India’s Push Towards Climate-Resilient Crops: Strong Growth Expected by 2025

Climate-resilient Crops

India is ramping up the plantation of climate-resilient crop varieties to address the difficulties created by erratic patterns of weather, floods, droughts, and temperature. Significant government measures and targets have been established for wheat and paddy crops, which are projected to considerably expand the area covered under climate-resilient seeds as projected by 2025. Below, we briefly highlight the trends and figures underlying this transition.

• Based on the target set by the government, the area under climate-resilient wheat varieties has increased from 14.1 million hectares to a target of 22.5 million hectares by 2024-2025.
• In the case of kharif paddy, starting in 2023-2024, the government had a target of approx 6.56 million hectares (~10% total area of kharif paddy), then targeting upward to 10.25 million hectares (~15% coverage) by 2024-2025.
• In future phases, for kharif paddy area, which is covered by climate-resilient variety seeds, is projected to rise to 25% of the total area of kharif paddy in India. Meaning that if current targets (with some reasonable extrapolating) remain achievable, then we must increase coverage to over 17 million hectares.
• These efforts fall within a broader framework of changes that lead to increased climate-resilient crop yields, minimize climate stress and vulnerability, and improve food security if and when environmental conditions shift in an unpredictable manner.
• The adoption rates show a deliberate effort to transition from traditional varieties to stress-tolerant hybrids, especially in states where climate events frequently disrupt agriculture, such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha.
• Public sector breeding programs and private-sector seed companies have played a huge role in executing large distribution strategies as part of government-led schemes, including the National Food Security Mission (NFSM).
• Given the size of wheat and rice belts in India, these figures indicate a quick, planned transition of approximately 40–45% of wheat and 25% of paddy land to climate-resilient varieties by the end of 2025.