Agriculture with its allied sectors is the largest source of livelihood in India, 70% of the rural household still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. With 82% of farmers being small and marginal. Total food grain production was estimated at 275 million tons (MT). Important data with the release of long-pending statistics on farmer suicides. Data shows that 11,379 people i.e. 6.1% of the total farmers engaged in farming had committed suicide in 2016.
Meanwhile, climate change i.e. these regions have witnessed a considerable increase in weather events such as severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and cyclones. Because of extreme weather events, India was ranked the fifth most vulnerable to the effects of climate change among 181 countries. India would lose Rs 2.7 Lakh Crores or 0.36% per unit of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to climate change by 2040, 25 million Indians would be at risk of severe floods. A six-fold increase from 3.7 million facing this risk between 1971 & 2004. As carbon emission increased, parts of Indian major cities including Mumbai, Surat, Chennai, and Kolkata would be underwater or ravaged by recurring floods by 2050. The increased climate variability in the future would further increase production variability, producing enough food for the increasing population with decreasing resources and changing climate scenarios is a challenging task. Drought and flood-tolerant varieties of crops should be adopted.
To face the challenges of climate change and to train farmers, a global international program “Building Capacity to Enhance Farmers Capabilities to Address the Challenges of Climate Change Using Climate Smart Agriculture Strategies” workshop was structured to bring together the worlds best researchers in agricultural science, development, research, and climate science, with collaboration with The University of Western Australia, Kernel Foundation, Kabul University and APN (Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research). The Workshop is going to be conducted in 2020 from 10th Feb to 15th Feb to review the impacts of climate change and develop climate-smart agriculture strategies. The workshop had the following specific objectives.
The workshop was structured in 15 sessions and 2 visits. One field visit to KVK Baghpat and field visit to IARI, New Delhi and all the presentations in the sessions were followed by in-depth discussions. This report provides the outcomes of deliberations and key recommendations for implementation to change the climate scenario.
Inaugural Session:The workshop started with the traditional welcome to all the delegates and lighting lamp followed by welcoming address by Dr. Nutan Kaushik, Director General, Amity Food and Agriculture Foundation, Amity University UP. During Dr. Nutan’s speech, she highlighted the effect on some pests due to climate change, like locust which was spread from Pakistan to India. and stated the importance of the ongoing workshop.
The initial remarks by Prof. Kadambot Siddique, Agriculture Chairman & Director, Institute of Agriculture. The University of Western Australia Perth outlined the effect of climate change by 2050. About 27% of the production would get decreased and insisted that the main motto should be to increase the production along with enhancing the farmers and suggested to use the adaptated strategies of growing fruit crops to get rid of the risk of climate change. He also mentioned the Australian climate conditions and the rainfall i.e. 300-600 mm annually, about 600 million are small farmers in Australia and sayings were like when compared to large farmers the small-scale farmers are highly affected due to climate change. Also Shared some of the success stories of wheat cultivation in Australia even in odd climatic conditions.
Prof. Dr. Gurinder Singh, Group Vice-chancellor Amity Universities has outlined some of the carbon increasing reasons. He stated that “ Climate change will not only affect the agriculture but also affects the farmers”. He also shared some of the important knowledge regarding how CO2 is increased, how to harvest? what are the advantages and also affect crop growth and development?
Dr. Ajay Raghava summarized the rate of increase in temperature. He stated that the rise in temperature is due to the rise in CO2 and due to the rise in CO2 or temperature the sea level rises. During 1850 the CO2 concentration was 280, but now at present, it is increased to 415 and presented some statistical data that about 60% of the population engaged in agriculture are dependent on rainfall. Agriculture provides 16.17% of GDP, also provided the outline information of National Missions and some other NICRA who have kept their efforts in increasing the climate-smart villages. In a broad sense. He presented about the net emissions that 1/3 rd. the world’s average emission is from India. i.e. 418 million tons is exposed or emitted which is about 16% of net emissions.
Prof. Dr. Balvinder Shukla, Vice-Chancellor, Amity University, UP has also highlighted the conservation strategies to be followed i.e. soil and land management, water management, and affects like a cloud burst hailstorms due to climate change. These conditions do affect the aqua/fisheries too.
