National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture Managing Weather Aberrations through Real Time Contingency Planning Annual Report 2015-16

Not AvailableThe agricultural production in rainfed areas in recent years is being more impacted due to climate variability, particularly delayed onset of south-west monsoon, in-season drought and other extreme events. Under National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), the 23 AICRPDA network centres had been conducting, both on-station and on-farm, trials/demonstrations to identify or demonstrate risk resilient practices. Preparedness and implementation of real-time contingency measures implementation had been the focus. In NICRA adopted villages, various village institutions have been established to enhance adaptive capacity, for adoption and upscaling of climate resilient practices. During 2015-16, the onset of monsoon was delayed by more than two weeks in NICRA villages located in Rajsamand and Solapur districts. Further, there were 4-6 dry spells at different stages of crops in NICRA villages Lakhimpur, Garhwa, Kandhamal, Vijayapur and Solapur districts. In general, the total rainfall during kharif season (June-September), 2015 was below normal in majority of the NICRA villages. During kharif 2015, resilient practices to cope with delayed onset of monsoon and early, mid season and terminal were demonstrated in 1050 farmers’ fields covering about 400 ha in 33 villages representing diverse rainfed agro-ecologies in 24 districts across 15 states. This helped in coping with weather aberrations and enhancing the crop yields and income. I compliment Dr. G. Ravindra Chary, Project Coordinator, AICRPDA and team of scientists from PC Unit and 23 AICRPDA centres for developing AICRPDA-NICRA technical program, for generating real-time data on impact of NICRA programme and bringing out this annual report. I thank Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & DG, ICAR and Dr. S. Ayyappan, Former Secretary (DARE) & DG, ICAR, Dr. A.K. Sikka, DDG (NRM), Dr. S.Bhaskar, ADG (AAF & CC), and Dr. B. Mohan Kumar, former ADG (AAF & CC), Principal Scientists at NRM Division for all the guidance and support to AICRDA from time to time. I profusely thank the participating farmers from 33 NICRA villages across the country for their participation, contribution and support.Not Availabl