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Climate change leads to the extreme occurrence of events, water-related disasters, and pressure on existing water resources. The water resource is important for the ecosystem to create resilient and sustainable settlements. The imbalance between evaporation and precipitation creates either shortage or excess of water in the ecosystem. The shortage leads to water stress whereas excess causes flooding. Out of 28 states in India, Bihar is the most vulnerable state with 16.5 percent of the entire flood-prone area and 22 percent of the total flood-affected population of the country. The paper examines water stress and its relationship with flood damage in north Bihar. The paper's novelty is to identify critical districts facing water stress, flood damage and formulate intervention strategies to create a water-secure region. Using Water Poverty Index (WPI), water stress is estimated for five key components i.e. resource, access, use, capacity, and environment. WPI score is less than 0.35 in 14 districts depicting severe water stress conditions. Flood Damage Index (FDI) estimates the severity of the flood and it's impact considering three parameters i.e. population affected, area affected, and economic loss due to crop damage. Darbhanga district has a maximum FDI score of 0.84 and the least WPI score of 0.22, making it the most critical district. The analysis of WPI and FDI shall be used to devise water and disaster-related policies to alleviate water stress and promote flood-resilient development in flood-affected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic outbursts and increased food demands invoke excessive use of pesticides in the agricultural field for increasing productivity which leads to the relentless decline of riverine health and its tributaries. These tributaries are connected to a plethora of point and non-point sources that transport pollutants including pesticides into the Ganga river's mainstream. Simultaneous climate change and lack of rainfall significantly increase pesticide concentration in the soil and water matrix of the river basin. This paper is intended to review the paradigm shift of pesticide pollution in the last few decades in the river Ganga and its tributaries. Along with this, a comprehensive review suggests the ecological risk assessment method which facilitates policy development, sustainable riverine ecosystem management, and decision-making. Before 2011, the total mixture of Hexachlorocyclohexane was found at 0.004–0.026 ng/mL in Hooghly, but now, the concentration has increased up to 0.465–4.132 ng/mL. Aftermath of critical review, we observed maximum residual commodities and pesticide contamination reported in Uttar Pradesh > West Bengal > Bihar > Uttara Khand possibly because of agricultural load, increasing settlement, and incompetency of sewage treatment plant in the reclamation of pesticide contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unpredictable weather conditions due to climate change have resulted in significant changes in global weather patterns, affecting various sectors across the world; mostly the agriculture sector which got affected. This study focusses on the changing agricultural patterns caused by climate change and their severe effects on farmers' livelihoods in the Kishanganj District of Bihar. The purpose of this study is to look at the dynamic interaction between changing weather patterns and agricultural practices and the socioeconomic implications for the local farming community. This study intends (1) to explore farmers' perceptions and their experience of climate change towards agricultural practices, (2) to understand the adaptive techniques used by farmers in the Kishanganj district of Bihar in response to altering the agricultural patterns, (3) to assess the socioeconomic consequences of shifting agricultural patterns on farmers' lives. Through a comprehensive literature review and primary data collection, including in-depth interviews with local farmers, to discover variations in agricultural patterns, changing weather patterns, and changes in farming practices adopted by the farmers in response to unpredictable weather conditions. From the findings of this study, it is revealed that the agricultural sector in Kishanganj is extremely vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns, such as severe droughts, unseasonal rainfall, and temperature variations. The changing weather patterns have resulted in significant crop loss, which resulted in lower agricultural production, less income, and more debt for farmers' families. The negative effects of weather-related disruptions extend beyond economic factors, affecting both farmers' families and food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With changing climate, diversification can be an alternative option for farmers to fight climate change related problems. Rice-wheat being the major cropping system followed in Indo-Gangetic plains need to be diversified with other crops to get higher productivity and additional income. Potato is an important cash crop for farmers of eastern plains during rabi season. In this context, current study was conducted in Buxar district of Bihar to evaluate the inclusion of potato in the existing sequence and find the yield gap at farmers' fields using on-farm demonstrations. Data was recorded through timely observation and