Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Results
Different farming systems in different agro-climatic zones have different capacities to absorb
climate shocks. In India, farmers have adopted a diverse range of farming practices suited to
their specific climatic and cultural contexts. On the one hand, we have traditional smallholder
subsistence farming systems like dryland agriculture, terrace farming, and shifting
cultivation, on the other hand, irrigated farming systems that are input-intensive and chemical
based have become prevalent as modern industrial agriculture ever since the Green
Revolution. Sustainable agriculture forms the third category of farming systems in India that
seeks to promote the use of traditional farming knowledge and agronomic practices alongside
modern technological innovations in a manner that improves crop yields while also reducing
the ecological footprint of agriculture. Such systems range from organic farming, precision
agriculture, and conservation agriculture to more alternative farming systems based on
agroecological principles. In fact, recently, many smallholder farming communities in states
like Telangana and Karnataka are now switching to more sustainable, agroecology-based
farming practices by employing their traditional, indigenous knowledge.
Building resilience to climate change requires an in-depth understanding of the vulnerability,
adaptive capacity as well as ability of each farming system to bounce back after a climate
shock. These three attributes may vary across systems depending on characteristics such as
farmers’ perceptions and experiences, their knowledge about climate change threats, and the
available institutional mechanisms that facilitate access to credit, production of knowledge,
and market access. An exploration of these attributes will help us to develop a framework to
assess and compare the resilience capacities of different farming systems in a subsequent
study.
References
Cabell, J. F., and Oelofse, M. 2012. An Indicator Framework for Assessing Agroecosystem
Resilience. Eco. Soc. 17(1). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269017
Darnhofer, I. 2014. Resilience and why it matters for farm management. European Review of
Agric. Econ. 41(3), 461–484. https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/jbu012
FAO. 2021. The State of Food and Agriculture 2021: Making agrifood systems more resilient
to shocks and stresses. FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4476en
IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global
and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1132 pp.
268 | Page
Climate resilient agriculture for risk mitigation