The Hindu Business Line : Study to assess impact of climate change on farming

THE Network on Climate Change and Indian Agriculture (NETCCIA), comprising 14 premier agricultural research institutes in the country, will launch a nationwide study beginning April 1 to study the impact of global environmental changes on different areas in agricultural production and prepare strategies for minimising the damage.

The Tenth Plan project will be led by the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), a constituent of ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research).

Some nine ICAR institutes, including Indian Agricultural Research Institute (New Delhi), Central Plantations Crops Research Institute (Kerala) and National Diary Research Institute (Haryana), and five agricultural Universities are part of the network.

The Rs 10-crore study will come out with an Indian National Agricultural Research System that would provide a detailed understanding of the impact of environmental changes and suggest ways to gear up for the situation.

According to Dr Y.S. Ramakrishna, Director of the Hyderabad-based CRIDA, the study will provide policy support to the Government and other stakeholders.

"The study is aimed at quantifying the sensitivities of current food production systems to different scenarios of climatic change," Mr G.G.S.N. Rao, Principal Scientist (Agromet) of CRIDA, told Business Line.

"The network will focus on a comprehensive understanding of the impact of global changes on different sectors of agricultural production such as crops, fish, livestock, and markets and policy," Mr Rao said.