Building Competitive Green Industries

ecognize the threats to agriculture caused byclimate change. In 2013 alone, sudden and severerains caused extensive flooding in India’s north,while severe drought struck in the east of thecountry. A major drought across the entire EastAfrican region in 2011 devastated agriculturaloutput and led to regional instability as people fledfrom neighboring countries into Kenya and staplefood prices soared.Both countries suffer from soil degradation, waterstress, crop productivity problems, the need tofeed a growing population, and increasingly severethreats from climate change. Many agriculturalproducts in India and Kenya are being grown at orclose to their maximum heat tolerance. Sustainedheat waves can devastate wheat, rice, maize,and other crops, and negatively impact upon theproductivity and reproduction of higher-yieldingcattle species compared to more resilient but lessproductive local varieties.Given India’s size and the diversity of its climaticzones (ranging from arid to tropical wet to humidsubtropical), responses to climate impacts arenecessarily varied and regionally specific. Kenya’srural, poorly educated, impoverished, and fastgrowingpopulation limits its adaptive capacity,BOX 6.1. Solar pumps make irrigationaccessibleIrregular and insufficient rainfall is achallenge to farmers who must pumpwater onto their fields manually or withthe help of expensive and polluting petrolor diesel pumps. SMEs like Future PumpLtd, a Kenyan company, are helping tosolve that problem with innovative solarpowered pumps that can irrigate half anacre per day with no manual labor or fuelcosts. The initial investment of around $400can be recouped in 1-2 years comparedto the ongoing running costs of diesel orpetrol engines, and higher yields frommore productive crops further boosts thebusiness case for these pumps. FuturePump Ltd. is working with Kenya ClimateInnovation Center to get business support,introductions to distributors and salespartners, and linkages to potential investorsfor business acceleration.which exacerbates the agricultural impacts ofclimate change. Together, the countries facesome of the same agricultural challenges, butalso have different characteristics that requirebespoke agricultural interventions to be tested,disseminated and adopted at large scale.Agriculture is different than other cleantechnology sectorsUnlike renewable energy or cleaner transportationoptions, improving agricultural practice dependsheavily on behavior change, education, andinstitutional reform rather than on technologicalinterventions. It is also almost exclusively drivenby donor agencies and governments, and tends notto be as suitable for public-private partnership asother clean technology sectors.While agriculture has been practiced for thousandsof years, sustainable agriculture that enhancesclimate change resilience and increases theintensification that is required to feed the world’sgrowing population is a more nascent area of study.Newer sustainable farming practices reimaginethe agricultural paradigm that propelled countrieslike India through the scarcity challenges ofthe 1970s. At that time, the Green Revolutionaddressed the challenge of population growthoutstripping agricultural productivity gains throughagricultural intensification practices such asmass mechanization, the introduction of pest anddisease resistant crop varieties, and subsidies foragricultural inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticide,and irrigation infrastructure.While the Green Revolution has been an effectiveintervention that significantly improved yields,its limitations are becoming clear. Mechanizedploughing has accelerated soil erosion and landdegradation. Excessive use of fertilizers andpesticides has degraded soil quality, increasedpest resistance, and polluted waterways andgroundwater sources. Monocropping has reducedsoil fertility and biodiversity, and has exposedfarmers to ecological and economic threats.Excessive and continual irrigation has led to soilsalinization and unsustainable withdrawals fromaquifers (IFAD, 2012). The negative environmentalexternalities from these kinds of agriculturalpractices coupled with the accelerating impactsof climate change are making it more difficult fortoday’s farmers.62 Building Competitive Green Industries: The Climate and Clean Technology Opportunity for Developing Countries