Strategies for coping with climate change

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), headquartered in Patancheru, Hyderabad in southern India, is intensively working with its partners to develop science-based strategies that empower vulnerable communities to cope with climate change in the dry tropics of the world.

Two ways

These strategies will help farmers to face the challenges of climate change on two fronts.

Short to medium-term: Helping farmers and their support agents to cope better with current rainfall variability as a prerequisite to adapting to future climate change.

Medium to longer-term: Adapting dryland crops (sorghum, millet, groundnut, chickpea and pigeonpea) to grow in a warmer world.

Climate change

"Climate variability and change is an important consideration for ICRISAT given our mandate for the improvement of rainfed farming systems in the dry tropics of the developing world, said Director General William D. Dar. Satellite data show that the dry tropics, where rainfed agriculture provides 60 per cent of the world's food, will be the most vulnerable to climate change. The data show that increases in temperature will have a significant (8 per cent to 30 per cent) reduction in grain yields of dryland crops. Dryland crops are better adapted than other major food crops (rice, maize and wheat) to environmental stresses such as drought.

Water management

Watershed management has also contributed to improving the resilience of agricultural incomes, despite the high incidence of drought as evidenced from the drylands of India. ICRISAT has identified long-term strategies that will result in crop varieties and cropping systems that are adapted to a changing environment. According to Dr. Dar, an Integrated Genetic and Natural Resources Management (IGNRM) approach is pursued which considers factors such as high temperature tolerance, increased root stresses due to soil salinity, acidity, nutrient availability, drought, flooding, distribution of pests and diseases, migration of dryland crops into geographical areas already marginal for crops currently being grown.

The Hindu, June 12, 2008