Technology Demonstrations Enhancing resilience and adaptive capacity of farmers to climate variability

Abstract

Changing and increasingly variable climate is one of the global challenges to ensure food and livelihood security and India is no exception. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is addressing this issue by enhancing the adaptive capacity and building resilience of the farming communities through Technology Demonstration Component (TDC) of National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project across the country. TDC aims at demonstration of proven location specific technologies that can help farmers cope with weather variability in 121 climatically vulnerable districts through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of ICAR. The 2015 Monsoon season was below normal and the country received 760 mm rainfall as against 887 mm with a negative departure of 14%. Most of the regions recorded deficiency in rainfall ranging from 6% in the central region to 17% in North West Region. About 272 districts of the country received deficient rainfall thus adversely affecting the crop growth during vegetative and reproductive stages. Several NICRA villages received aberrant rainfall which was both a challenge and an opportunity to test the resilience potential of proven technologies under TDC component of NICRA project. Location specific resilient practices identified at the village level were implemented in NICRA villages. This involved introduction of drought tolerant and short duration varieties, resilient intercropping systems and in-situ soil moisture conservation practices at the time of sowing which enabled mitigation of drought effectively. The water harvesting potential created in these villages was made use for supplemental irrigation during dry spells which led to improved performance of rainfed crops at several locations during kharif. The surplus harvested water contributed to enhancing the area under rabi cropping and thus facilitated compensatory production during the rabi. Emphasis was laid on enhancing the green fodder production and its storage to overcome the fodder shortage during the lean season in deficit rainfall districts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat. Timely advisories enabled in minimizing the damage during extreme weather events. Zero till sown wheat in rice residue was promoted in Punjab and Haryana which was not damaged due to unseasonal rains experienced in March, 2016 compared to conventional method of sowing. I congratulate the team at ICAR-CRIDA and Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs) and compliment all the participating farmers and KVKs for bringing out the highlights of technology demonstrations and lessons learnt. I am sure that this publication will bridge the knowledge gap and will contribute towards horizontal spread of these technologies in the similar farming situations through several Central and State Government initiatives.