In the wake of natural calamities resulting in huge losses for farmers, it is necessary to popularise climate-resilient agricultural practices, B.P. Veerabhadrappa, Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University, has said.
He was speaking at a seminar titled ‘Agriculture technologies to manage flood and drought’ held at the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (UAHS), Shivamogga, on Wednesday.
He said that crop losses owing to floods and drought had become a regular phenomenon in India in the recent times. Agricultural universities should develop plant varieties that can tolerate climatic changes. To mitigate the loss caused by climate change, access to weather forecasts, data accrued by government agencies on weather through Geographic Information System and remote sensing should be provided for farmers and they should be guided to plan their cropping pattern accordingly, he said.
Appealing to farmers to adopt shrewd water management practices in paddy cultivation, he said agricultural universities should popularise less water-intensive varieties of food crops and hold demonstrations in this regard to educate farmers.
Manjunatha K. Naik, Vice-Chancellor of the UAHS, Shivamogga; B.R. Gurumurthy, its Director of Research; Neethu Yogaraj Patil and M.H. Krishnamurthy, members of its board of management, were present.
