About 2,000 agricultural scientists from across the country and some from outside will congregate in Bengaluru for four days from Tuesday to prepare a plan of action to make Indian agriculture ‘climate smart’ and insulate it from the vagaries of weather.
This will be the agenda at the 13th National Agricultural Science Congress being held at the campus of the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru (UAS-B) at a time when drought and floods are affecting agriculture and food production.
The congress, being held for the first time in Karnataka, is being jointly organised by the UAS-B, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
Bengaluru declaration
S. Ayyappan, former chairman of NAAS, told reporters on Monday that the congress will come out with a ‘Bengaluru declaration’ on ways of making Indian agriculture climate smart. It is expected to become part of the policy initiatives of the Centre and various State governments, which are keenly looking at measures to ensure that food production is not affected due to the vagaries of weather.
UAS-B Vice-chancellor H. Shivanna said the main theme has been divided into six sub-themes of climate change and variability, adaptations for climate change, mitigating its impact, farmers’ innovative methods to mitigate climate change and capacity building for climate resilient agriculture & policy issues. The idea is also to learn from the best practices in handling climate change in different parts of the country, he added.
He said there was a dire need to make agriculture climate smart as drastic changes in climate is threatening food security, especially when the country needed to sharply increase food production to feed the increasing population.
