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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India to strategise on climate resilient agriculture at international meet today by Gargi Parsai

India to strategise on climate resilient agriculture at international meet today by Gargi Parsai

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published Published on Feb 7, 2012   modified Modified on Feb 7, 2012

Observed changes in rainfall patterns and increased temperatures, particularly in the North-Eastern region, are the major projections on which Indian agriculture scientists are pegging their “mitigation and adaptation” plans in the farm sector in the absence of definitive long-term and area-specific data on climate change.

Acknowledging that in India the “climate system is extremely complex and poorly understood in terms of extent, timing and impact”, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) scientists, however, emphasise the need for small and marginal farmers to adapt to the impact of climate change from biotic and abiotic stresses. They cite the occurrence of yellow rust disease in wheat as a result of shifts in temperatures in the northern region.

At the centre of their plan is shifting the cropping pattern to less water dependent crops, changing the land-use pattern to bio-fuel plantation and agro-forestry and managing heat stress in dairy animals. As to how these measures will meet the food security requirement of a growing population was a question that remained largely unaddressed at a Press conference organised here on Monday to announce an international conference beginning this Tuesday on “Climate change, sustainable agriculture and public leadership, 2012” organised by ICAR and the National Council for Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Public Leadership (NCCSD).

The scientists are led mainly by international data provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Meteorological Organisation that maintains that climate change could adversely impact global environment, agricultural productivity and the quality of life and the belief that developing countries, including India, are particularly vulnerable to climate variability and climate change.

It is projected that in India productivity of cereals may decline due to increase in temperatures and decrease in water availability. Each one degree Celsius rise in temperature will, for instance, result in four to five million tonnes of wheat, which can be reduced to one to two million tonnes by timely sowing. Rise in sea and river water temperatures will impact fish breeding, migration and harvests. Animal disease due to heat effects and decline in milk production by 2020 is also likely.

“Climate change implications are not only threatening water and food production but access to food [affordability], food stability due to biotic and abiotic stresses and food utilisation [nutritional problems and food safety],” observed Mahmoud Solh, Director-General of the International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas, in his paper for the conference.

Deputy Director-General of Natural Resource Management A. K. Singh underscored the need for a “strong political will, bureaucratic support, technological back-up and farmers' participation” to meet the challenge up front.

The Hindu, 7 February, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2867101.ece


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