was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The yield gap in potato in study area was found to be 26.4 per cent which can be bridged by using high yielding variety like Kufri Mohan and following the recommended package of practices. The economic analysis showed that farmers can earn nearly 40 percent more net return by adopting new varieties and scientific cultivation practices. Among five crop sequences evaluated at farmers' field, rice-potato-moong gave highest system productivity of 234 quintal per hectare as well as maximum net returns. Thus, it is advocated to include potato in the current cropping system which will boost productivity and income of farmers by manifold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 6 December 1959, the image of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurating the Damodar Valley Corporation dam project in Bihar with a 15-year-old Adivasi girl called Budhini Manjhiyan was flashed across the national newspapers. This was an iconic moment in the national debate around development and change which was to dominate modern India on whether lands, predominately rural and tribal, were to be flooded to benefit the nation. Years later, in 2016, when the newspapers caught up with Budhini, she had returned to Jharkhand and was struggling to make ends meet for herself and her children. Her story resonates with the ways in which, in recent times, Adivasis are becoming increasingly visible as subjects in debates around indigeneity, identity, conversion, development, and climate change. The post-colonial Indian state and its allies, with a developmentalist agenda uppermost in their minds, have made loss of land, displacement, migration, and forced resettlement a part of Adivasi experiences. Forces of globalization, often in tandem with the policies of the Indian state, are engulfing marginal spaces. The increasingly powerful majoritarian narrative of the state subsumes alternate voices with easy nonchalance. The foregrounding of planetary narratives on the fate of humanity in the era of the Anthropocene erases the importance of particular locales and specific communities that could offer an alternative to declensionist narratives. But amid this marginalization, there also lies a story of the assertion of Adivasi agency. Voices of Adivasis—although multiple and fractured—can be heard as they assert their identity, express their politics, and creatively negotiate with the state and its institutions. Scattered across India in geographically differentiated terrains, pursuing different occupations, and speaking different languages, the experiences of Adivasis are varied, as they inhabit many worlds. Their stories point to the multiplicity of cultures and myriad ways of thinking that must be accommodated within the ambit of the nation, and yet offer the possibilities of different ways of living and being on this earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does deprivation of assets imply an increased likelihood of vulnerability to climate change? Our study attempts to answer this question by analyzing the multidimensional poverty in rural Bihar, followed by deciphering the link between the developed poverty index and vulnerability of agriculture to climate change. Vulnerability index used in the present study was developed under the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) by the Government of India. As most people in rural areas and those dependent on rural based livelihood activities (such as agriculture, forestry and livestock) are more vulnerable to vagaries of weather, related attributes (i.e. land ownership, livestock ownership as well as access to agriculture equipments) are included in our analysis. We found that the extent of multidimensional poverty in rural Bihar was 0.278 indicating that rural poor were deprived in 27.8 percent of the total potential deprivations that they could experience overall. It varied from 0.19 to 0.39 across districts. The findings highlight that a majority of the population were deprived in living standard dimension, followed by health and education dimensions. Further, the districts where the multidimensional poverty was high were also more vulnerable to climate change. The study advocates for formulation of district specific programs that can target major contributing factors resulting in reducing the extent of multidimensional poverty and vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) have gained popularity in agriculture for climate risk management studies. The available forms of SCFs are not conducive to decision making because of a mismatch in scales over space and time. In this study, available SCFs were disaggregated using the FResampler1 technique to simulate rice yield (cultivar PR 114) under different nitrogen levels and planting dates using DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) for Sitamarhi district, Bihar, India. Results showed that the late planting of rice predicted the highest yield (3800 kg ha-1) with high variability under SCF (wet) and 200 kg ha-1 application of nitrogen fertilizer. Similarly, for SCF (dry), the late planting of rice simulated high yield (3100 kg ha-1) attributes with 200 kg ha-1 of nitrogen fertilizer. However, rice yield under climatology (3450 kg ha-1) was more than SCF (dry) (3100 kg ha-1). Planting of rice on 15th June 2019 under the SCF (normal) predicted low uncertainty with high mean