Across parts of rural northern India, spring festivals are filling villages with color, music and traditional foods — but the agricultural rhythms those festivities celebrate are under strain. Festivities such as Vaisakhi in Punjab and Bohag Bihu in Assam mark seasonal transitions and the success of local harvests, yet farmers are increasingly facing climate-driven shocks that threaten crops and livelihoods.
Vaisakhi, central to the Sikh calendar and widely observed in Punjab, traditionally celebrates the ripening and harvest of winter wheat along with mustard, chickpeas, lentils, barley and sunflower. Local social worker Ashwani Ghudda describes how, when harvests are ready, farmers gather for prayers, fairs and communal celebration before cutting crop. Punjab remains a major grain producer, supplying roughly 10% of India’s wheat and about 15% of its rice, and its folk culture and festivals have long grown out of that agrarian life, notes Harindar Grewal of the Citizens for Change Foundation.
In Assam, Bohag Bihu marks the end of the dry season and the start of the agricultural year. The festival’s singing, dancing and rituals around cattle reflect ancient fertility observances and a deep cultural linkage between agricultural cycles and social life. Chandana Sarma, an anthropology professor at Cotton University, says Bohag Bihu acts as a ritual calendar, integrating ideas of ecological renewal with community and subsistence practices, even as local economies change.
This year, those rites of renewal are taking place amid a backdrop of mounting climate pressures. In Assam, floods and hailstorms have damaged roughly 20,000 acres of crops over the past year, damage officials have tied to hydrometeorological extremes. Punjab has seen unseasonal rain and hail this month that harmed wheat on more than 135,000 acres across seven districts. In Assam, where average temperatures are rising and rainfall patterns are becoming more erratic, 1.32 million acres of crops have been affected by floods, storms or hail since 2020.
The timing of rain is proving especially damaging. Farmers in Punjab can no longer depend on steady precipitation in December and January to support wheat growth; if heavy rains fall while grain is filling or maturing, yields can be ruined. That unpredictability adds to already significant local stresses.
Climate is not the only pressure on these farming systems. Longstanding practices and policies have increased vulnerability. In Punjab, the wide-scale rice–wheat rotation and a history of subsidized, nearly free electricity have encouraged intensive groundwater pumping, depleting aquifers. As Grewal observes, Punjab was not naturally suited to large-scale paddy cultivation in the way northeast India is, yet policy and practice pushed that model, stressing water resources and soil.
Some farmers are attempting to adapt: switching to different crop varieties, improving irrigation practices and exploring diversification. But a recent study found that many households lack the credit, land, and institutional support needed to change at scale. Without greater access to finance, secure land, and effective government assistance, wider transitions toward resilient cropping systems remain difficult.
Authorities have begun responding. Punjab has sent teams to assess crop losses, and Assam and the central government have announced roughly $439 million (€405 million) to aid farmers affected by climate-related disasters. Observers say more targeted institutional measures could build longer-term resilience: simple protections such as covered areas at local agricultural markets would prevent sudden downpours from ruining produce left on trailers, while policy shifts could encourage reduced dependence on paddy and greater diversification into agroforestry, horticulture and greenhouse farming to boost productivity and protect soils.
Grewal points to the enterprising spirit of Punjabi farmers — the same drive behind the Green Revolution — and argues that what is needed now is clear political will and coordinated support to shift practices and shore up food security.
Even as material practices adapt, festivals continue to matter. Sarma notes that celebrations like Bohag Bihu have moved from being strictly agricultural rituals toward broader cultural frameworks: they sustain communal meaning and link past agrarian lifeways with present mixed economies, preserving identity even as how people farm changes.