The chief guest, Mr. J.R Bhatt, Advisor (Climate Change) Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India. In his inaugural address observed that the agriculture sector in a broad sense covers all the reasons for an increase in temperature or the problems for climate change. He gave a brief about the mitigation, adaptation and some of the wild forest information that CO2 can withstand or live for 250 years in the atmosphere. He also stated that the rise in temperature by about 27% result in crop yield decrease. He explained the forest and wildlife affect with the migration of tortoise, which has migrated to the Indian ocean more than half due to climate affects. Though we have many adaptations why do we have the adaptation problem? And according to his view, he explained that not 38.5 but only 3.5 of methane is emitted by India and shared some of the technologies that can calculate methane from the top, by the use of aircraft.
Chief guest had conferred the honorary professorship to Prof Kadambot Siddique and then the acceptance speech by Prof Kadambot Siddique.
The inaugural session was concluded by the vote of thanks by Dr. Manoj Kumar, Associate Professor, Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation, Amity University UP by thanking all the guests and their presence to give their valuable knowledge.
Session 1: Climate Change, Dry Land Agriculture:Prof. Kadambol Siddique made a presentation on climate change, Dryland agriculture(Australia) and gave the outline about the university and its success about the activities done by western universities including global trend, past and future climate change. Some of the global challenges according to him are
He highlighted some of the impacts on biodiversity or ecosystem due to climate change Algal blooms, loss of Agri lands, tropical deforestation and in Australia 1.6 million people are employees i.e. 59% by agriculture sector alone. He also shared that 1 farmer in Australia can feed about 450 people.
He stated to use the water available effectively instead of depending on rainfall. Over the past period, rainfall has completely decreased, and western Australia is getting hotter and the hottest year is said to be in 2013. To withstand these extreme climate change, they have developed Germ Plasm that can tolerate to climate change. The Product can be developed using the following questions.
He shared one of the motivational success stories which refer to intelligence can also help to get rid of some risk along with technology, like a mathematician named William Farrer started first growing wheat in Australia based on some of his calculation by bringing the seeds from selected places and it leads to developed growth which was named as Federation Variety. It was the 1st variety of wheat grain in Australia and other varieties that are more vigorous and earlier grown are vig18 & Jan z. He suggested that it is better to provide a new variety that can grow at 1 degree C temperature instead of thinking to control the climate as it is not a short-term change. He also shared some of the important cropping systems that helps in his presentation such as zero tillage that retain stubbles with the instrument no-till technology with high levels of stubble retention and also gave some water-saving options by using plastic mulches Gansu’s provinces and explained some of the thoughts of cropping systems used to replace conventional cereal-based cultivation.
He concluded his presentation stating one should understand past changes and past adaptations to understand the future adaptation., seasonal forecasting, threshold and, critical events should be known, he insisted that communication with farmers is needed to learn something we don’t know and to share which they don’t know.
Session 2: Client Resilient Soil Nutrient Management:Dr. R.S. Antil made a presentation on nutrient management and gave the detailed information regarding all the essential nutrients that help in increasing the physical, chemical, biological properties of the soil and the different forms by which plant absorbs the nutrient. He stated that nutrient management is the solution to combat climate change.
He explained that INM(Integrated Nutrient Management) would be best, as all forms of nutrient can be applied and different objectives of INM and importance of adding organic manures to soil and also explained even the high amount of nutrients leads to climate change so the criteria of when to apply, how to apply, what to apply should be followed to protect the climate and soil management.
He concluded that the best way to retain the nutrients in soil without damaging or disturbing the climate may be the rice straw management.
Session 3: Economics of Climate Change:Dr. Amin W Mugera in his presentation explained the topic we have to focus on and what may be the strategies, what may be the effect compared to change in global mean temperature vs CO2 emission vs Per capita.
He gave the outline of the impact of climate change, what can be done, even the public too has a role, as it is non-excludable and non-rivatry.
He gave some of the important information regarding the multinational policies i.e. Kyoto protocol which lead to the Paris agreement. He stated that global warming science impacts and policy leads to rising CO2 concentration which may affect the ecological and economic impacts. Also explained two plans named Plan A and Plan B. Where Plan A is Abatement and Plan B is carbon removal. He also observed that climate change impacts on agriculture crop production, Livestock, and indirect impact on land, etc.
He concluded that climate change is going to affect rural i.e. rise in temperature is going to harm and reduce the GDP to 5% by 2070 and reduce the production to 30% by 2070.