yields as compared to the mid (05th July 2019), and late (25th July 2019) planting. The present study showed that by applying SCF, we can have a better understanding on "relative" changes in yield attributes with fertilizer doses and planting dates, which may be adopted by the climate adviser to offset the climate risk without compromising productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the news media coverage of floods in a major flood-prone state of India, Bihar. Although news media helps shape public perception and political actions, little analysis of this means of communication has been conducted in India. Major topics and issues discussed during the coverage of Bihar floods in years 2013, 2017, and 2019 were provision of food, shelter, and health facilities, failure of the transportation system, waterlogging in urban areas, and failure or management of embankments. There was no skepticism on whether climate change was real. Political parties took contradictory positions: the ruling party attributed floods to a changing climate but other parties, and news media, emphasized the lack of disaster mitigation actions and were uninterested in climate change. This study suggests that it is more important to prepare for disaster mitigation actions around the major issues discussed and communicate them to the public. Media should become a major stakeholder by questioning the authorities about disaster preparations prior to the monsoon season and communicating mitigation actions to the public once disaster has struck, and help both public and government to better manage and mitigate the disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is endowed with vast floodplain wetland resources (0.5 million ha), which provide both livelihood and nutritional security to much of the rural populace. These biologically sensitive ecosystems are threatened by a range of anthropogenic and climatic factors. Assessment of their ecological vulnerability, and of the environmental threats that they face, is essential both in evaluating the health of these ecosystems and in developing sustainable management strategies for conservation and fisheries enhancement. In this context, eight wetlands in the Ganga basin were studied for two consecutive years across the seasons and were characterized ecologically based on chlorophyll a, primary productivity, and trophic state index. A warming temperature (+0.20 – +0.47 °C) and a decreasing total annual rainfall (257–580 mm) have been observed along the Ganga basin in the last three decades. The chlorophyll a (mean ± S.E.) content of the water varied from 4.08±1.04 to 38.0±14.11 µg l-1. The high primary productivity, gross primary productivity/plankton respiration ratio and trophic state index correlated positively with the high fish yield in the wetlands. Analysis of data based on Carlson's method revealed five wetlands in the eutrophic category, whereas based on Lamparelli's method, two wetlands fall into the eutrophic category. The Lamparelli TSI value ranged from 54.1 in Majharia to 65.8 in Kararia among the wetlands. The Bishnupur wetland in West Bengal and Kararia wetland in Bihar were found to be eutrophic due to cascading sewage incursion from nearby towns. These altered ecosystems with high TSI values were prudently exploited by selecting suitable fish species for high fish production, and a fish yield of 1200 kg ha-1 yr-1 was achieved in Bishnupur. The study revealed that eutrophic wetlands can be strategically managed for maintaining both ecosystem services and fish production. Careful selection of suitable fish species and stocking rate is crucial. The planned disposal and treatment of sewage is recommended to maintain the ecological health of floodplain wetlands for sustainable fisheries management in the context of a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change in future climate will have a prominent impact on crop production and water requirement. Crop production is directly related to climatic variables. Temperature, solar radiation, wind, precipitation, CO2 concentration and other climatic variables dictate crop yield. This study, based on long-term historical data, investigates the patterns and changes in climatic variables (precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation) that would most significantly affect the future crop production in many parts of the world, and especially in India, where most farmers depend on rainfall for rice production. Statistical analyses—box and whisker plot, mean absolute error, Taylor diagram, double mass curve, Mann–Kendall trend test, and projected climate change—were used to assess the significance of the climatic factors for the purpose of agricultural modeling. Large variability in precipitation may cause the flash floods and affect the farming, and at the same time, increase in temperature from baseline period will lead to high water requirement by crops, and may cause drought if rainfall does not occur. Decrease in solar radiation will affect crop growth and development, and thus, would hamper the crop production. The results of this study would be useful in identifying the negative issues arising from climate change in future agricultural practices in Bihar, India. Furthermore, the results can also help in developing management strategies to combat the climate change impact on crop production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]