Agri Experts Push for Climate-Smart Farming to Safeguard Food Security

Climate variability increasingly threatens farm output and therefore top agricultural scientists in India have demanded immediate switching to climate-smart farming methods in order to sustain food supply systems.

This discussion was held during the national seminar on Climate Change and Food Systems jointly organised by Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University and Bihar Agricultural Science Academy at Pusa, Samastipur district of Bihar.

They explained that factors such as rising temperature, erratic rainfall and storms lead to decrease in agricultural production in a very direct manner and consequently, they pose a threat to food security in the coming years

Deputy Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) S N Jha, the keynote speaker, pointed out that climate-resilient technologies must be developed quickly and their use must be spread widely.

Since climate change poses a direct threat to global food security, we need to focus on innovations that give us immunity against the fluctuations in food supply, said Jha, quoting the necessity for agricultural practices that can tackle the effects of climate change in India.

Innovation and Sustainability at the Core

During his talk, vice-chancellor P S Pandey highlighted the binary challenge of declining productivity at the same time of rising food demand. He considered innovation in cropping, water management, and post-harvest systems as being the most important ways to keep up agricultural production.

Presenting the matter from the point of view of a global policy, Anjani Kumar Singh, senior fellow of the International Food Policy Research Institute, on the one hand, called for a holistic approach, on the other, putting together climate-resilient crop varieties, efficient irrigation practices, and sustainable farming methods. Regarding effectiveness, he said policy needs to be very tightly in accord with the reality on the ground first.

Roadmap for Eastern India

This seminar was a meeting point for researchers, policymakers, and industry players in the final discussion, they created a list of practical recommendations. These should be the work of future policies aimed at deepening the climate-resilient agriculture of eastern India, a region which is highly vulnerable to climate changes.

Scientists welcomed the fact that the results will be very helpful to the preparation of the long-term plan for sustainable farming which will offer food security to millions, at the same time, it will introduce climate change adaptation measures.