Role Of Colleges In Sustainable Agriculture

By Author: Shreyansh Shrivastava
Total Articles: 13
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Climate change adversely impacts the agricultural sustainability and productivity. In India, the agriculture is mainly based on the climatic conditions. Even there is a lack of proper mechanised systems in the agricultural sector in India, and the farmers have to rely on monsoon to rain-fed the farmland. Any changes in the climate cause the variations in the onset of monsoon. For example, due to climate change the global temperature rises, which resulted in the difference in pressure conditions in some areas. The shifts in the pressure conditions lead to the weakening of monsoon and in some area there happen to be persistent droughts. In winters, due to climate change, extreme frost conditions have to lead to the waste of crops on a large scale.

The climate change is directly related to the agriculture, and it is important to address the concerns of climate change on a priority basis to secure the food security for the people of the country. The climate change also leads to unexpected natural disasters like frequent floods and tropical cyclones that damage the crops. The farming communities living in the low-lying areas ...
... at the coastal front are forced to move to other places due to rising sea level.

Technological Research:

A special attention and efforts are needed to solve the problem of climate change to reduce its impacts on the Agriculture. The educational institutions play a vital role in finding out the best possible solutions to the problem of climate change. The institutional engagement will ensure the full participation of students who will learn a lot from such practices and will enrich it further in their professional life. The future generation needs to be prepared in advance to make them face the upcoming challenges. For instance, the Desh Bhagat University had organized a National Seminar on Climate change and Sustainable Agriculture, which focused on myriad issues of climate change and its impact on the Agriculture. A large number of students from every corner of the country took part in the National Conference.

Recommendations:

At the conference, the guest of honour Dr S.K Saxena from the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology had suggested the farmers burn the wheat and paddy stubble as it causes damages to the environment. At the seminar, climate change impact, mitigation and adaptation techniques were discussed, and a briefing was done on the projects taken by India under Green Climate Fund and National Adaptation Fund for Climate change.

Technical and Policy Solutions:

There are some suggestive technical and policy solutions which can help in fighting the climate change problem such as:

1) Investing in Public Agricultural R&D
2) Harnessing Agricultural Biotechnology
3) Investing in better information and forecast
4) Encouraging public and private agriculture research

The students can do a lot of research work to find the technical solutions to introduce the best farming practices as per the changing climate. They can also work in the direction of reducing the impact of climate change through innovations and technology. There is a lot of scope in this field to make an idea into practical form.