Session 4: Conservation of Agriculture & Future Smart Food.Prof. Kadambot Siddique has given 2 presentations in this section about conservation agriculture for improving productivity and resilience in the dry area and has outlined about actually why is this conservation agriculture needed? And about the water limitations, and different cropping packages that can be done to conserve all the resources and climate to meet the need of increasing population and he said that minimum tillage, no-tillage, and the diverse rotation would be the main principles of conservation agriculture.
He presented about adapting zero tillage and increasing the yield. As compared to 1990-2003 at present about 95% of farmers have adapted zero tillage and in 1970-2019, they have eliminated the follow system/cultivation. The main view of his presentation was about diverse rotation which helped not only in agriculture but also in marketing the product. The best method that is followed to restore the high amount of canola residue is windeo burning. These zero tillage’s also helped in reducing the seed rate, resulting in no need for special varieties.
In his next presentation, he explained about the future smart food rediscovering hidden treasures of selected and underutilized crop for zero hunges in Asia. India is also facing a vast problem of malnutrition and which is contrary to what it is proving to the whole world with its food products but couldn’t satisfy its nutrition problem. India is in the top rank in the prevalence of wasting food which might be due to some factors like increasing population, Urbanization, Water stress, soil degradation.
Providing the required food should not be the main motto but supplying it with nutrients that establish good health is the target by 2030. The main reason for this could be a large cultivation of rice and using it as the only stable crop. As said earlier the diversified cropping system increased the crop yielding i.e. rice by 1% wheat by 0.9%, soya bean by 1.3%. He suggested some methods of diversification which can withstand at high elevation and different climate conditions.
He suggested that, if there is no change in the cropping system through diversification, present Agriculture system will face major issues and challenges soon. Future smart food provides nutritional food and will help in resolving other issues as stated above. The Government should take an active role in changing the current situation.
Session 5: Water Use Efficiency and Legumes in the Dry Land Environment.In this session, the main objectives of WUE (Water Use Efficiency) were presented by Prof. Kadambot siddique. The mainstream line of water bodies and their distribution to the soil, groundwater, river streams, and evaporation, Etc. Also elaborated the process used to calculate the WU
WU=SW1-SW2+P-D-RO
Where SW1= Water available before seeding,
SW2= Wat5er at last harvesting,
P= Rainfall,
D= Deep drainage,
RO= Runoff,
WU= Water Use.
He also demonstrated transpiration efficiency WUE, by collecting data from 1990-2008 and suggested some methods to overcome them.
Here, in this case, stubble retention is very important as low nitrogen leads to loss of 200mm water when compared to high nitrogen surroundings.
On coming to the presentation about legumes in dry land he stated that the increase in revenue between two periods of 1990-1994/95 and 2013/14-2017/18 to $ 2.96 Billion and $11.96 Billion respectively. The main challenge, in this case, would be to diversify the products to meet the people’s demands in the market. The importance of nitrogen fixation was also presented along with few methods which would help the same as high biomass. He also stated that As compared to IPM, INM, IWM, IDM the ICM(Integrated Conservation Management) does need a change and development. Growing of legumes will help in adding nutrients to soil naturally which would reduce some adverse effects on climate.
Session 6: Climate Smart Practices Experience for NICRA Project.Dr. M. Prabhakar had presented on all the experiences of NICRA (2011 by gov of India). He presented about different climates in India and the objectives of NICRA. He stated that only 16% of emissions are from agriculture and 8 out of 20 are drought-prone areas. Presented about the research and technology that is being used to monitor the climatic condition that may have impact on agriculture, this data revealed that rainfall would be severe in coming future within the period of 2070-2090, they also came to know that many molecular breeding’s are going on in NICRA which can produce the abiotic stress-tolerant verities of rice. We also can use the technologies and reduce the pest in the coming future and increase the yield by 20% in rice, 10% in wheat, 21% in maize, and 63% in mustard. In this project, they have converted 115 villages into climate-smart villages out of which 26 villages adapted themselves to stop the burning process.
There are ways where we can choose diversified crops to control the climate as well, with reference to mango, as it can absorb 285 m tones of co2 in 40 years when compared to other crops that were shared by an institutional intervention.
He concludes by presenting, to restrict the temperature by 1.5 degreed Celsius we need to invest $2.4 billion which is around 2.5 % of global GDP. So, are we smart enough to switch spending from killing to living?
