Climate change has become an important area of concern for India to ensure food and nutritional security for growing population. The impacts of climate change are global, but countries like India are more vulnerable in view of the high population depending on agriculture. In India, significant negative impacts have been implied with medium-term (2010-2039) climate change, predicted to reduce yields by 4.5 to 9 percent, depending on the magnitude and distribution of warming. The Government of India has accorded high priority on research and development to cope with climate change in agriculture sector. The Prime Minister’s National Action Plan on climate change has identified Agriculture as one of the eight national missions.
With this background, the ICAR has launched a major Project entitled, National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) during 2010-11 with the following objectives.
These four components contain
The strategic research has been planned at leading research institutes of ICAR in a network mode covering crops, horticulture, livestock, natural resource management and fisheries sectors.
The technology demonstration component deals with demonstrating proven technologies for adaptation of crop and livestock production systems to climate variability. This component is implemented in selected vulnerable districts of the country through location specific interventions by Krishi Vigyan Kendras in a participatory mode. The project is implemented in 100 districts. These districts are selected based on the following criteria besides the strength of the KVKs
The interventions in the village are finalized after the PRA to assess the climate related problems in the village and baseline survey. In the village, the interventions are made in the following four modules:
Module I: Natural resources: This module consists of interventions related to in-situ moisture conservation, water harvesting, supplemental irrigation, improved drainage in flood prone areas, conservation tillage where appropriate, artificial ground water recharge and water saving irrigation methods
Module II: Crop Production: This module consists of introducing drought/temperature/flood tolerant varieties, advancement of planting dates of rabi crops in areas with terminal heat stress, water saving paddy cultivation methods, frost management in horticulture through trash burning, community nurseries for delayed monsoon, custom hiring centres for timely planting, location specific intercropping systems with high sustainable yield index.
Module III: Livestock and Fisheries: Use of community lands for fodder production during droughts/floods, improved fodder/feed storage methods, preventive vaccination, improved shelters for reducing heat stress in livestock , management of fish ponds/tanks during water scarcity and excess water, etc.
Module IV: Institutional Interventions: This module consist of institutional interventions either by strengthening the existing ones or initiating new ones relating to seed bank, fodder bank, commodity groups, custom hiring centre, collective marketing, introduction of weather index based insurance and climate literacy through a village level weather station.
Under this component, critical researchable issues like impact on plant pollinators, fisheries in estuarin habitats, hail storm management, hill and mountain eco-system, small ruminants and socio economic aspects of climate change etc. are provided research grants.
Since climate change is an emerging area of science, capacity building of young scientists on different issues of climate resilient agriculture through training programs organized. Simultaneously training programs have been organized across the country to the farmers to create awareness on climate change and variability.
Mr. Shailesh Deshmukh
SMS (Agronomy) & NICRA Project Coordinator
Krishi Vigya Kendra (PIRENS)
Babhaleshwar Dist- Ahmednagar (Maharashtra)
Phone – 02422- 252414, 253612 fax 02422- 253536
Email- kvkahmednagar@yahoo.com
Website – www.kvk.pravara.com