Parts of rural northern India are bursting with color right now. Not only the arrival of spring, but seasonal festivals are characterized by folk music, dance, farmers in traditional attire and dishes like sweet saffron rice.
One of them is Vaisakhi, which is an important festival date. Sikh calendar.calendar. Held in the northern province of Punjab, it marks the successful growth of winter wheat and crops like mustard, gram, lentils, barley and sunflower seeds.
“When the crop is completely ready for harvesting, all the farmers come together to celebrate,” local social worker Ashwani Ghudda told DW. “They pray, go to fairs and then prepare to start harvesting.”
Punjab, which currently produces 10% of India’s wheat and 15% of rice, is historically an agricultural state, so farming has long been a way of life.
“A lot of folklore and celebration has come out of that,” said Harinder Grewal, an environmental consultant at the Citizens for Change Foundation, a central India-based nonprofit.
It is a similar picture in the eastern region of Assam, where the Bohag Bihu festival marks the transition from the dry season to the beginning of the agricultural cycle with singing, dancing and rituals that focus on the care of cattle.
Chandana Sarma, associate professor in anthropology at the state’s Cotton University, says the festival has its roots in ancient fertility rites and that it serves as “a ritual calendar marker of ecological renewal where agriculture, sexuality and social reproduction are integrated.”
She says this reflects the deep interdependence between humans, nature and subsistence systems in local communities.
Climate pressure behind celebration
This year, the festivals are taking place against the backdrop of climate-related challenges that have damaged crops in both regions of the country.
In Assam, about 20,000 acres of crops have been destroyed by floods and hailstorms last year, which the regional government has linked to hydro-meteorological disasters. And this month, unseasonal rain and hailstorm have damaged more than 135,000 acres of wheat crops in seven districts of Punjab.
Gravelle says farmers can no longer rely on rainfall in December and January, when it would help wheat grow. If it comes when the grain is forming or maturing, “it brings a lot of suffering,” he said.
But the state’s agricultural system is not only under pressure from climate stress. There are also long-standing structural problems.
The widespread practice of rotating crops between wheat and rice crops has led to groundwater depletion, which Gravel says is exacerbated by the state’s provision of free electricity, which encourages farmers to pump excessively to keep thirsty plants watered.
“Punjab was never a natural region for growing paddy, unlike northeastern India where rainfall is abundant.”
Assam, one of the rainiest states in India, is facing its own climate challenges. Average temperatures have increased in recent years and the state is vulnerable to increasing incidences of intense and irregular rainfall.
Since 2020, 1.32 million acres – about seven times the size of New York City – have had crops damaged by flooding, storms or hail.
Some farmers are changing crop varieties and improving irrigation to meet the challenges of a warming world, but a recent study shows many are struggling to adapt. Researchers say limited access to credit as well as land scarcity and inadequate government support are preventing more widespread diversification.
What support do farmers need?
Authorities in Punjab have deployed a large team to assess recent crop damage, and officials in Assam say they and the central government have released $439 million (€405 million) in aid to support farmers affected by climate-related disasters.
Still, Grewal says stronger institutional support can support farmers and thus food security. One way would be to provide shelter to farmers who take their crops to local farm markets in search of buyers, rather than having to wait outside with a trailer full of produce.
“As soon as the rains start, it destroys their crops,” he said. “If they have sheds and other things, it can be mitigated.”
For the long term, Grewal suggests rethinking farming methods, including reducing reliance on rice grown in paddy fields.
“They could diversify into on-farm forestry and horticulture, including greenhouse farming used in many countries to increase productivity,” he said, stressing that the changes should protect the long-term sustainability of agricultural land.
He said, “Punjabi farmers are enterprising and it was human effort that led to the Green Revolution. What is needed now is strong determination.”
Despite changing circumstances, festivals continue to influence agricultural life.
“Today, Bohag Bihu functions less as a direct agricultural ritual and more as a cultural framework,” said Chandana Sarma of Cotton University.
“The festival mediates between past agricultural lifeworlds and present-day mixed economies, maintaining cultural meaning even as physical agricultural practices evolve.”
Edited by: Tamsin Walker