Session 7: Mobile and Cellular Technology Climate-Smart Practices.Dr. Prameela Krishnan made a presentation on mobile and cellular technology climate-smart agriculture practices and presented insights about some of the important tools that can be used in the mobiles whenever required, as the mobiles became the very important communication tool. Some of them include Apps like Kisan Suvidha, IIFCO Kisan, RMC Farmers, etc. There must some key information that should be available with app webpages as well.
The current age agriculture will surely revolutionize using mobile technology and then the main challenge that needs to be addressed is the transportation and access to credit at reasonable rates. Gathering the data doesn’t land us on success until all these favors are satisfied.
Session 8: Water Supply and Irrigation:Dr. Manoj Khanna has given the presentation on water resources, he provided the outline of drought and it's monitoring, climate risk analysis, adaptations, intervention and the way to utilize the water according to crop utility. According to him 80 percent of our agriculture is depended on the water and came to know that many parts of India are facing the problem of droughts and he explained the strategy to make a success of drought mitigation, informed timely information of drought onset, progression, and areal extent are needed
According to his point of view, in order to utilize and save water, we must determine the amount of water needed based on a crop is grown, weather conditions, time of year and the environmental control system. Also, we must adapt low water usage irrigation systems to extend the limited water supply such as zoning and low flow wells. Samples of potential water supply should be sent to an irrigation water testing laboratory for analysis in order to make sure the hazardous elements present and to protect the crop and soil as well as environment
He also provided some of the information regarding all the working areas on drought which provide information like IMD, NRSC, MNCFC, are some other state drought monitoring centers. Other indicators used in all these monitoring centers like SPI which can evaluate the precipitation and expressed some of the aims of these monitoring centers they work for to provide the data and other information regarding water to be stored. He also shared some of the success stories of drought monitoring adaptations in some states like Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, some villages like Bharkiya and Nalca had been an advanced lot
He also explained the climate risk and stimulating the impact of climate risk on crop yield and adaptation. According to his view, an increase in yield doesn't increase income. So, instead of focusing on yield he said better to focus on quality which increases income. He explained some of the new initiatives of efficient water management by providing the advanced seeds which can tolerate to heat and drought stress which were developed in chilli, brinjal, bottle guard, tomato, he also introduced some of the developments done in order to bring the change in women like providing tailoring centers, fisheries, and some other apps which provide the needed information
Session 9: Agri Advisory Services:Dr. Ananta Vashisth talked about Agri advisories that manage agriculture like crop management, soil, water, livestock, IPM and she also explained the role and importance of agrometeorology. She reported some of the information needed for these advisories she listed like weather forecasting, crop stress, rainfall, temperature, drought monitoring information, solar radiation, evaporation, wind speed, relative humidity, cloud cover and she also reported some schemes for the preparation of multi-model Genesis of weather forecasting
She also reported how the weather information plays an important role in farm management and it's the economic impact of agro advisories and she declared as day by day the climate is going to the worst scenario in order to provide all the information and suggestions all these advisories play a vital role in agriculture field
Session 10: Plant Genetic Resources in India Management and Utilization for Sustainable AgricultureDr. Kuldeep Singh reported all the basic definitions and explained why do we need plant genetics to attain food security to GDP? He also expressed that not only for withstanding climate change but also to enhance the life of farmers, plant genetics is needed. He expressed that there are 17 global goals and 169 targets, he also reported in future we have to increase food by 70 percent so for that PGR will be a key achievement as it provides life for the agriculture by providing the genetic resource that can withstand to any climatic conditions
He also stated as we are already in the starvation of security of food for increasing population even, we Indians are wasting a lot of food and reported like 2 billion are facing malnutrition, 155 million stunted growth, 52 million wasting food, 2 billion facing from obesity.
He shared his view that all the developments in India at unparalleled and he said the 20 market years since recording began in 1850 and 75 percent of the land is degraded .sustainable agriculture and diverse food intake are equally important for a healthy population. Provided information regarding the gene bank availability that can help farmers that about 4.8 accessions from over 6800 genera .and developed some growth stunting virus that is gene transfer example like Oryza Nivavra from Odisha which is a tolerant gene
Session 11: Natural Resource Management for Climate-Smart Agriculture.Dr. A.K Sikka presented on how to manage resources instead of finding out which is not available, he mainly focused on multiple hazard risks in South Asia, he stated that Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change. He expressed some of the climate change impacts which are implication for water resource and irrigation and he explained that it is challenging with food .daunting task to support 25 percent of world’s population with instant 3 percent of the world land and 5 percent of the world renewable water resources .and mentioned that Asia irrigated area is of 181 mha and 60 percent of South Asia is under groundwater and he declared there are 24 million water structures.
