While the world is in a hurry to transition from fossil fuel-generated electricity to renewable energy, moving away from coal-powered electricity is seen as the greatest challenge for India.

In Short

• Air pollution is a major cause of the decline in the yield of agricultural crops
• Rice and wheat are two grains that are the major staple food hit by pollution
• The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

As the world continues to grapple with the effects of human-induced emissions, a new study reveals how it’s affecting crop production in India.

The study from the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability highlights the link between coal emissions and crop productivity – rice and wheat in particular – in India.

As coal amounts to 30-40% of anthropogenic emissions of Nitrous Oxide (NO) in the country, researchers concentrated on its effects on crop yield.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) released the Energy Statistics Report 2024, which stated that coal will remain a major source of electricity in India.

While the world is in a hurry to transition from fossil fuel-generated electricity to renewable energy, moving away from coal-powered electricity is seen as the greatest challenge for India.

Air pollution is a major cause of the decline in the yield of agricultural crops. But the emissions from the coal, which include Nitrogen dioxide, in particular, hamper the yields.

As rice and wheat are two grains that are the major staple food for the people of India, Kirat Singh, lead author of the paper said, “We wanted to understand the impact of India’s coal electricity emissions on its agriculture because there might be real trade-offs between meeting growing electricity demand with coal generation and maintaining food security.”

The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences states that coal emissions impact yields up to 100 km away from power stations.

“In parts of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh heavily exposed to coal-linked NO2, annual yield losses exceed 10%, equivalent to approximately six years worth of average annual yield growth in both rice and wheat in India between 2011 and 2020,” the paper read.

NO can directly interfere with the mechanism of the critical enzymes of the plant, as it is phytotoxic in nature. Indirectly it is a precursor to ozone formation and can also lead to the formation of particulate matter (PM).

Both ozone and particulate matter (PM) are known to reduce the yields. Global relative yield losses for wheat and rice were 7-12% and 3-4% for wheat and rice respectively.

Eliminating the coal plants from the proximity of the crop fields will boost the rice output to $420 million and wheat to $400 million per year.

“It’s rare to find a single thing – in this case, reducing coal emissions – that would help agriculture so quickly and so much,” said Lobell, who is also the Gloria and Richard Kushel Director of Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment.

Published Date: February 5, 2025