'Efforts being made to develop drought tolerant seeds'

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar Monday said in the Rajya Sabha that there is the variable impact of climate change on crop production and efforts are being made to develop drought and flood tolerant seed varieties.

The minister said the country is not only self-sufficient in foodgrains production but also exports.

"The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has conducted studies related to climate change under National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. ICAR has reported the variable impact of climate change on production of certain crops like rice, wheat, maize, groundnut, chickpea and potato," he said during Question Hour.

Under NICRA, he said attempts are being made to develop heat and drought tolerant wheat, flood-tolerant rice, drought tolerant pulses, waterlogging and high-temperature tolerant tomato etc.

The minister said technology demonstration component of NICRA is being implemented in 151 climatically vulnerable districts of the country.

"Demonstration of location-specific climate resilient technologies is being undertaken to enable farmers to cope with current climate variability and to enhance their adaptive capacity," he said in the written reply.

Such demonstration technologies include short duration and drought/flood tolerant crop varieties, resilient cropping systems, adjustments in planting times and methods, rainwater harvesting and efficient use, enhancing stress tolerance in livestock etc.

"Training programs have been conducted throughout the country under NICRA project to educate farmers on various aspects of climate change and adoption of climate-resilient technologies to increase yields," Javadekar said.

The National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) focuses on agriculture sector with objectives including resource conservation, restoration of soil fertility and productivity focusing on integrated farming, water use efficiency and soil health management especially in rain-fed agriculture areas and contributes to co-benefits of mitigation.

Thirty-three States/Union Territories including Haryana have prepared their state action plan on climate change in line with NAPCC, which outline sector specific and cross sectoral priority actions.