Proactive Drought Risk Management for Resilient Agriculture in Eastern India

Author : Nirupama singha

Climate change is placing growing pressure on agricultural systems, making urgent and coordinated climate action essential for sustainable development. In this context, the Indore Declaration, adopted at the 16th BRICS Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting, highlights the urgency for strengthening agricultural resilience through climate-smart and regenerative farming systems, technological integration, and farmer empowerment. These priorities are central to securing food systems, sustaining livelihoods, and advancing sustainable development. 

Agriculture remains the backbone of livelihoods in eastern India, making climate resilience an important development priority. The region experiences recurring floods, droughts, cyclones, erratic rainfall, and other extreme climate stresses that  affect agriculture production, food security and rural livelihood. These challenges are compounded by an over-reliance of agriculture on monsoon and the predominance of marginal and small land holdings across states which can limit farmers’ access to irrigation, technology, and financial resources. 

Extreme climate events such as droughts affect a wider geographical area and last for a longer period of term compared to other events. The relationship between drought and agriculture is particularly important, as 84% of the damage and losses caused by droughts is to the agriculture sector, (FAO, 2015) . Rainfall deficits, declining ground water levels and prolonged water deficits directly translate into livelihood losses, crop failures, water scarcity, and economic disruption. For smallholder farmers with limited resources, these effects can extend beyond growing seasons, geography, making drought resilience essential against  economic disruption, water scarcity, and seasonal migration.

Drought as a compound phenomenon

Drought is far more than a deficit in rainfall. It is a slow-onset disaster whose impacts emerge through the interaction of climatic, ecological, and socio-economic conditions. Across Eastern India, drought risk varies between regions, shaped by differences in agricultural systems, terrain, irrigation access, and groundwater conditions. These factors influence how drought develops, how severely it affects farming, and which communities face the greatest consequences.

This complexity calls for a shift from reactive to proactive disaster risk management. Effective management must therefore move beyond responding to water shortages after they occur and focus on identifying vulnerabilities, reducing exposure, and strengthening the capacity to withstand and recover from drought. The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) reinforces this need for a proactive approach to drought risk management.

Why DRR and climate adaptation need convergence

Climate resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) share the common goal of reducing climate risks, building resilient ecosystems capable of absorbing and transforming in response to shocks. Resilience aims to develop strong systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli, while DRR focuses on identifying, assessing, and reducing the risks of disasters. Although these approaches have developed separately, they share the common goal of reducing vulnerabilities and increasing resilience to climate-related hazards.

Despite shared goals, Climate resilience and DRR policies often remain siloed across sectors and institutions. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have urged for increased coherence between these fields through integrated policy planning, financing, and risk-informed development targets.

Yet drought risk management across Eastern India remains fragmented. Although states have developed individual programmes addressing watershed development, irrigation, groundwater management, and climate adaptation, coordination across sectors and state boundaries remains limited. Differences in drought exposure, vulnerability, and institutional capacity make a uniform approach impractical; however, a shared regional drought-management framework with region-specific implementation could help align state efforts and strengthen coordination for drought risk reduction and resilience. 

A resilience assessment model organizes drought resilience around 12 indicators grouped into four thematic areas: Fundamental Needs & Agricultural Resilience; Proactive Monitoring & Crisis Response; Ecosystem & Resource Sustainability; and Institutional Strengthening & Financial Resilience (Sarma & Brüntrup, 2026). For Eastern India, this approach could be adapted into a regional drought-resilience framework that establishes shared targets and indicators while allowing states to define context-specific priorities, interventions, and implementation pathways. 

Figure- Sarma, M., & Brüntrup, M. (2026). A 12-target global framework for measuring drought resilience: Insights from a multi-country review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 143, 106239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.106239 .

Nature-based Solutions offer practical pathways to strengthen drought resilience when integrated with local agricultural systems and community institutions. A regional approach could prioritize four interconnected areas:

• Landscape-level water retention: Implement ridge-to-valley watershed restoration in drought-prone lateritic areas through contour trenches, vegetative barriers, small rock-detention structures(RDS), and restored ponds. These interventions can reduce runoff and erosion while improving soil-moisture retention and extending water availability beyond the monsoon.

Figure -A field example of a stone check structure built across a drainage line for erosion control and water retention in Odisha

• Community-led water security: Establish locally managed groundwater-recharge and water-budgeting systems, using hydrogeological mapping, groundwater monitoring, and seasonal water-use planning to align recharge with agricultural and domestic demand. Community ownership should extend from site selection and maintenance to monitoring and equitable water-use decisions.

Fig- A small water-retention structure in a rainfed Jharkhand landscape. 

• Resilient agricultural production: Promote farm-level regenerative and climate-smart practices, including direct seeding where suitable, reduced tillage, residue management, crop diversification, drought-resilient varieties, and agroforestry supported by locally tested crop plans and protective irrigation. This can reduce dependence on uncertain rainfall while strengthening soil health and farm resilience.

Figure- Farm diversification and agroforestry in Ranchi, Jharkhand

• Integrated farming systems  combine crops with livestock, horticulture, farm ponds, composting, in locally suitable small-scale fisheries or agroforestry, so that the farm is not dependent on a single rainfed crop. Crop residues can support livestock, livestock manure can support soil fertility, and farm ponds can support limited protective irrigation or allied activities. ICAR’s location-specific farming interventions in a tribal cluster of Odisha combined crop, natural-resource management, horticulture, livestock, and enterprise modules. The programme included dug-out sunken ponds, dyke-height optimization, mulching, and mini integrated farming-system models to improve water-use efficiency and farm returns.

Figure-Pond-based integrated farming system in  Dhenkanal, Odisha 

• Polycentric governance and shared monitoring strengthens drought management by linking local knowledge with coordinated action across governance levels. Communities identify risks and priorities, panchayats and district administrations implement and coordinate responses, and state agencies provide technical and financial support. This helps make drought management more participatory, locally responsive, and less fragmented. 

Figure- Community water planning and monitoring in Odisha 

The path forward lies in moving from reactive relief to proactive resilience; integrating drought risk into development planning, strengthening climate and hydrological data systems, building community ownership, and investing in nature-based solutions that deliver both ecological and economic returns.

The question is no longer whether drought will affect Eastern India, but how resilient the region will be when it does. Building a resilient agricultural economy here will require project-level interventions. It requires disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation to function as one integrated strategy, determining whether future droughts become recurring crises or manageable risks within a more resilient development pathway.