He also stated that for sustainable intensification of agriculture we need better capture, storage and conservation, and water productivity interventions. He also explained conservation agriculture objectives that increase productivity, increase adaptability, reduce GHG gasses.
He also reported some integrated land and water management solutions for building resilience like jalkumds and some other water storage resources as the availability of water is low. We have to follow smart on-farm water use irrigation and scheduling solutions according to climate adaptability which improves farmers adaptive capacity he also reported about 24 Mt groundwater structures are recorded and some community-driven decentralized managed aquifer recharge, building resilience he also suggested to use underground transfer of floodwater for irrigation to store water and utilize in a precise manner and also explained how watershed management is going to change the condition of South Asia as the best adaptative practice and some other smart ITC for efficient NRM.
Session 12: Sustainable Crop Production Including Crop Protection.Dr. Nutan Kaushik has presented on losses due to pest and their protection management and she stated that losses due to pest in the field are 20 to 30 percent .and she reported misuse and overuse of chemicals is creating a major problem which in turn damage climate and she explained that climate change pest and disease risk increases due to increase in temperature which increases the no of lifecycles. For example like early emergence and flowering leads to moth attack and also said that effect on predator-prey relation or drought may also increase pathogen and insect population and pest she suggested IPM would be the best practice in order to control all these effects which can manage pest very ecofriendly she has given evidence that by using these IPM practices about 30 to 40 percent of yield is increased in okra compared to other
She also explained some of the biopesticides in IPM which are very useful for present change in climate and she gave a clear eye-opening for why IPM is not adapted by large scale just because of lack of awareness, non-availability of inputs, needed for refining and updating of IPM insufficient provider of support for development of resistant varieties and biosphere
Session 13: Policy Instruments for Mitigation (Market-Based Solution).Dr. Amin. W. Mugerahad presented on different public policy instruments such as externality effect and market-based instruments like taxation-based instruments, tradable permits, bargaining .he reported that maximum GHG emissions are not from agriculture, but it is just due to the generation of electricity by burning coal.
He stated some elements of public policy as a solution to a social problem, target group, should look at the one creating a problem, aggregate demand, market equilibrium and he explained about the demand and supply curve and price curve. He expressed according to his view that one of the best practice to discourage GHG emissions is carbon tax which takes to the scenario to use limited coal and the objectives are to reduce the risk of climate change, but he said there is a challenging question that how big should be the tax? and the other best challenge is how to estimate the goods with no price
The best suggestion given by him is to harvest the carbon which may be useful for the future production by this carbon farming which increases the photosynthesis rate of the plant which automatically increases the yield
Session 14: Country Reports on Current State of Research and Development on Climate Smart Resilience.In this session reports of different countries namely Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan were presented, in general, the speakers talked about the threats of climate change to agriculture in their respective countries and highlighted the major activities being undertaken by their respective governments. They also highlighted various climate-smart practices being promoted according to their needs.
Bangladesh
The speaker reported that climate change is now a reality and Bangladesh is one of the worst victims of the crises. Along with increased temperature uncertainty in rainfall and affect weather conditions, saline water intrusion and land degradation are major threats of climate change to agriculture in country .so he reported that in order to tolerate this saline condition there are we alone resistant varieties like BRRI dhan 47 Napier grass cultivation ND some other practices followed are rice-fish cultivation and vermicompost, duck rearing, mulching in brinjal are done so the other resource speakers suggested instead of selecting one place they suggested to select 2 places of different area so can work out well where we can train farmers.
Afghanistan
The speaker reported that 12 percent of area of irrigated 3 percent forest 64 percent pasture 1.7 percent less availability of water and 6 percent is of rainfed land in Afghanistan and he reported out of 75 bm3 57 bm3 of land is covered by wheat and it covers about 27 percent of national GDP and 40 percent of workforce and average rainfall estimated is of 250mm and the maximum rainfall noted is of 1200mm and min of 60 mm and stated some of the major climatic problems faced by them are flood, drought, over grazing and because of these climate change much land is lost such as glaciated are lost by 10 to 15 percent.
