National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was launched during February 2011[1] by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the funding from the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The mega project has three major objectives of strategic research, technology demonstrations and capacity building. Assessment of the impact of climate change simultaneous with formulation of adaptive strategies is the prime approach under strategic research across all sectors of agriculture, dairying and fisheries.
Evolving climate resilient agricultural technologies that would increase farm production and productivity vis-à-vis continuous management of natural and manmade resources constitute an integral part of sustaining agriculture in the era of climate change. The four modules of NICRA – natural resource management, improving soil health, crop production and livestock – is aimed making the farmers self-reliant.[2]
The Scheme will be implemented for the remaining two years (2010–11 and 2011–12) of the XI Plan and likely to continue in the XII Plan with the following four components.[3]
Adaptation to climate variability and climate change requires long term strategic research in the area of Natural Resource Management, Crops, Pests and disease dynamics, Livestock, Fisheries & Energy Efficiency. Focused programmes are taken up on different commodities on adaptation and mitigation.The strategic research is being carried out involving 21 Institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research out of which seven are core institutes where state of the art research infrastructure and equipments will be installed for climate change research on irrigated crops, rainfed crops, horticulture, livestock, fisheries and energy efficiency. ICAR Research Complex-NEH at Shillong is addressing all issues related to North-East.
The seven Core institutes are
Institutes identified for thematic research across crops and agro-climatic zones are ;
The technology demonstration component consists of the following partners:
Under this component, an integrated package of proven technologies would be demonstrated in one village panchayat in each district for adaptation and mitigation of the crop and livestock production systems to climate variability based on the available technologies.
The process of finalizing demonstration consists of the following steps:
The interventions cover the following four modules:
Module I : Natural resources
This module consists of interventions related to in-situ moisture conservation, water harvesting and recycling for supplemental irrigation, improved drainage in flood prone areas, conservation tillage where appropriate, artificial ground water recharge and water saving irrigation methods.
Module II : Crop Production
This module consists of introducing drought/temperature tolerant varieties, advancement of planting dates of rabi crops in areas with terminal heat stress, water saving paddy cultivation methods (SRI, aerobic, direct seeding), frost management in horticulture through fumigation, community nurseries for delayed monsoon, custom hiring centres for timely planting, location specific intercropping systems with high sustainable yield index.
Module III : Livestock and Fisheries
Use of community lands for fodder production during droughts/floods, improved fodder/feed storage methods, preventive vaccination, improved shelters for reducing heat stress in livestock, management of fish ponds/tanks during water scarcity and excess water, etc.
Module IV : Institutional Interventions
This module consist of institutional interventions either by strengthening the existing ones or initiating new ones relating to seed bank, fodder bank, commodity groups, custom hiring centre, collective marketing, introduction of weather index based insurance and climate literacy through a village level weather station.
The Process
The KVK team for each district carried out a detailed exercise on the needs of the village, the climatic vulnerability (drought/floods/heat wave/frost/cyclone) and the available technology options from the concerned Zonal Agricultural Research Stations of the SAU. After a careful study of the gaps, specific interventions from each of the modules were to be selected and an integrated package from all modules was formulated. Majority farmers are to be covered with one or more of the interventions in order to demonstrate a discernible effect. As an outcome of this exercise location specific climate resilient practices and constraints in its adoption would be documented.
Zone wise profile of selected districts and its climatic vulnerabilities