Managing Weather Aberrations Through Real Time Contingency Planning Annual Report 2013-14

Abstract

In India, rainfed agriculture accounts to 55% of net cultivated area. Rainfed agriculture is more vulnerable to climate change / variability. Therefore, there is a need to demonstrate and disseminate already available climate resilient practices to cope with weather aberration suchas delayed onset of monsoon and seasonal drought. Further, there is also a need to evolve innovative institutional mechanisms for successful adoption, ownership and upscaling of climate change practices. During 2013-14, the technology demonstration component of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) is being implemented across 23 network centres of All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), both on-station and on-farm, under 4 sub-projects viz., (i) real-time contingency plan implementation, (ii) rainwater management, (iii) efficient energy use and management, and (iv) alternate land use. The focus was on participatory demonstration of location specific climate resilient agricultural technologies / package of practices developed by 23 AICRPDA network Centres (including voluntary centre, IGFRI, Jhansi) in 1430 ha 36 villages representation major rainfed agro-ecologies in 33 districts across 15 states. Major emphasis was given on managing various weather aberrations such as delayed onset of monsoon, seasonal drought and floods. I compliment Dr G. Ravindra Chary, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) and Dr G.R.Maruthi Sankar, Principal Scientist (Agricultural Statistics) for their efforts in program development, implementation and monitoring. I also appreciate the scientists and staff of AICRPDA and ORP centres for successfully under taking the programme particularly in NICRA villages. This report presents the details on demonstration of real time contingency planning of both on-station and on-farm along with the achievements in other thematic areas. I thank Dr S. Ayyappan, Secretary (DARE) and Director General, ICAR, Dr A.K. Sikka, DDG (NRM), Dr B. Mohan Kumar, ADG (Ag, AF & CC) for providing guidance and support to AICRDA from time to time.