He reported due to the rise of the increase in temperature. More rapidly grown crops are preferred and due to bed irrigation 30 percent of water is saved, terracing is needed so for this. There are some comments and suggestions that due to less land availability they suggested for direct seedling rice which may help.
India
About this, he talked about the projected impacts of climate change on Indian agriculture he reported all the projections indicate there will be increase in temperature which warm-up India and so they suggested to grow pulses which also provide nutrients, can protect India from malnutrition along with food security and they also trained progressive farmers by preparing model in order to bring awareness within farmers, which may help other farmers to overcome from this changing climate. They expressed their view changing farmers may help a lot for changing climate which may protect them from losses.
Field Visit to KVK Baghpat, Meerut:All the respected resource speakers, panelist was included in this visit. We were provided in some of the basic information regarding the percent of the area covered under different streams i.e. nursery, demonstration purpose under horticulture, etc. And they have shared stories regarding the initiation of KVK the pH of the soil was very high of 8.8 to 9, but at present, due to their practices and efforts it was balanced to 7.3 and some nutrients values are also expressed.
There is a vermicompost unit, fisheries unit, and soil laboratory, where a lot many practices were going on in that soil lab for training and demonstrating farmers to test their soil, get cards and provide the nutrients according to the optimum levels provided to their soils as per soil card which may help a lot to control the soil poisoning.
And many farmers’ training on technology programs were also been conducted by KVK to bring awareness among them. They have also conducted training programs on biocontrol strategies, crop residue management, national disease control program, etc. they have brought a huge change in balanced use of fertilizers by conducting training on Kisan Samadhan and it was concluded that KVK may help a lot in order to spread all the technology to the farmers in the form of demonstration, where about 1 lakh farmers are under the KVK institutes.
We visited some fields in order to observe the practices followed by farmers, farmers were using intercropping along with coriander pea, etc. increasing their income and some were following the tunnel cultivation for cucumber to produce early maturity variety which provides high income and protect from loss of moisture
Later all panelists started the training program to farmers when consulted a farmer he suggested his view that he wants to turn his farmland to an eco-tourist place and for that, he started organic farming from one year. He also stated he is no more interested in high yield but just wants to turn his land to an ecofriendly place. So, for that, all the trainers suggested some practices in order to get profit, through using all the low yielding varieties which can tolerate organic nutrients and can also give yield. A farmer was also growing a couple of plants related to Horticulture like grape, pomegranate, avocado, and in-field with mustard, field pea, bitter guard, etc. to get max income
Field Visit to IARI, New DelhiWe had a visit to CENTRE FOR PROTECTED CULTIVATION. Participants learnt how protected cultivation are helping the farmers. The Centre was established in the year 1998 as demonstration farm and named as Indo-Israel project in January 2000 as a project undertaken jointly by the government of India, through Department of Agricultural Research & Education and ICAR and the Government of Israel. The project farm was started with a aim to demonstrate different technologies for intensive and commercially oriented semi-urban cultivation of horticulture crops for improved quality and productivity. The centre was established to act as a nodal centre of Resarch & development work, training and transfer of technology. The project was established to demonstrate peri-urban, high technology methods of growing flowers, vegetables and fruits. Collaboration with Government Of Israel was ended in 2004 and the unit was re-designed as Centre for Protected Cultivation technology (CPCT). The centre has progressed considerably and diversified into various kinds of protected structures and production technologies of several crops including high tech nursery management have been standardized. Protected cultivation technology as an integral component of precision farming has the ability and potential to enhance input use efficiency to a significant level so as to achieve sustainability in food production. The infra-structure at the centre includes climate controlled & naturally ventilated greenhouses for vegetables and flower crops, net houses, nursery facilities, open fields, drip irrigation system and packaging cum training hall. They told us that the centre currently is focusing on the following objectives:1. To conduct R&D work to evaluate different protected cultivation technologies and make them adaptable fo3r different categories of farmers.2.To demonstrate different technologies appropriate for intensive and commercially oriented peri-urban cultivation of horticultural crops for improved quality and production.3. To conduct training programs for students, farmers and to make technology transfer easy. Then, we visited to INTEGRATED FARMING SYSTEM MODELin this we got to know about the farming system includes research and various IFS models for varying agro-socio-economic situations which may prove useful in enhancing the farm incomes under small and marginal farms and optimization of scare resources at