Devex Dish: What India’s fodder shortage means for farmers

India’s cattle farmers are feeling the squeeze: An unprecedented fodder shortage is making it prohibitively expensive for them to feed and maintain their cattle.

The main culprit is the rising impacts of climate change. Fodder production has been significantly reduced amid erratic weather patterns such as prolonged droughts and heat waves. That shortage has sent fodder costs skyrocketing — prices have nearly tripled in some regions over the past two years.

Take Sheshrao Jadhav as an example. The dairy farmer in the west Indian state of Maharashtra had to sell 120 cattle over the past year, leaving him worried about how he will feed not just his remaining 230 animals, but his family. He and many of his neighbors are selling off their cattle at rock-bottom prices.

And the effects of the fodder shortage could soon be felt by the rest of the world, too, as India is the world’s largest dairy milk producer.

“With climate models predicting more extreme weather events in the coming years, the fodder shortage highlights the urgent need for sustainable agricultural practices and climate-resilient policies in the world’s most populous nation,” writes Devex contributor Cheena Kapoor.

In addition to the climate crisis, the government points to the “shrinking of [the] area under cultivation due to urbanization, and diversion of land towards commercial crops, as well as the diversion of crop residues for other industrial uses.” These problems are compounded by rising domestic demand for milk and dairy products as India’s population grows.

Though India has plenty of quality land and seeds, another major issue is a lack of proper regional planning, according to Vijay Kumar Yadav, director at the Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

For rural farmers like Jadhav, help can’t come soon enough.

Read: Indian farmers distress-sell cattle amid unprecedented fodder shortage

ICYMI: Amid climate change in the Horn of Africa, camels pose an opportunity

Catch you in Kigali

Next week more than 3,000 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, and global development experts will gather in Kigali, Rwanda, for the Africa Food Systems Forum, the continent’s largest agriculture conference.

The annual event — previously known as the Africa Green Revolution Forum — is expected to bring announcements of big funding, and political and policy commitments aimed at accelerating the transformation of the continent’s food system. It is organized by AGRA, which in 2022 rebranded itself from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Dealmaking is a major feature of the event — last year’s investment pipeline brought $10.2 billion in national food systems investment opportunities, according to the 2023 AFS Forum report. Scheduled speakers this year include former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Executive Director Lawrence Haddad, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Each year, the forum attracts criticism from agroecology advocates who protest what they view as too much outside influence on African food and agriculture policies — particularly by AGRA, which they say has squeezed out the alternative voices and approaches such as agroecology in favor of a corporatized model of industrial agriculture.  

This year, African faith leaders, backed by civil society and farmer groups, have issued a public letter to agriculture donors — specifically the Gates Foundation — demanding that they pay “reparations” for past mistakes by supporting agroecology, or a system of farming that is dependent on nature to produce food in a way that benefits the environment.

Will you be attending the forum next week in Kigali? If so, get in touch! My colleague David Njagi will be on the ground and would love to meet Dish readers.

Read: African groups want ‘reparations’ for Green Revolution’s shortcomings

From our archives: Does AGRA’S new $550 million strategy address past failures? (Pro)

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Wheat for it

Clues on how to prevent crop disease, build climate resilience, and reduce agricultural emissions might just be found in the genetic diversity of wild wheat varieties, according to a new study.

It reviewed the impact of various global efforts to use ancient and wild relative species to increase genetic diversity in wheat varieties. And the benefits were many, Devex contributor Catherine Davison writes: Although only a small fraction of the genetic resources found in wild and ancient wheat varieties have been used in modern breeding programs so far, they have already helped to improve heat and drought tolerance, prevent the spread of disease, and increase productivity to an estimated $11 billion.

Further, the cultivation of disease-resistant wheat varieties has reduced fungicide use by an estimated 1 billion liters since 2000, minimizing the amount of harmful agrochemicals entering the food chain, the study found. The research was led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, or CIMMYT.

“These impacts were achieved with almost anecdotal exploration of these genetic resources, less than 10%” of the total available, said the study’s co-author Matthew Reynolds, head of wheat physiology at CIMMYT. “And we have these even worse problems looming, which we could almost certainly solve if we explore the rest of it.”

Though the study only looks at wheat, the implication is that other crops with wild or ancient ancestors that are still growing would benefit similarly.

Read: How ancient wild relatives of wheat could safeguard our food supply

Plus: Could ancient grains hold answers to Britain’s wheat crisis?

And don’t miss our deep dive: Cranking up the heat on climate-resilient crop research 

Chew on this

The World Food Programme is investigating two of its officials in Sudan over charges of fraud and concealing relevant information. [Reuters]

‘The wells are salty’: How the invading ocean is contaminating Vanuatu’s water supply. [The Guardian]

The African Development Bank is investing $46 million to improve food security in South Sudan. [Islamic Organization for Food Security]

David Njagi contributed to this edition of Devex Dish.