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National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture:

Thrust areas, Objectives, Activities and Outputs in the XII Plan

Indian Agricultural Research Institute
New Delhi

Background
Climatic changes and increasing climatic variability are likely to aggravate the
problem of future food security by exerting pressure on agricultural systems. Building
climate resilience is critical for achieving 4% growth in view of the high dependence of
Indian agriculture on monsoons and the high seasonal variability in rainfall/occurrence
of extreme weather events. Considering the significance of the problem, Indian Council
of Agricultural Research has initiated a major scheme on National Initiative on Climate
Resilient Agriculture (NICRA). This scheme has been planned as a multi-disciplinary,
multi-institutional effort covering crops, livestock and fisheries focusing mainly on
adaptation and mitigation aspects of climate change. State of the art infrastructure is
being set up at key research institutes to undertake frontier research on climate change
adaptation.
Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), the premier institute of
agricultural research in the country, initiated studies on climate change in early 1990s.
The focus of IARIs research has been to quantify the sensitivities of current food
production systems to different scenarios of climatic change, develop the inventory of
greenhouse gas emissions from Indian agriculture and determine the mitigation options
for climatic changes, determine the available management and genetic adaptation
strategies for climatic change and climatic variability and develop policy options for
implementing mitigation and adaptation options.
Considering the need for ensuring food security in the face of changing climate,
it is planned to further strengthen the scheme during XII Plan. It will be strengthened
both qualitatively and quantitatively to make a major platform for research, technology
demonstration, knowledge management, policy support and capacity building in the
area of climate change and geared to provide technical support to the National Mission
on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) under the Prime Ministers National Action Plan
on Climate Change (NAPCC). The aim of the XII plan NICRA project at IARI will be
to develop and disseminate adaptation and mitigation technologies for climate resilient
sustainable agriculture. The following will be the focus areas of climate change
research at IARI during the XII Plan.

Thrust areas of climate change research in NICRA at IARI

1. Sub-project 1: Phenomics-aided crop improvement for enhancing climatic stress
tolerance

Objective: Evaluation and genetic enhancement of rice and wheat for tolerance to
climatic stresses

Activities:
Physiological and biochemical response of rice, wheat and chick pea to temperature
and moisture stresses.
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Functional and proteomic characterization of heat responsive proteins in wheat and
rice.
Phenotyping and marker based genotyping for moisture and heat stress tolerance in
wheat.
Marker assisted improvement of drought and heat tolerance in basmati and non-
basmati rice varieties.

Scientists: KV Prabhu, SD Singh, M Pal Singh, RR Kumar, GP Singh, S
Gopalakrishnan

Outputs:
Improved genotypes/genetic stocks of wheat with tolerance to drought and heat.
Improved rice varieties with tolerance to drought and heat.
Phenotyped physiological and biochemical traits in parental lines of improved
genotypes of rice for heat and drought tolerance.

2. Sub-project 2: Greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission

Objective: Monitoring GHGs emissions through flux towers/field measurement

Activities:
Measuring and upscaling GHGs emission using flux tower in rice-wheat eco-
system.
Mitigating GHGs emissions from rice fields through microbial interventions.
Mitigating GHGs emissions from rice-wheat eco-systems through conservation
agriculture.

Scientists: A Bhatia, H Pathak, N Jain, R Kaushik, TK Das

Outputs:
Inventory of GHGs emission from rice-wheat eco-systems.
Technologies for GHGs mitigation.

3. Sub-project 3: Simulation modeling for vulnerability assessment and adaptation

Objective: Simulation modeling for impact, vulnerability and adaptation on major
crops for near and medium-term climate change scenarios

Activities:
Integrated modeling of climate change impacts and development of adaptation
strategies.
Developing pest simulation model for forewarning and coupling it with InfoCrop.
Simulation of disease distribution (through mapping probable infection) of diseases
in rice, wheat and chickpea.
Real-time monitoring of crop conditions at regional scale and development of
contingency measures.

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Scientists: SN Kumar, VK Sehgal, M Khanna, S Chander, P Sinha, B Chakrabarti, SK
Bandyopadhyay, H Pathak

Outputs:
Integrated model for climate change impacts assessment and adaptation strategies.
Pest simulation model for forewarning coupled with InfoCrop.
Decision support systems for predictive management of diseases in rice, wheat and
chickpea
A web-based system for display, address querries and dissemination of real-time
crop condition for contingency planning.

4. Sub-project 4: Natural resource management for climate resilience

Objective: Adaptation and mitigation through improved soil and crop management and
enhanced water, nutrient and energy use efficiency

Activities:
Assessment of surface and groundwater availability and crop-water demand at field
and regional scales under current and climate change scenarios.
Quantification of C, N and energy budget under climate change scenarios and
assessment of C sequestration potential at various agro-ecological zones.
Development of microbe-based technology for tolerance to climatic stresses.
Development of drought indices and monitoring system at various agro-ecological
zones.
Enhancing water and nutrient use efficiency through conservation agriculture.

Scientists: M Khanna, VK Sehgal, TJ Purakayastha, H Pathak, G Jha, TK Das, B
Chakrabarti, DK Singh, A Chaudhary, R Kaushik

Outputs:
Carbon, nutrient and energy budgeting in rice-wheat cropping system under climate
change scenarios.
Estimated C sequestration potential under various management conditions.
Estimated current and future water availability.
Development of microbe-based technology for tolerance to climatic stresses.
Region and crop specific integrated indicators for agricultural drought monitoring.
Efficient conservation agricultural practices for enhanced water, nutrient and energy
use efficiency.

5. Sub-project 5: Vulnerability and risk management at community level

Objective: Assessing vulnerability and risk management options, community response,
livelihood diversification and adaptation cost

Activities:
Development of a climate-smart model village.
Capacity building in NICRA villages for climate-smart agriculture.
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Development of educational aids and training modules for promoting climate-smart
agriculture.

Scientists: RN Padaria, Anjani Kumar, SK Bandyopadhyay, M Khanna, S Chander,
TK Das, P Sinha, SN Kumar, VK Sehgal, TJ Purakayastha, Aswani Kumar Singh, H
Pathak

Outputs:
A climate-smart model village developed at Mumtajpur, Gurgoan, Haryana.
Enhanced capacity for climate-smart agriculture in NICRA villages.
Educational aids and training modules for promoting climate-smart agriculture.