India stresses on initiating CSA practices; villages to become climate-smart

We aren’t awry of the climate change consequences to life and fodder. Although government, companies, employees, etc, are collaboratively making efforts to mitigate and adapt climate change, the proactive measures need to be undertaken at sub levels to ensure the efficacy of efforts.

The cataclysmic impact of climate change has also affected India’s agricultural production. With the food security coming into question, India’s agricultural scape is under a lot of stress to feed the burgeoning population.
Around 570 million of farms across the world are facing the threat of climate change at present. With such major threat, the muscle to fill the demand of the growing population will inevitably weaken. Observing the future depravity, Indian villages, the prime manufacturers of national food production, are moving towards climate-smart agriculture.

For building resilient agriculture in India using the Climate-Smart Village, several national/sub-national governments, NGOs and private sectors are acting in the regions of Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Telangana, to scale the operations. Initiatives such as National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), are working in favor of CSA, accompanied by Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) conceding “Per Drop More Crop”, which stands in concordance with promoting micro/drip irrigation to conserve water.

What is climate-smart agriculture?

With the high emissions of greenhouse gases, an increase in carbon footprint, future agriculture systems are looking for strategies to conserve the environment through technological, institutional and policy interventions in the form of climate-smart agriculture. The implementation, however, requires identification of climate-resilient technologies and practices for management of water, energy, land, crops, and livestock.

Recently the push in agroforestry and cluster-based organic farming through the conjunction with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state governments have made climate-smart practices more prominent. The practice has been recognized for its potential to reduce the risk of climate change, poverty, and enhance aggregate productivity.

The most active state to adopt the concept of climate-smart villages is Haryana, where the climate-smart agriculture attempts to promote synergies to make crop and livestock systems, forestry, and fisheries and aquaculture more sustainable. Haryana shows improved steps towards sustainability by scaling up implementation of the “Climate-Resilient Agricultural Practices – Climate-Smart Villages” Project.

Encoraging climate-centric practices in rural villages, India strives to push the development in favor of the nation’s overall agricultural productivity, reduce carbon emissions and build the agricultural ecosystem that is unhindered by climate change.