Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Conclusion
Location specific conservation technologies, water conservation and their efficient
management and adoption strategies as well as enabling policies on crop insurance along with
robust early warning system, weather-based advisories will further facilitates enhancing the
resilience of Indian agriculture to climate change and climate variability. The need for stress
short duration and drought tolerant varieties has become paramount in the present context of
climate change, apart from various adaptation and mitigation strategies to feed the everincreasing
population. These stress tolerant cultivators can play an important role in coping
with climate variability as well as enhancing the productivity and farmers income.
T1-05aO-1375
Transforming Agriculture through Hydroponics: An Innovative Water
Efficient Technology for Rainfed Areas
Ankur Agarwal* and Devkanta P. Singh
Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research (DIBER), DRDO, Haldwani,
Distt Nainital, P.O. Arjunpur, Uttarakhand- 263139, India
*ankurdr@rediffmail.com
The challenge to agriculture in the coming decades is to provide safe food to the ever-growing
population without destroying natural resources. Himalayan states of India have a key role in
biodiversity conservation, but these states are also going through the problem of decreasing
share of agricultural livelihood and a rapidly increasing problem of migration from border
villages. Among the various factors reported for migration, few important are depleting
productivity from agriculture due to changing climatic conditions, problem of wild animals and
search for better livelihood opportunities. Hence, measures are required to increase the
livelihood opportunities in these border areas to curb the problem of migration through
intervention of modern technologies. Among these technologies, soil-less cultivation
(hydroponics) have shown potential for sustainable agriculture in varying environments. Most
of the time due to topographical challenges, it is not possible to codon the farm area with
fencing and thus make it vulnerable to attack by stray and grazing animals vis-à-vis wild
animals. Secondly, possibility of vertical farming allows farming in a compact area with
substantial water saving due to reuse and recycling and hence dependency on rain can be
minimized for farming. Another important feature this technology has offered is production of
safe fresh food without residual toxicity. Defence Institute of Bio-Energy Research (DIBER),
DRDO has successfully standardized and customized technology of cultivation of multiple
vegetable crops viz., leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach, coriander, parsley, pakchoy, oregano,
lahi); fruit vegetables (tomato, cucumber, brinjal, capsicum, broccoli, strawberry, bitter gourd,
sponge gourd, etc) and root vegetables (beetroot, turnip, and radish) under single nutrient
20 | Page Resilience through land and water management interventions, water management and governance