TIRUCHY: Dr K. Alagusundaram, Deputy Director-General of ICAR, New Delhi, said that despite climatic challenges and with nearly 80 per cent of farm holdings less than one hectare, India is still able to achieve self-sufficiency in food, with a record production of cereals, pulses, and oilseeds of 285 million tonnes, 350 million tonnes of horticultural produce, 180 million tonnes of milk, 100 million tonnes of eggs and 11 million tonnes of coconut.
Mr. Alagusundaram made this observation while inaugurating a national conference on “Climate Smart Agriculture for livelihood security: Challenges and Opportunities” organised by the Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, a constituent college of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore at Tiruchy on Friday.
He said that this was possible, thanks to the research contribution made by ICAR and state agricultural universities. But now, due to carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, both spatial and temporal shifts in rainfall, shifts in the number of rainy days and various climatic challenges of the occurrence of frequent droughts and floods, this was being threatened, he added.
He said the Modi government had recently launched National Innovative Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) in Maharashtra in 151 villages where technical support is provided to farmers for adopting climate-smart agriculture. It has fetched good results in terms of crop productivity and farm income. Odisha has also tried a similar model, he said.
Dr N Kumar, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Dr S Uma, Dr S. Uma, director, ICAR- National Research Centre for Banana Tiruchy, Dr P. Masilamani, dean and organising secretary of the conference, Dr K. S. Subramanian, director of research, TNAU, Dr K.V. Peter, former Vice-chancellor, Kerala Agricultural University and Dr G. Karthikeyan, secretary, Madras Agricultural Students Union, Coimbatore, Dr S. Parthiban, professor and head, Fruit Science, HC&RI(W), Tiruchy, were among those who participated.
