India: ICRISAT and ICAR partner to build climate resilient agriculture

Food & Beverage News reports that the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are urging for new measures to mitigate the increasing climate-related risks in the rural areas of India.

Speaking at at the inauguration of the policy dialogue on "Building Climate Resilient Agriculture in India" William D Dar, director general, ICRISAT said: "...the crisis management plan for drought of the government of India (2012) presents a disturbing picture. The report says that annually 50 million people are exposed to chronic drought. Sixteen per cent of India's land area is drought-prone, 68 per cent of land area sown is exposed to drought. Most drought-prone areas in India lie in the arid (19.5 per cent), semi-arid (37 per cent) and sub-humid (21 per cent) areas of the country occupying 77.6 per cent of total land out of 329 million hectares. Thirty-three per cent of land receives less than 750mm of rainfall and classified as chronically drought-prone."