Change cropping pattern to overcome adverse weather: Experts

HYDERABAD: Experts from across the globe said changing cropping patterns had become the key to overcome adverse weather. Climate preparedness was an urgent need and required new paradigms of agriculture development to minimise risks and ensure food and nutrition security, they said.

According to scientist Sekhar Udaya Nagothu, research professor at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, major efforts should be aimed at developing climatic adaptation and mitigation measures.

In countries like India, especially Telangana state, farmers should not sow only paddy as was the case a few decades back. Climatic changes that impacted rain patterns had changed the equation, he said.

“Simple measures such as alternative cropping and crop varieties, crop rotation with diverse nutritious crops such as legumes and millets can make a large difference. Local governments should pitch in by supplying good quality of seeds and pesticides. Also, making use of latest technology tools to give accurate forecasts of rainy days is crucial,” he said.

Mr Nagothu was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day conference on climate change, water, agriculture and food security that started at Icrisat on the city’s outskirts on Wednesday.

Icrisat director-general David Bergivsion said that effective management of water had become crucial due to extreme climatic conditions. The phenomenon being observed was heavy downpours for a few days at a stretch and no rainfall on other days, he said.

He made a mention of unprecedented rainfall that Hyderabad had witnessed in the last week of September. Steps should be taken to tap such water to use it for agriculture and other purposes later rather than allowing it flow into the ocean, which is a sheer waste of resources, he said. Mr Bergivsion hailed the government’s rainwater harvesting measures in the form of Mission Kakatiya, which he felt would give a big fillip to agriculture.