Symposium on Climate Change and Rainfed Agriculture

Date: February 18-20, 2010

Venue: Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Partners: ICAR, DST, MOES, NRAA, ICRISAT, MOEF, IMD and NABARD are likely to support this event.
 

For updated information on the above symposium click here

About this background

Climate change due to global warming has become an important national concern. The average earth surface temperature has increased by about 0.74oC (global) and mean sea level has risen by 10-20 cm during the last 100 years. The global temperature is likely to increase by 2.5 to 5.8oC by 2100 if the green house gases emissions continues at the current rate. In India, there is an increasing trend in surface temperature as reported by several research studies. There is no significant trend in the rainfall on all India basis but decreasing/increasing trends are noted in certain locations of the country. The country is also experiencing reduced number of rainy days and more extreme events of rainfall and temperatures. Several models predict that these extreme events may result in increased droughts, floods, heat wave and cold wave in the coming years, adversely impacting agriculture.

Rainfed agriculture is the life line for most small and marginal farmers in the country. Despite several technological advances, rainfed agriculture continues to face challenges in terms of droughts, land degradation, poor investment support and credit flow. Climate change is likely to further exacerbate these risks and uncertainties. In addition to the total rainfall, the temporal and spatial distribution of rain is key to success of rainfed crops.

Climate change is projected to result in more extreme events like long dry spells followed by intense rainstorms which poses major challenges not only for successful crop production but also runoff management.

Due to changes in rainfall pattern, some regions in the country are expected to receive more runoff while others reduced flows. This poses challenges for designing water harvesting structures. The contingent cropping plan currently evolved in the country also need to be revised considering the climate change impacts. Rainfed farmers have also evolved over years abundant traditional wisdom to cope with climate change. However, there is an urgent need to evolve adaptation and mitigation strategies by combining traditional wisdom and modern science in order to manage the risk and protect the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers who predominate in rainfed regions.

To take stock of the current knowledge in this field, identify critical research gaps and evolve a research agenda in the context of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), a National Symposium is planned with the following themes:

• Impact and vulnerability of rainfed farming systems to climate change in different agro-eco regions
• Strategies to cope with extreme weather events like droughts, intense rainstorms, floods, heat weave, cold wave, etc, and shift in rainfall pattern
• Impact on water resources particularly on surface runoff and strategies to harvest surplus runoff for drought mitigation
• Adaptation and mitigation strategies for rainfed crop and livestock systems
• Risk management options in rainfed agriculture including weather insurance

For further details contact - Nemani Chandrasekhar at chandrasekharnemani@gmail.com