The DA&FW has taken a number of steps to deal with the situation arising out of this extreme weather event. The DA&FW issues advisories to the States through the Crop Development Directorates (CDDs) in consultation with State Agricultural Universities (SAUs)/Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) for creating an awareness campaign and to implement contingency plans as per local need.  Besides, the India Meteorological Department under the Ministry of Earth Science issues weather based operational agro-meteorological advisories jointly with ICAR and SAUs under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) Scheme.  Besides, Agromet advisories are communicated to farmers through multichannel dissemination systems like the print and electronic media, Doordarshan, radio, internet etc.  A mobile App viz., ‘Meghdoot’ has been launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, to help farmers to obtain weather information including alerts and related agromet advisories specific to their districts.

Climate resilient varieties of seeds in different crops tolerant to climatic stresses have been developed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). So far 8 varieties were released in rice, green gram, maize and lentil. Apart from this, 177 climate resilient varieties have reached the farmer’s field through large scale demonstrations across the country. ICAR has also launched a flagship network project ‘National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA) in 2011. The project is being implemented through different components viz., strategic research on adaptation and mitigation, demonstration of technologies on farmers’ fields in 151 clusters of villages one each from climatically vulnerable districts and creating awareness among farmers and other stakeholders to minimize the climatic change impacts on agriculture. The project aims to develop and promote climate resilient technologies that help the districts and regions prone to extreme weather conditions like droughts, floods, frost, heat waves, etc., to cope with such extremes.

To deal with long term impacts of Climate Change, the Government of India is taking several steps. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) is one of the Missions within the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The mission aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the changing climate.     

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri  Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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