LUDHIANA, DECEMBER 16:-The Department of Agricultural Meteorology of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) organised a “Climate Change Awareness Camp” for the farmers at Badoshi Kalan village and at Bauranga Zer village in Fatehgarh Sahib district. The camp took place under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) sponsored “National Initiative for Climate Resilient Agriculture – All India Coordinated Research Program on Agricultural Meteorology (NICRA-AICRPAM)” project.
Speaking on this occasion, the chief guest Dr. T S Thind, Additional Director of Research, said that human and natural causes have led to an increase in average temperature of the earth by 0.5oC during the last decade and in India, this increase has been 0.4oC during the same period. He divulged that the IPCC 2007 (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change) has projected that by the end of year 2100, the average temperature of Earth may increase by 1.8-4.0oC, if no mitigation strategies are adopted.
The PAU experts delivered lectures and educated participants about the effect of climate change on agriculture and on climate change resilient technologies like direct seeded rice, transplanting rice at recommended time, bed planting, tensiometer aided irrigation in rice, laser land leveling, zero tillage, drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, judicious use of nitrogenous fertilizers in rice and maize by using leaf colour chart (LCC), effects of straw burning, use of Happy seeder and about weather based agro advisories. The experts also dwelt upon human activities like deforestation, industrialization, urbanisation, agriculture and transportation, etc. which have contributed significantly towards the climate change. Farmers were also explained about the agricultural technologies, which could help in slowing the pace with which the climate is changing. They were imparted training in the use the water (drinking) testing kit developed by Department of Microbiology, PAU. The experts included Dr G.S. Butter, Head, Department of Agronomy, Dr P.K. Sidhu, Agrometeorologist, Dr S.S. Sandhu, Assistant Agronomist, Dr Harpreet Singh, Assistant Professor, Dr K.K. Gill, Assistant Agrometeorologist, Dr H.S. Thind Senior Soil Chemist, Dr Rakesh Sharda, Extension Specialist, Dr P.K. Sahota, Senior Microbiologist and Dr Mukesh Siag, Assistant Professor of Soil Water Engineering.