ICAR Developed Crop Varieties Tolerant To Climate Change

According to the information given by Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, in his written reply in the Rajya Sabha, resistant varieties of various crops to withstand climatic stress have been developed by ICAR. This measure has been taken to enhance the production of food grains even during the situations of climatic changes. In total 2122 cultivars have been released from 2014 till the date of which 1752 are climate-resilient varieties, 400 are abiotic stress-resistant cultivars and 1352 are biotic stress-resistant cultivars. For usage on a large scale in various agricultural communities 68 site-specific climate-resilient technologies were developed and popularised.

Over the past eight years, agricultural contingency plans have been developed for 650 districts and government officials have been made ready to stay prepared through 57 state-level interface meetings. These plans are available online to help policymakers in making decisions against late monsoons and other extreme weather events. Demonstration of Climate resilient technologies is done in rural fields in 151 clusters covering 446 villages based on vulnerability assessment. The negative effects of climate change on agricultural production have been effectively addressed through technological interventions. During the last 5 years, the production of food in the country has continuously increased as follows:

Development of varieties resistant to climate change is a boon for the agricultural workforce. 46.46 % of workforce is engaged in the Agriculture Sector in All India basis as per the 2020-21 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), done by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Of this Chhattisgarh has highest (66.02%) and New Delhi has lowest (0.25%).