A two-day International conference on “Existing Climate Change Scenario and its Arising Risks” commenced here on Friday at SKUAST-Jammu with its formal inauguration by Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Atal Dulloo, as per the official statement.
The official statement stated that the conference is being organized by Mahima Research Foundation in conjunction with the Social Welfare Department and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu.
Atal Dulloo, during his inaugural speech, congratulated SKUAST Jammu for holding this mega event of great relevance in the present era. “Agriculture is an integral part of the world’s economy and is the lifeline of underdeveloped and developing countries like India,” he said.
He further added that ACS strongly advocated that agriculture is the only sector that can help in reducing poverty by raising incomes and food security for 80 per cent of the world’s poor populace.
“But, today the prosperity of agriculture and the future of our farmers is being threatened by numerous impending challenges like climate change which needs to be tackled collectively. The yield of rainfed and irrigated rice in India has been projected to reduce by 2.5 per cent and 7 per cent respectively by 2050. Further, the wheat yield has been projected to be lessened by 6-25 per cent in 2100 and maize yields by 18-23 per cent,” he said.
ACS added that J&K is also witnessing the brunt of climate change and the average mean temperature in the last 28 years has climbed up by 2.32°C and 1.45°C in Jammu and Kashmir regions respectively.
“In 2014, we witnessed a devastating flood situation in Kashmir and almost every year due to untimely rainfall, the crop of paddy in Jammu and apple in Kashmir suffer huge losses, he added saying that we should prepare ourselves and our farmers to adapt to these weather changes so that they would not suffer on the economic front,” he said.
Dulloo informed that the government have constituted a High Powered Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr Mangla Rai, Former DG, ICAR and Secretary DARE for formulating a comprehensive policy for holistic agriculture development in J&K.
He appreciated the Vice Chancellors of both farm universities for playing an outstanding role in drafting proposals with the target to enhance the incomes of farmers in J&K. He said that SKUAST Jammu is a hub of various technological innovations in the field of agriculture and has achieved numerous milestones under the stewardship of Vice-Chancellor Professor J P Sharma.
“Earlier, ACS inaugurated the Training and Testing Lab of Agricultural Engineering, Bioinformatics lab of School of Biotechnology, Smart Classroom and Statistical Data Analysis Cell (SDAC) in the division of Statistics and Computer Science,” Atal Dulloo added.
Dulloo also visited the beekeeping unit, mushroom unit, technology park, integrated farming system research centre and centre for organic farming and inspected the exhibition of technologies of SKUAST Jammu, as per the official statement.
According to the official statement, Professor J P Sharma appreciated Dulloo for his outstanding efforts during the COVID period and now in the agriculture sector which has been recognized and rewarded at the UT level and national level as well.
“J&K administration has initiated several initiatives which would definitely transform the agriculture profile of the UT. Farm universities and all the development departments are now working collectively for the development of farmers and agriculture in J&K,” he said.
Professor Sharma stressed processing, waste management, value addition and marketing of agricultural produce through the promotion of FPOs and cooperative societies in the country to empower farmers. He advised organizers to come out with recommendations for this conference.
Giving details of the conference, Dr Brajeshwar Singh, Convener of the international conference, informed that there will be eight technical sessions and six poster sessions during the two-day mega event with more than 300 delegates comprising professionals, researchers, academia, policymakers, extension functionaries, students and representatives of different organizations from India and across the globe have registered for the conference.
Dr Sumati Sharma, former Additional Director, DRDO, Director Agriculture, Director Horticulture, Director Command Area Development, Dea, FoA, SKUAST-Kashmir, statutory officers of SKUAST Jammu, students and media personnel were present on the occasion.