farm level with optimization of farm enterprises at farming system level for long-term sustainability. We saw kitchen garden, wheat crop, fisheries, duckery, poultry rearing of all the aspects together. They also told us about the recent situations going on in the country. Currently, doubling the farm incomes has become a major focus of Government of India. Besides, attracting and retaining rural youth to agriculture has been a major challenge for the nation. Farmers are leaving agriculture, since it is becoming unprofitable under present scenario due to numerous resource- and production–vulnerabilities besides climate change. Under such scenario, integrated farming systems (IFS) seems to be a ray of hope which has great potential in raising the farmers‟ incomes and employment generation, minimizing the risks in farming and enhancing the resource use efficiency, thus, leading to sustainable agriculture. IFS also prove as a potential approach for retaining the rural youth in agriculture through ample farm employment under different farm enterprises and better livelihood options in small and marginal farms. We visited the research farm of Division of vegetable science. There we saw various types of vegetables grown with different techniques. Then, we visited to NANAJI DESHMUKH PLANT PHENOMICS CENTRE in IARI, New Delhi. It was started by centre for environment science and climate resilent agriculture. In this they worked on development of climate resilient crop varieties and precision agriculture management techniques for sustaining the food security in the climate change scenario. One of the fundamentals requirements to achieve this goal is precise quantification of response of plants to different stresses for identification of superior genotypes and genes. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through National Agricultural Science Fund (NASF) established a state-of-the art plant phenomics facility at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. This facility is the largest in India and one of best facility in terms of analytical capabilities among the public funded Institutions in the world. The centre also comprises of “Climate Controlled Facility” with 8 different greenhouse chambers developed by the Institute through the funding support from National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), ICAR. The facility has four hi-tech climate controlled greenhouses for cultivation of plants. For plant cultivation, the facility is equipped with 1200 plant carriers with RFID chip tag. The plant carrier on moving field conveyer system randomizes plants within the greenhouse and carries plants for automated weighing and watering, and imaging at various imaging platforms. The facility has 5 automated weighing and watering stations for precise imposition of drought stress to plants and to measure transpirational water loss and water use efficiency of plants. The centre has eight different greenhouse chambers with precision control of temperature and CO2. For non-destructive phenotyping, eight different imaging platforms viz. 1. Thermal Infra-red (8000-14000 nm) imaging. 2. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. 3. Unit with calibrated light source (for optional sensors – Spectroradiometer/FTIR). 4. Root imaging - Near Infra-Red (900 to 1700nm) & Visible color imaging. 5. Visual color imaging. 6. Near Infra-Red shoot imaging (900 to 1700nm). 8. Visible-Near Infra-Red Hyperspectral imaging (400-1000nm). 8. ShortWave Infra-Red Hyperspectral imaging (1000-2500nm). This centre was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 11th October 2017.
To address the challenges of climate change and enhance the capabilities of farmers using climate smart agriculture strategies, Amity Food and Agriculture Foundation, Amity University, Noida in collaboration with KVK, Gautam Buddha Nagar organized a two-day training program on “Building Capacity to Enhance Farmers Capabilities to Address the Challenges of Climate Change Using Climate Smart Agriculture Strategies” sponsored by the Asia Pacific Network on Global Research (APN), Japan. The program was organized on 20-21st Nov., 2021 at KVK Gautam Biddha Nagar, UP. During the program, experts from KVKs and Amity University Noida shared their views on Climate Change and laid down solutions
Dr. Nutan Kaushik, Director General, Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation, Amity University welcomed the participants and gave details about the training programme organised. She shared her thoughts on “Climate Smart Farming Practices”. She provided information on climate smart agriculture technologies in sustainable crop production by the farmers of UP. She said climate change has affected food security through increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns. She briefed that the effects of climate change can be solved by climate smart agriculture such as developing new varieties which are tolerant to heat, salinity and resistant to floods and drought, improving water management, following new agricultural technologies such as resource conservation and effective management techniques. She said that the ongoing climate change has also affected the productivity of crops. Elaborating on climate smart technologies at various hotspots, she explained the smart practices to be followed in flood hotspots, waterlogged hotspots, high salinity hotspots and drought hotspots. She said that through this training program, participants will get information about the climate smart agriculture strategies being adopted in the agriculture sector which will develop the capacity of farmers in climate change. She also gave emphases, how we can enhance the capabilities of farmers using climate resilient technologies.
