Indian agricultural scientists are working on ways to tackle the multi-pronged impact of climate change on agriculture. This includes weighing technological, agronomic and other options and evolving appropriate strategies. This came out during the discussions in the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting held in New Delhi on the 19th July, 2007 to discuss the subject ‘Climate Change and Agriculture’.

Steering the discussion, Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar said: ‘Irrespective of the outcome of the international negotiations on climatic change, agriculture has to become more competitive, efficient, profitable, and develop mechanisms to reduce its vulnerability. Indian farmers, scientists and policy makers have to address these issues in totality and develop strategies to increase our adaptive capacity. We have built capacity earlier to climatic extremes such as drought by establishing buffer food stocks, strengthening irrigation infrastructure, and developing agricultural insurance schemes. We now need to put more emphasis on anticipatory adaptation measures, especially ‘no-regret’ adaptation strategies that will allow attainment of sustainable development goals even if there is no climatic change or its magnitude is different from current projections.’

The Minister emphasized the need to substantially increase capital investment in agriculture, which has been continuously going down in last few years. Investment in irrigation infrastructure, silos for food and feed, rural roads and power could enhance agriculture’s resilience to climatic extremes. Vulnerability of coastal agricultural communities to increased frequency and intensity of cyclones can be reduced by investing in infrastructure that can protect them for short periods, the Minister said.

The Minister further said that it would be very useful to establish early warning systems for environmental change. Such systems could help in determining the potential food insecure areas and communities given the type of risk and in providing assistance to policy planners in arranging relief. A trans-boundary pest monitoring system, if established, can forewarn about the likely resurgence and migration of pests associated with global warming. Enabling policies that encourage farm insurance can provide protection to the farmers from adverse effects on farm production due to natural calamities. Focussed agricultural research on development of more adapted varieties of crops, livestock and fish to future climate, and development of water and carbon conservation practices will also be useful, Shri Pawar stated.

Agriculture Minister also informed that a high-powered Council chaired by the Prime Minister has recently been established to examine all issues related to climate change, including agriculture. In the Agriculture Ministry, ICAR has also been asked to organize consultation with other departments and experts towards evolving a strategy to deal with the likely impact of climate change on Indian agriculture.

Shri Taslimuddin, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Dr. Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Minister of State also attended the meeting for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

The members who attended the meeting include S/Shri A. Sai Prathap, Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya, Jai Parkash, P.C. Gaddigoudar, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Gauri Shankar Chaturbhuj Bisen, K. Francis George, M. Appadurai, Alok Kumar Mehata, Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Ranen Barman and Ms. Archana Nayak (Lok Sabha) Thennala G. Balakrishna Pillai, Pyarelal Khandelwal and Shri Sharad Joshi (Rajya Sabha).