Climate resilient farming: India initiatives

Abstract

Climate change is a major area of concern for Indian agriculture in view of its high vulnerability and dominance of small holder farms. Agriculture sector is exposed to extreme events like droughts, floods, heat wave, cold wave, unseasonal rains, cyclones etc. causing immense loss year after year. Indian agri R&D system has evolved a number of crop and livestock management practices to cope with abiotic stresses induced by climate variability, but climate change impacts continue to remain a major challenge to both policy makers and farmers. Government of India through ICAR, initiated a large network project called National Innovation on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) a decade ago involving major R&D institutes of ICAR dealing with natural resource management, crops, horticulture, livestock and fisheries. The project aims at not only developing climate resilient technologies but also demonstrate them on farmers’ fields in most vulnerable districts across the country. The project also has a strong component on farmer’s capacity building through Krishi Vignan Kendras (KVKs). The project has resulted in developing and refining a number of technologies like climate resilient crop cultivars, soil carbon improvement and carbon sequestration through agroforestry, water saving agronomic practices, and improved feeding protocols for livestock and poultry to minimize heat stress impacts.