Dr. Mayank Rai, Coordinator, KVK Gautam Buddha Nagar in his introductory remarks elaborated the importance of climate change in agriculture. He has explained about the objective and importance of the training programme to the participants and discussed about the different faming system models and weather based agro-advisory services developed by KVK Gautam Buddha Nagar in collaboration with ICAR. He emphasized that KVK’s could play an important role towards doubling the farmers income by 2022 through transfer of agricultural technologies developed.
Dr. R.S. Antil, Principal Advisor (Soil Sciences), Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation, Amity University, Noida shared his thoughts on the aspects covered during the programme include: i) impact of climate change on agriculture including economic aspects and need for adopting Climate resilient technologies for food grain crops to avoid the damage by climate change. ii) innovative practices for farming community in relation to changing climatic conditions. iii) Conservation agricultural practices suitable for sustainable production under changing climatic scenario. iv) Role of soil testing, balanced fertilization and nutrient management for sustain crop productivity and soil health on long-term basis in this changing climatic scenario.
Dr. Manoj Kumar briefed on the guidelines for climate induced hazards in drought and flood prone area. Also discussed the role of ICT and agro-advisory services in the climate risk-prone areas.
The other scientists and other staff of KVK Gautam Buddha Nagar also participated in the training programme. This training motivated large number of farmers to adopt climate smart latest technologies in agriculture and allied sectors.
In all, 50 farmers including 20 women farmers attended the training programme. Refreshments, intersession tea and lunch were provided to all participants during the session.
A one-day Farmers Training Programme on “Building Capacity to Enhance Farmers Capabilities to Address the Challenges of Climate Change Using Climate Smart Agriculture Strategies” Sponsored by Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Japan was organized by Amity Food and Agriculture Foundation, Amity University, Noida in collaboration with KVK, Muzaffarnagar on July 22, 2021 at village - Chandpur, Block Sahpur, KVK Muzaffarnagar (UP).
Dr. Nutan Kaushik, Director General, Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation, Amity University, Noida welcomed the participants and gave complete details about the training programme organised. She said Climate change has affected both the demand and supply of water, increased floods and droughts, and affected food production. Change in crop diversity, cropping pattern, crop calendar, land management, water management and conservation, livestock waste management, practices of agroforestry should be adopted to adapt climate change. She said that through this training program, participants will get information about the climate smart agriculture strategies being adopted in the agriculture sector which will develop the capacity of farmers in climate change. She shared her views about the challenges of climate change and laid down solutions. She also emphasized, how we can enhance the capabilities of farmers using climate smart agriculture practices.
Dr. A. K. Katiyar, Principal Scientist, KVK Muzaffarnagar in his introductory remarks elaborated the importance of climate change in agriculture. He also stressed that the training programme is of paramount importance so that the farmers can be trained in an effective way and the gap between the present production and production potentiality due to climate can be minimized. He emphasized that KVK’s are the showcase of technologies and discussed the different modules that are playing very important role towards doubling the farmers income by 2022 through transfer of agricultural technologies.
Dr. R.S. Antil, Principal Advisor (Soil Sciences), Amity Food & Agriculture Foundation, Amity University briefed about cclimate change impacts on agriculture including economic impacts associated with climate change; role of conservation Agriculture to mitigate climate change in agriculture and the barriers that hinder the implementation of conservation agriculture in India; and positive impacts of global warming include increase in crop productivity due to fertilization effect caused by the increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. He also discussed about the role of soil testing for application of fertilizers, integrated nutrient management and balanced use of fertilizers for sustainable crop productivity.
Dr. A.K. Tyagi, Scientist, KVK Muzaffarnagar also participated in the programme.
The other scientists and staff of KVK Muzaffarnagar also assisted in conducting the programme.
In all, 50 farmers attended the training programme. Refreshments, intersession tea and lunch were provided to all participants during the session.
Farmers' adoption of gypsum and laser land leveller as a climate-smart strategy to control soil salinity and conserve groundwater- Prof. Amin Mugera, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor), UWA School of Agriculture & Environment (SAgE) & The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia (UWA),
