A prolonged dry spell has scorched the Tarai with temperatures soaring to 35-42 degrees Celsius. With no immediate signs of rain, people in the region are languishing in the heat, which has wider ramifications than just excruciating weather. According to health officials, the rise in temperature has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of people visiting local health facilities with heat-related illnesses. But there is more to worry about.

What the government needs to be concerned with is the prolonged drought in numerous places around the country due to dismal rainfall this year. As a result, the prospect of a food deficit looms large. The output of paddy, a major food grain, has sharply dropped by 10.22 percent this fiscal year. Wheat harvest in fiscal 2015-16 is also forecast to plunge by 20.5 percent, a seven-year low. Now the drought has added to the woes of the farmers as the country lacks proper irrigation facilities. The district agriculture officers in the Tarai have claimed that there has been a 50 percent drop in vegetable production in the last few months, which can inflate vegetable prices by as much as 60 percent in the upcoming days. This is bad news for the population that is already reeling under double-digit inflation this year.

Not just the Tarai, mountain- and hill-regions are also prone to the impacts of the dry spell. For example, production of winter crops in Humla is predicted to fall by nearly 70 percent this year.  To make matters worse, reports of the drying up of water resources have also begun to surface.

Extreme weather linked to climate change is becoming increasingly common all around the world. This year in India, for instance, drought has affected 330 million people. In the Indian state of Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit regions, nine million farmers have little or no access to water. This has contributed to the suicide of at least 216 farmers this year alone.

Our government does seem to acknowledge the urgency of the prevailing drought as the parliamentary Agriculture and Water Resources Committee has issued a directive to the Ministry of Agricultural Development instructing it to take urgent action to increase food production and set up warehouses in major areas to stock food grains. However, such piecemeal approaches to reform are not a solution to weather-induced disasters that are occurring more frequently than before.

The government should map the drought-prone areas of the country and improve irrigation facilities in those areas. As poor farmers are bearing the brunt of the drought, they should be provided with immediate relief in the form of subsidised seeds and loans for the next planting season. Furthermore, ‘climate-smart rice’ varieties should be distributed among farmers. These rice seeds are drought- and flood-resistant and yield 40 percent more compared to the traditional varieties. The government should also look into other varieties of climate-smart seeds and enhance farmers’ awareness of and access to such seeds.

Concerned authorities need to conduct research on the effects of climate change on agriculture. As droughts and weather-induced disasters are recurring at a fast rate, a well thought out strategy to deal with such events is the need of the hour.