New Centre of Excellence to tackle climate change impact on agriculture & healthcare

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has launched a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Sustainability and Climate Change to drive climate-readiness, resilience, and eco-friendly innovation, particularly in agriculture, environmental systems, and modern healthcare.

The CoE, established last week in collaboration with Ashraya Hasta Trust, aims to address critical gaps in India’s preparedness for the ongoing climate crisis.

Speaking to DH, Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, Director-CEO of C-CAMP, stressed the urgency of developing climate-centric solutions. "Climate change is affecting sustainability, agriculture, food security, and healthcare. We will have to come up with solutions."

Saiyed highlighted the potential of bioscience and bio-based innovation to deliver impactful interventions across sectors.

On the health front, he noted that climate change is likely to increase the incidence of vector-borne diseases and accelerate the spread of new pathogens emerging from rising temperatures, humidity shifts, altered rainfall patterns, floods, and droughts.

However, the current healthcare system is not equipped to handle these threats.
"Healthcare needs to be ready for early detection, surveillance and therapeutic capabilities, making us climate-resilient,” he said.

Diseases such as chikungunya, Zika virus, and malaria could see significant spikes due to changing climatic conditions, he added.

The CoE will work closely with the government, private industry, and scientific experts to conduct detailed assessments and articulate key problem areas, enabling targeted and effective solutions.

In agriculture, the CoE aims to reduce methane emissions from crops such as paddy, while also enhancing yield with lower environmental impact. It will explore development of new crop strains to strengthen food security.

"We must reduce our dependence on fossil-based fertilisers and pesticides. Agriculture is practiced on a large scale, and this shift is essential,” Saiyed noted.

The CoE aims to generate at least 10 solution-based innovations in its first year, focused on climate–agriculture and climate–health challenges.

“We hope to scale up the programme after three years with global support. If we are able to deliver 30 new solutions to address the issue, we will have hit the bull’s eye,” Saiyed said.