AUG 18: A delegation of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), led by Deputy Director General Dr. Stanford Blade and accompanied by Dr. Damaris Odeny and Dr. Manzoor A. Dar, called on Lieutenant Governor Shri Manoj Sinha today. The team was joined by Prof. Nazir Ahmad Ganai, Vice Chancellor of SKUAST-Kashmir.
During the interaction, the expert team from ICRISAT briefed the Lieutenant Governor about the organisation’s mandate and its long-standing efforts towards reducing poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the dryland regions of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. They highlighted that ICRISAT’s core focus areas include the development of climate-smart, high-yielding and disease- or pest-resistant crop varieties. In addition, the organisation actively works on promoting sustainable and integrated farming systems, enhancing water-use efficiency, improving natural resource management practices, and strengthening value chains and access to markets to enhance farmer resilience.
The delegation also drew attention to the climate fragility of the Himalayan region and its increasing vulnerability to climate change. They briefed the Lieutenant Governor about its direct impact on agriculture and the livelihoods of farming communities in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Lieutenant Governor appreciated the valuable work being done by ICRISAT and expressed his desire for a strategic collaboration between ICRISAT and the government of Jammu and Kashmir. He emphasised the need to build institutional capacity in the Union Territory to meet emerging challenges in the agriculture sector through data-driven decisions, adoption of new technologies and diversification towards more climate-resilient crop varieties. He also underlined the importance of developing strong advisory and knowledge-sharing systems that will help farmers adapt to evolving climatic conditions and secure sustainable livelihood opportunities.
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