Focus on Resilient Agriculture and SAS highlighted
An International Salinity Webinar on ’Resilient Agriculture in Saline Environments under Changing Climate’ was organized by Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (ICAR-CSSRI), Karnal, Haryana in collaboration with the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) on November 3, 2020 with over 967 participants.
In his inaugural address, Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR), emphasized that other than the natural and climate change processes, the over use of irrigation and changing land use patterns are major drivers in bringing cultivable area under the salt affected lands.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, Director General, International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture, Dubai stressed that the current Pandemic COVID-19 had compounded natural and man-made factors affecting the agriculture in general and salinity in particular in the Asian region. She highlighted on switching over to under-utilized crop in the marginal areas instead of mono-cropping by major food crops to make the resilience a reality.
Dr S K Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), ICAR highlighted the major issues needed for SAS. He opined to have a need-based collaborative program and network to take the prioritized issues of SAS at policy and practice levels to address them at the local and regional scales.
