The Government has under taken several steps to develop and out-scaling climate-resilient agricultural technologies through Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW). ICAR through network project on National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) has developed and promoted climate resilient agriculture to address vulnerable areas of the country to cope up with extreme weather conditions like droughts, floods, frost, heat waves, etc. It has three components viz. strategic research, technology demonstration and capacity building.
ICAR also works on development of climate resilient crop varieties suitable for extreme weather situations, identification of the most vulnerable districts/regions, management practices for adaptation & mitigation and development of climate resilient livestock, fisheries and poultry rearing practices. DA&FW implements National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) to make agriculture more resilient to the changing climate through its schemes viz. Per Drop More Crop, Rainfed Area Development and Soil Health & Management.
ICAR implements All India Coordinated Research Programme on Integrated Farming Systems (AICRP-IFS) in 25 States/UTs through which alternate efficient cropping systems for crop diversification are developed and promoted.
DA&FW Crop Diversification Programme under Pradhan Mantri- Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana in states viz; Punjab and western Utter Pradesh to divert the area of water guzzling paddy crop to alternative crops like pulses, oilseeds, coarse cereals, nutri-cereals, cotton and Agroforestry. The programme has been extended to tobacco growing states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to encourage tobacco growing farmers to shift to alternate crops/cropping system.
DA&FW also implemented another Pilot Project through AICRP-IFS progamme of ICAR for Crop Diversification under Krishi Unnati Yojana from 2023-24 in the 75 identified districts in 17 States to diversify the existing crops with less water intensive crops such as pulses, oilseeds and millets. A total of 19 State Agricultural Universities and 5 ICAR Institutes are involved in implementation of the project.