When Rain Becomes a Luxury: Why COP30 Must Prioritize Adaptation for India'sFarmers

A Call to Global Leaders from the Drought-Stricken Fields of Maharashtra

I had never known what a "water crisis" actually looked like until I attended my first session of Youth for COP-in a room full of climate activists from South Asia, I listened to stories from the front line of climate change-and I felt sure that the headlines I had been reading in newspapers about farmer suicides in Maharashtra weren't just statistics but calls for urgent, global action. Now, being a young Indian at Youth for COP for the first time, I want the world to know this: climate change is not some far-oƯ threat; it is here, killing our farmers, and COP30 needs to adapt as a priority.

The Unbearable Cost of Drought

Maharashtra is a giant of the Indian agricultural sector, but it's quickly changing into a state of despair. 269 suicides of farmers were recorded in Marathwada from January to March 2025 only. Marathwada is a region that has traditionally been seen as one of the most drought-prone areas of India. By April 2025, the number of farmer suicides in the state within just four months had increased to 869. These are not just numbers. Behind every number, there is a family broken, a farm deserted, and a future wiped out.

The crisis has roots in a merciless combination of factors. As a matter of fact, Vidarbha and Marathwada-which produce cotton, soybeans, and pulses for both India and the world-have an irrigation coverage of only 10-12%, in contrast to 60% in western Maharashtra. This means that farmers are totally dependent on the monsoon. However, monsoon is not reliable anymore. Climate change has turned India's once very predictable rainfall pattern into aggressive rains following long droughts. Over the past two decades, its groundwater has been overexploited to the point where in some areas, borewells have to be dug as deep as 1,000 feet, which is greatly increasing farmers' costs and is pushing them into debt even further.

The drought has worsened in a way that up to 11,800 villages are dependent on water tankers for basic drinking water. Those are villages that once thrived on agriculture and now wait for government tankers-a humiliating reminder of how fast climate chaos can unravel a way of life.

This vicious circle of debt and desperation.

This crisis is all the more tragic as it is entirely preventable through climate adaptation. Dipping into a vicious cycle, farmers see input costs rise for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel, while crop prices have fallen below the Minimum Support Price. A farmer earning barely ₹27 per day from agriculture finds it no longer economic to buy even a meal, apart from repaying loans or investing in water management.

One example of such a loss is the death of Kailash Arjun Nagare. In March 2025, the 43- year-old farmer from Buldhana who had received the Young Farmer Award from the Maharashtra government recurred to self-harm. For five days, he had gone on a hunger strike out of necessity for irrigation water for 14 villages from the Khadakpurna reservoir. His suicide note informed that the pollution crisis and the indiƯerence of the authorities were the reasons for his death. The situation here is not that of an isolated incident, rather it is a daily pattern of repetition in Vidarbha and Marathwada. Farmer rights groups have come to a conclusion that every day 7-8 farmers in Maharashtra take their own lives as a result of agrarian distress.

But what makes this tragedy even more unbearable is the response of the government. Out of the 767 suicides that were reported from January to March 2025, only 373 were "eligible" for compensation. Just 327 families received the state's ex gratia of ₹1 lakh. Two hundred cases were outright rejected. This is bureaucratic cruelty heaped on tragedy-as if grief and loss needed to be means-tested.

Why Adaptation Has to Be Indian NDC and COP30's Biggest Priority

Adaptation is at the center of our climate action, as per India's nationally determined contribution. The country has pledged to support these changes through a growing number of investments in agriculture, water management, disaster preparedness, and other sectors. On the other hand, farmers are still dying due to this discrepancy between the promise and the reality of urgent, large-scale action. Hence, COP30 in Brazil is a good time for India to indicate what it needs for the climate finance delivery to adaptation to be acceptable, from the Global North.

Reduction of carbon emissions-mitigation alone-will not help the Maharashtra farmers. What they need most at the moment are adaptation activities such as climate-smart agricultural technologies, drip irrigation systems, water harvesting structures, climate-related crop insurance, and debt relief programs. There has never been a drought year without the increased farmer income through climate-smart agriculture interventions by as much as 80-90% in some cases, among others. This especially goes for farm ponds, check dams, and watershed management. However, small farmers who need the initial capital are still far from these because of the debt-ridden families who cannot afford it.

What COP30 Should Provide.

First of all, as a member of Youth for COP, I personally align myself with the opinion of my people and express our collective calling upon the world leaders at COP30 to take real steps in that direction. We require:

Climate Finance for Adaptatio: It is necessary that the developed countries raise their funding for the adaptation specifically to the need areas of the agriculturally vulnerable sector. India is not the one to handle the crisis alone.

Loss and Damage Mechanisms: The losses and damages fund should already be in operation to provide that kind of support to the communities in need such as the farmers one like Kailash Nagare who lost everything.

Technology Transfer. Climate-resilient agricultural technologies have to be manufactured in a way that is cheap and easy to obtain by small and marginal farmers in drought-prone areas.

Water Security as a Right. At COP30, it ought to be accepted that, as a result of climate change, water resources are limited. This issue cannot be solely dealt with in terms of economics and politics but must also be approached from the perspective of human rights and survival.

Supporting Rural Livelihoods: Besides invesing in alternative livelihoods for farmers who will no longer farm, and jobs for young people, both have to be the elements of the solution if we want to prevent the rural-to-urban migration further.

A Personal Plea to World Leaders

I was brought up with learning about climate change through textbooks, and I used to think it was an issue of the distant future. Well, Youth for COP has totally changed this view. The future is already here. One can see it in every dried-up borehole, deserted field, and mourning family in Maharashtra. It is also hidden in the stories of farmers who decided to die rather than undergo the slow agony of witnessing their way of life vanish.

Climate change in India is not just an environmental issue, rather it is a justice issue. It is about who ends up paying the cost for the centuries of carbon emissions that were caused by the Global North. It is about the poorest and most vulnerable who become the ones to shoulder the burden of a crisis that they had no hand in creating.

In such a moment, COP30 has the potential to be the one when the world finally hears Global South voices, understands that adaptation is not a favor but a duty, and grasps the fact that when a farmer in Maharashtra commits suicide due to lack of water, it is a failure of global climate action. The Climate Reality Project, and Youth for COP helped me find my voice. With that voice, I represent Vidarbha and Marathwada farmers who

deserve to have a future.

I am the voice of the people from the locality of India and the Global South who are going through unprecedented extreme manifestations of climate change. I urge COP30 to prioritize adaptation, provide climate finance, and hold the Global North accountable.

It has stopped raining regularly in Maharashtra, but we cannot make hope to be a luxury. If the world acts now, and in the truest sense of the word, then we can still construct climate resilience before more lives are taken. COP30 should be the concerted moment when the world decided to act. Our farmers are worth nothing less than our combined commitment to justice and survival.