Impacts of climate change on agriculture deliberated in farmers awareness programme

IMPHAL, Oct 23
A farmers awareness programme on “Weather and Climate Service in Agriculture” was organised today at ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region Manipur Centre, Lamphelpat to sensitize the farmers about the Agromet Advisory Services in context with the changing climate, its impact on agriculture/farming community and possible ways to reduce the adverse impacts due to unfavourable weather conditions.
The programme was graced by N Gojendro, Director of Agriculture, Dr T Brajakumar Singh, Joint Director, Directorate of Environment, Professor L Nabachandra Singh, Department of Agronomy, CAU, Imphal and Dr I Meghachandra Singh, Joint Director, ICAR Research Complex as the presidium members.
Speaking as the chief guest N Gojendro said that climate change/global warming is causing drastic alteration of rainfall and sunshine patterns and stressed on the need for sharing scientific knowledge with agriculture to attain a self-sufficient state in agricultural production.
Dr T Brajakumar Singh mentioned that science like Agro-meteorology is compulsory in agriculture where the vulnerability of global warming/climate change like erratic rainfall, temperature is profound in a State like Manipur.
Scenarios like high relative humidity, erratic rainfall, high temperature in a local specific help in developing a micro-climatic condition hugely affected cropping patterns which may be enlightened to the farmers, he added.
Professor L Nabachandra Singh mentioned that Manipur is in the zone of Subtropical climatic condition where more than 160 crops can be cultivated in different seasons.
However, a risky climate is now prevailing in the State due to climate change/global warming which is also increasing by years/decades and expected that by 2050, the farmers of Manipur will be drastically suffering.
Therefore, prediction of weather/climate is required through Agro-meteorology for the farmers to select suitable crops to avoid crop failure, he added.
Dr I Meghachandra Singh stated that the establishment of Agromet Field Unit (AMFU) under Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva of IMD at ICAR Manipur, Lamphelpat in 1995 and has been providing information like weather forecast and Agromet Advisory with farmers and media.
 He also mentioned the impact of global warming in Manipur by citing the recent example of Treebean infestation with insects. However, due to its typical topography, the difference in rainfall and temperature among the adjacent regions and weather forecast is significantly difficult as compared to other parts of the country.
He appealed the media and farmers to spread the utility of the service to a larger number of farmers to mitigate the difficulties of the farmers and agriculture in general and climate change in particular.
He emphasized on the need of better irrigation facilities because of the erratic rainfall pattern in the state.
The technical session of the programme was initiated with the talk on “Changing weather patterns in Manipur” by Dr T Brajakumar Singh.
A talk on “Measures for reducing impact of adverse weather on Agriculture” was presented by Prof L Nabachandra Singh.
As a part of the technical session, a farmers scientist interaction session was conducted with the scientific experts including the staff of KVK, Imphal West the agromet advisory.