Need to converge programmes to spur climate resilient agriculture: Min

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh Thursday stressed on the need to converge the existing programmes to address concerns of climate change at the village level.

The government's research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is implementing the National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) to help enhance resilience of the Indian farm sector.

Speaking at a parliamentary consultative meeting held here, Singh said several states have shown interest in replicating the climate resilient village models.

For example, the Maharashtra government through World Bank funding formulated a project by the name PoCRA with a budget outlay of Rs 4,500 crore being implemented in 5,000 villages in the drought-prone Vidharbha and Marathwada regions.

Several other state governments like Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana too have initiated similar projects of climate resilient agriculture.

The minister emphasised on "the need to bring convergence of these programmes at the village level so as to enhance the adaptive capacity of communities to effectively address the concerns of climate change".

The minister further said a few pilots may be taken up in identified climatically most vulnerable districts of the country by selecting few villages/mandals/blocks as implementing units.

The experiences of such pilots can be used for the spread of climate resilient villages in the country, he added.