Dehradun, pkgnews24.com,1000 crore “Uttarakhand Climate Friendly Rainfed Agriculture Project” has been approved by the World Bank with the aim of taking rainfed farming to new heights in the hilly areas of Uttarakhand. This project will be implemented by the Watershed Department.
Globally, all countries are affected by uncertain weather cycles/events on a global scale due to climate change, high greenhouse gas emissions. Our nation is also a participant in the COP-26 Agreement, keeping this in view, the Government of India has been provided funding from the World Bank to reduce greenhouse carbon emissions by the Uttarakhand State Government and to reduce the impacts in the agriculture sector due to climate change. The proposal of “Uttarakhand Climate Responsive Rain-fed Agriculture Project Uttarakhand Climate Responsive Rain – fed Farming Project” was sent.
This project will prove to be effective in spring shed management in hilly areas, increasing agricultural productivity, migration prevention, promoting cluster based farming by adopting latest modern technology, so that climate change resilient activities can be encouraged in agriculture and youth and youth of the state. Agriculture can be developed as a profitable business for the farmers.
Keeping in view the comprehensive improvement of rainfed agriculture sector, increase in per unit productivity and growth of agribusiness, the following activities will be done mainly in the proposed project.
o Working from the spring-shed management concept as a basic system for expanding the possibilities in rainfed agricultural production systems.
o Enhancing water productivity in micro-located spring-shed flow areas through effective rainwater storage and efficient water use activities.
o Reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by adopting climate friendly farming practices, improving the organic carbon content in the soil of rainfed agricultural land.
o Promotion of agrologics and adoption of climate efficient techniques like hydroponics etc. under diverse farming systems.
Promoting climate resilient in rainfed areas through proven seed production of traditional local crops and integrated crop management strategies.
o Climate resilient agriculture advisory services and reliable crop based cluster level
o Dissemination of weather advisory services and accordingly capacity development of farmers.
o Integration of allied agricultural activities like agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry (especially small animals) etc. to develop various income sources for smallholder farmers.
o Ensuring value addition through organic certification of traditional local crops.
Establishment of Agribusiness Centers at the local level to provide agro-based services to farmers in an integrated manner and ensure beneficial market linkages.
The proposed project activities will not only enable use of technology at the cluster level for reliable crop based weather advisory services and development of climate friendly package of practices for crops, vegetables and fruits, but also establish high value protected agriculture clusters in the project area. Along with this, 5 fully capable and functional agribusiness centers will also be established with financial and technical assistance to the local farmers. Apart from this, targets like 4 percent increase in water emissions, 15 percent reduction in soil erosion and 20 percent increase in rainfed crops and 50 percent increase in the productivity of irrigated crops can be achieved.