Mainstreaming climate resilient villages in national programmes towards sustainability of agriculture and environment in India

Abstract

Climate change and variability are the major challenges globally and India in particular. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 5th report said that the climate change seriously impacts agriculture, natural resources, water and food security. India is more vulnerable in view of the large population dependent on agriculture. During the last 2 decades, several weather-related extreme events occurred like drought of 2002; cold wave in 2002-2003; heat wave in 2003; high temperatures in 2004; droughts, cyclones of 2014; and floods in 2015, 2018 and 2019, etc. in one or the other parts of India severely impacting agriculture production. Marginal and small land holders of rainfed areas are more affected because of less resilient mechanisms. For effectively dealing these climate change issues ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) has started NICRA (National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture) for site specific technology demonstrations for increasing the resilience of the 151 climatically vulnerable districts of the country. This approach ensures food security, build resilience of agricultural systems and increase the adaptive capacities of farming groups. Strengthening various support systems in the village or initiation of new ones like VCRMC (Village Climate Risk Management Committee), CHCs (Custom Hiring Centres), commodity groups, seed banks and fodder banks were given importance. The promising resilient technologies can be mainstreamed in to the developmental programmes for enhancing adaptive capacities of communities and villages.