In the 174-year history of record-keeping, 2023 was the hottest year, with temperatures 1.45±0.12°C above the preindustrial average (WMO, 2024). In India, average temperatures rose by 0.7°C from 1901 to 2018, leading to more extreme weather, increasing daily precipitation extremes (75 percent from 1950 to 2015), declining monsoon precipitation (6 percent from 1950 to 2018), sea-level rise (3.3 mm per year from 1993 to 2017), and more frequent droughts and cyclonic storms (MoES, 2020). This summer season saw over double the usual number of heatwave days in north-western and eastern India with temperatures exceeding 50°C, and eastern India experiencing its hottest April on record. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms that human activities, primarily greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, have caused global warming. These extreme weather events significantly impact all sectors, including agriculture, which both drive climate change through emissions and suffer from it due to disrupted crop yields and farming viability.
