This article summarizes the key takeaways from the Hindu Business Line Agri and Commodity Summit 2025, where climate change emerged as a central theme.
Key Points:
Government's Two-Pronged Approach: The Union Agriculture Secretary highlighted the government's two-pronged approach to address climate change in agriculture:
Adaptation: Developing drought-resistant varieties, efficient water management, and crop insurance.
Mitigation: Promoting natural farming, reducing chemical inputs, and utilizing carbon market incentives.
Role of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS): The Secretary of the Union Cooperation Ministry emphasized the crucial role of PACS in building climate resilience, including expanding their role beyond credit and input supply to include grain storage and other value-added services.
PACS are institutions that provide short-term credit to farmers and other rural borrowers. They also help with marketing and distribution.
What PACS do: Provide loans to rural borrowers, Collect loan repayments, Distribute and market products, and Help farmers and other weaker sections of society.
Four Pillars of Climate Action: The Chairman of NABARD outlined four key pillars for addressing climate change in agriculture:
Accelerating green lending.
Providing access to data.
Internal green transformation.
Resource mobilization to fund climate-resilient activities.
Challenges and Opportunities: The summit discussed various challenges posed by climate change, such as irregular monsoons and extreme weather events, and explored opportunities for innovation and adaptation, including the use of technology, such as drones and solar energy, in agriculture.
The summit highlighted the critical importance of addressing climate change in the agriculture sector and emphasized the need for a multi-pronged approach involving government intervention, private sector participation, and farmer empowerment.
It also underscored the crucial role of technology and innovation in developing climate-resilient agricultural practices.
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