When the winds die down, the hole closes.
• Montreal Protocol: The world took action after scientists raised alarm over the ozone holes. In 1987, Montreal Protocol was created to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of these harmful substances.

Ozone Layer

• The ozone layer is a trace gas which sits in the stratosphere between 15 km and 30 km above the earth. 
• It functions as a protective gas shield that absorbs ultraviolet radiation (UV), protecting humans and ecosystems from dangerous amounts of UV. 
  • Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to high amounts of UV radiation.

• Bad Ozone: Ozone at ground level is a harmful air pollutant, because of its effects on people and the environment, and it is the main ingredient in “smog”.

News Source: The Indian Express

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Context:

• India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023.

More on News:

• According to the report, the compounding impacts of climate change, conflicts, economic shocks, the global pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war have exacerbated social and economic inequalities and slowed or reversed previous progress in reducing hunger in many countries.
• The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, which is considered moderate.

About Global Hunger Index 2023:

• Objective: To comprehensively measure and track global, regional, and national hunger.
• Published by: Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe
• Significance: The report attempts to “raise awareness of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) that endeavors to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ by 2030.
• Scores: The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.

Key Findings: India Specific

• India has a score of 28.7, indicating a serious level of hunger. 
• India came after neighboring countries Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Sri Lanka (60th). 
  • However, India fared better than South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara, which recorded a score of 27 each.

• Performance on Various Parameters:
  • Rate of undernourishment: 16.6 percent 
  • Under-five mortality:  3.1 percent,
  • Prevalence of anemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years: 58.1 percen
  • Child wasting rate in the world: 18.7
  • India made significant progress  between 2000 and 2015, with its score improving from 38.4 in 2000 to 35.5 in 2008 and 29.2 in 2015, over the past eight years, the country has advanced on the GHI by only 0.5 points.

Government initiatives to Combat hunger:

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY):The Central Government launched PMGKAY with the specific purpose of ameliorating the hardships faced by the poor and needy due to economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19.
• National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013: The Act provides for coverage of upto 75% of the rural population and upto 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidized foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering about two-thirds of the population.
• Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0:  It is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• The Zero Hunger Programme: It aims to decrease child stunting for children 2 years and younger,Ensure access to food all year round and Create stable food systems.
• Eat Right India Movement: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India started the Eat Right India movement to ensure that the Indian population has access to healthy and safe food.

Critique of Global Hunger Index:

The Ministry of Women and Child Development not only dismissed the GHI but also questioned the intent of its authors. An official statement has described the report as part of a “consistent effort’’ to “taint India’s image”.

• Methodological Issues: Three of the four indicators used for calculating the index are related to children’s health and cannot be representative of the entire population. 
• Limited Sample Size: The fourth and most important indicator ‘Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population’ is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000.
• Source of Data: Data used in the Global Hunger Index report are sourced from international agencies which are not updated as per the latest data available in the country.
  • For Example The percentage of child wasting, as seen on the Poshan Tracker, has been consistently below 7.2%, month-on-month, as compared to the value of 18.7% used for child wasting in the Global Hunger Index 2023.
• Inconsistent Evidence: There is hardly any evidence that child mortality (one of four indicators) results from hunger.
• Variations: The experts also claim that in India children and adults have more petite body frames, which is why overweight and obesity classification is different (lower cut-off for Asians). The same argument would also apply to children.

Way Forward:

• Consensus on a definition of Hunger and parameters: a new Index could be developed following consensus on a definition of hunger and objectives. 
  • The following four indicators may be used to construct the Hunger Index: percent food insecure population; percent undernourishment population; dietary intake of major food commodities.
• Improved Methodology: Various statistical techniques are available to finalize weights. Empirical studies should be conducted to assign appropriate weights to different indicators. 
• Inclusive Governance: Put inclusive governance and accountability at the center of efforts to transform food systems.
  • For Example: Improve  public distribution and civil supplies network especially the local rationing system. People should have the option to at least take a minimum amount of wheat, rice, salt and other requisite items without Aadhaar also.
• Scale up resources to address pressing humanitarian needs, while transforming food systems to make them resilient to shocks.
• Improved Implementation of Social Welfare Schemes: India has demonstrated significant political will to transform the food and nutrition landscape. Some examples are the National Food Security Act, Poshan Abhiyan (National Nutrition Mission), PM Garib Kalyan Yojna and National Mission for Natural Farming. However, there is still room for improvement.
• Real-time Data and Trackers: Efforts should be channelized to make data available in real-time through The Poshan Tracker, known as the ICDS-CAS (Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software to ensure the nutritional management of beneficiaries.

Conclusion:

• We should think about the ultimate goal of nutrition security rather than just food security.
• Nutrition security pertains to the individual, we must recognise that there are multiple factors that influence how we achieve it — and the responsibility for taking action spans jurisdictional levels from the community, to the nation, to the world.  

News Source: The Hindu

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Context:

• This article is based on the news ”Shifting to millets increases groundwater recharge more than drip irrigation in India’s northern plains” which was published in the Hindustan Times.  A new study published in the journal Nature Water highlighted benefits of switching to millets from cereal crops.            

Crop Switching: A Path to Sustainable Agriculture

• The government has branded the grain ‘Shree Anna’, featuring it in menus across events such as the G20 summit, while the United Nations has designated 2023 as the Year of Millets.

• The Ganga basin has seen a significant groundwater depletion in recent years, raising questions about the sustainability of present agricultural practices. 
• Crop switching has garnered increasing attention as a viable solution to tackle the issue of unsustainable water consumption.
• However, its potential to produce co-benefits or trade-offs for other dimensions of sustainability i.e., food supply and farmers’ profits remains largely unquantified.

