Coping with weather aberrations for sustaining the productivity of rainfed farming

Rainfed agriculture in India contributes to 40% of country's food basket, and supports 60% of livestock and 40% of human population. However, the productivity of rainfed regions is constrained extreme weather events. Technological and socio-economical factors have to play major roles in enhancing the current capacity of rainfed farmers to cope with climate change. The All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) has developed and demonstrated the real-time contingency measures for each agro-ecological region of the country to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change. These measures include selection of resilient crops, varieties and cropping systems, rain water management, soil management, agro forestry system, integrated farming system, convergence of various schemes, government policies and programmes. The village level institutions (VLIs) like village climate risk management committee (VCRMC), custom hiring centre (CHC), seed bank, fodder bank etc., have a greater role to play in the initial preparedness for implementation of real time contingency planning.