The Government through ICAR flagship network project ‘National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA) develop and promotes climate resilient agricultural technologies in 151 climatically vulnerable districts spread across the country, which are prone to extreme weather conditions like droughts, floods, frost, heatwaves, etc in light of the challenges posed by climate change. Climate resilient technologies viz., climate resilient varieties, intercropping systems, conservation agriculture, crop diversification, agroforestry systems, zero-till sowing, green manuring, integrated farming systems, integrated nutrient and pest management, organic farming, site specific nutrient management, in-situ moisture conservation, protective irrigation, micro irrigation methods etc. have been developed and demonstrated to large number of farmers through farmers’ participatory approach. Further, these technologies have been documented for 23 States and 3 Union Territories and shared with the State departments for further upscaling and convergence with on-going schemes in the States.
ICAR operates All India Coordinated Research Programme on Integrated Farming Systems (AICRP-IFS) in 25 States/UTs and All India Network Programme on Organic Farming (AINP-OF) in 16 States to develop sustainable farming practices such as alternate efficient cropping systems, integrated farming systems, organic farming and natural farming to address the challenges posed by climate change.
To help farmers in building resilience against extreme weather events and ensure long-term agricultural sustainability in the country, the Government of India implements National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), which is one of the Missions within the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). NMSA has three major components i.e. Rainfed Area Development (RAD); On Farm Water Management (OFWM); and Soil Health Management (SHM). The Government of India provides financial assistance to the states through the NMSA to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change.
Further, government is promoting organic farming through the schemes of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) in all the States/UTs (except North Eastern States). Two types of organic certifications systems have been developed to ensure quality control of organic produce as given below:
- Third Party Certification by Accredited Certification Agency under National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) scheme under Ministry of Commerce and Industry for development of export market. Under NPOP certification scheme the production and handling of activities at all stages such as production, processing, trading and export requirements for organic products is covered.
- Participatory Guarantee System (PGS-India) under Ministry of Agriculture and farmers Welfare in which stakeholders (including farmers/ producers) are involved in decision making about the operation of the PGS-India certification itself by assessing, inspecting and verifying the production practices of each other and collectively declaring produce as organic. PGS- India certification is to meet the demand of domestic market.
The Government also has employed Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to address various challenges in the agricultural sector to aid farmers. Some of the initiatives are given below:
- ‘Kisan e-Mitra’, an AI-powered chatbot, has been developed to assist farmers with responses to the queries about the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. This solution supports multiple languages and is evolving to assist with other government programs.
- National Pest Surveillance System, for tackling the loss of produce due to climate change, utilizes AI and Machine Learning to detect pest infestation in crop issues, enabling timely intervention for healthier crops.
- AI based analytics using field photographs for crop health assessment and crop health monitoring using Satellite, weather & soil moisture datasets for rice and wheat crop.