What are the benefits of millets cultivation?

• Ecological Benefits:
  • Water savings: Crop switching to millets lead to reduction in groundwater depletion and energy savings with.
    • With crop replacement, there could be 55 per cent and 9 percent water savings in the Kharif and Rabi seasons, respectively compared with present practice. 
    • A combination of crop switching and drip irrigation reduced groundwater depletion by 78 per cent.
    • A study on water productivity mapping of major Indian crops indicates that rice, wheat, and sugarcane consume 80% of the freshwater available in India.
  • Drought resistant: Millets are hardy, low-cost, and climate- and drought-resilient crops.
    • They require less water compared to many other crops, positioning them as a sustainable choice for agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions.
  • Climate change: As native crops, they are ideal for farmers affected by climate change. Because they grow on arid terrain.
• Economic Benefits:  The increases in farmers profit from the crop switching are 139 per cent and 152 per cent for the Kharif and Rabi seasons, respectively.
  • Therefore, millet farming, besides conserving biodiversity and water use, also supports the most vulnerable of food growers such as women, tribal, small, and marginal farmers.
  • They can be grown in dry land areas using farmyard manures, thus reducing the dependence on synthetic fertilisers.
• Health and Nutritional Benefits: Shifting from the rice–wheat system to nutri cereals provides more micronutrients and proteins than rice and wheat.
  • Millets are called Nutri-cereals and Superfoods because they are rich in niacin, zinc, and Vitamin A. 
  • This combination is especially helpful in treating skin disorders, acne, and hormonal issues.
  • Including millet in diet can contribute to managing diabetes, lowering cholesterol, aiding weight management, and promoting digestive health.

Also read: Food Processing Industry In India

What are the challenges associated with Millet cultivation?

• Demand side issue: Taste perceptions, reduced per capita consumption due to urbanization and longer preparation times are the biggest barriers in millets consumption.
• Supply side issues: Relatively low-profit margins, guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and rice, short shelf life leading to spoilage concerns, and public distribution of wheat and rice.
• Low yields: Compared to wheat, rice and maize, millets have lower productivity due to their cultivation in marginal lands in rainfed farming and non-adoption of improved cultivars.
  • While wheat and rice yields are 3.5 tonnes and 2.8 tonnes per hectare, respectively, average yield for millets is 1.3 tonnes per hectare. 
  • Bringing the additional lands under millets cultivation is an important factor in increasing the production, especially the fallow and wastelands and the non-traditional areas.

• Poor shelf life:  The relatively short shelf life of millets increases risks of spoilage in the absence of appropriate storage. 
• Minimum support price (MSP): The low margins associated with millet production are exacerbated by the guaranteed MSP for wheat and rice, vis-à-vis other crops, creating disincentives. 
  • As a result, millets, which made up 20% of Indian food basket up to 1965–1970, stand currently at 6%, with a 33.9% decline in area under millet cultivation between AY1951 and AY2022.
• Infrastructure and value chain: The infrastructure for millet cultivation, processing, and marketing is often inadequate, particularly in rural areas.
  • The arduous nature of initial millet processing has led to a notable decline in millet consumption within the nation. 

Way Forward 

• Quality inputs: This entails providing quality seeds, with better efficiencies in processing so that the recovery improves from about 55 per cent in the case of minor millets to over 70 per cent. 
  • With proper crop management practices and seed improvements, yields up to 2.2 tonnes per hectare have been recorded in the case of finger millet (ragi) in Karnataka.
  • An MSP for minor millets could be considered, backed up by procurement and marketing infrastructure. 
• Millet FPOs: For farmers to realise higher prices for millets, better post-production linkages, promotion of farmer producers’ organisations (FPOs) and stronger processing value chains for millets are needed.
  • Dharmapuri District Minor Millets Farmer Producer Company (Tamil Nadu) is involved in the value addition of millets in the brand name of ‘DMillets’.
• Focus on women and indigenous communities: Awareness among women and tribal farmers could help to achieve national goals of millet output and global goals related to sustainable agriculture, production, and consumption. 
  • Odisha Government’s five-year ‘Millet Mission’ is supplementing the input as well as marketing needs of indigenous small and marginal farmers like the Dongria Kondhs.
  • Women millet farmers in rain-fed areas have to be empowered through capacity-building and skills
• Diversification of the PDS basket: It would improve prices of millets and, in turn, encourage the diversification of cropping patterns.
  • Millets are a storehouse of nutrition and their inclusion in the Public Distribution System (PDS)could be beneficial for both the PDS consumers and millet growers. 
• Strategic marketing and export promotion: There is a need for linking small and marginal millet farmers to online marketing platforms, such as e-NAM.
• • A synergistic framework could be developed to study the market segments and map emerging food trends to top importing countries.  
  • Ex-India accounts for 40 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, of the global output of bajra and jowar. 
  • Thus, India can create an export impact in bajra, ragi and minor millets as sorghum is produced globally. 
• Research and development: Prioritising research in low-value cereals and developing sustainable production strategies can help address food and nutritional security concerns of millions.
  • It is important to design and manufacture machinery that can enhance millet dehulling without compromising the nutritional value.

Conclusion

Switching to millets presents a promising solution for sustainable agriculture, offering ecological benefits like water savings and climate resilience, economic gains for farmers, and enhanced health benefits. However, addressing challenges such as low yields, shelf life issues, and market access are crucial. 

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