Across parts of rural northern India, spring festivals are unfolding in color — folk music, dancing, farmers in traditional dress and seasonal foods such as sweet saffron rice. But these familiar scenes of celebration are taking place against a backdrop of mounting climate stress that is already hurting harvests.
In Punjab the spring festival Vaisakhi celebrates the successful growth of winter wheat and other crops such as mustard, chickpeas, lentils, barley and sunflower. ‘‘When the crop is ready, all the farmers come together to celebrate,’’ said Ashwani Ghudda, a local social worker, describing prayers, visits to fairs and the start of the harvest. Punjab remains strongly agrarian: it produces roughly 10 percent of India’s wheat and about 15 percent of its rice, and farming traditions have long shaped local culture, said Harindar Grewal, an environment adviser with the Citizens for Change Foundation.
In Assam, Bohag Bihu marks the transition from the dry season into the agricultural year with singing, dancing and rituals linked to cattle care. Chandana Sarma, an associate professor of anthropology at Cotton University, notes that Bohag Bihu has roots in ancient fertility rites and has long symbolized ecological renewal, tying together agriculture, social reproduction and local relationships with nature.
This year, however, the festivities are shadowed by crop losses tied to extreme weather. Assam authorities report about 20,000 acres of crops lost over the past year to floods and hailstorms, events officials link to hydrometeorological disasters. In Punjab, unseasonal rain and hail have damaged wheat across more than 135,000 acres in seven districts, wiping out yields at vulnerable stages of grain formation and maturation.
Grewal says the timing and intensity of precipitation have shifted: farmers can no longer count on December–January rains to help wheat, and rain during grain filling now causes widespread losses. He also points to structural problems in Punjab’s farming system. Years of rotating wheat and rice have helped deplete groundwater, a trend worsened by subsidized electricity that encourages heavy pumping. ‘‘Punjab was never a natural area for paddy,’’ he noted — unlike the wet northeast — yet paddy cultivation became widespread, placing extra stress on water resources.
Assam, one of India’s wettest states, is also feeling climate pressure: average temperatures are rising and rainfall patterns are growing more erratic and intense. Since 2020, officials say about 1.32 million acres of crops have been damaged by floods, storms or hail — an area nearly seven times the size of New York City.
Some farmers are trying to adapt by switching crop varieties and improving irrigation, but researchers say many face barriers. Limited access to credit, small landholdings and inadequate government support constrain broader diversification away from vulnerable crops.
Governments have taken some emergency steps. Punjab has deployed teams to assess damage, and Assam officials say state and central authorities have released roughly $439 million (€405 million) to support farmers affected by climate-related disasters. Yet Grewal and others argue stronger, more practical institutional support could reduce losses and improve food security. Short-term measures include building simple sheds or sheltered spaces where farmers can wait with harvested grain for buyers, instead of leaving crops exposed on trailers where sudden showers can ruin them.
Longer-term changes will require rethinking cropping patterns and incentives. Grewal suggests reducing reliance on paddy and encouraging diversification into agroforestry, horticulture and greenhouse cultivation to raise productivity while conserving water and soil. ‘‘Punjabi farmers are enterprising; the same human effort that drove the Green Revolution can drive this transition if there is strong intent and support,’’ he said.
Even as environmental conditions shift, festivals remain central to rural life. ‘‘Today Bohag Bihu functions less as a direct agricultural ritual and more as a cultural framework,’’ Chandana Sarma observed, helping communities connect past agrarian practices to present mixed livelihoods and preserving cultural meaning even as farming itself evolves.
Edited by: Tamsin Walker