ICRISAT village wall against disasters

The Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is setting up a network of Internet-linked rural knowledge centres to build capacity for disaster preparedness.

This is being done in collaboration with government and non-government local organisations. The objective is to enable communities withstand natural disasters like tsunamis, flood and drought.

Ten rural knowledge centres have already been set up in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Tamil Nadu in collaboration with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and other local bodies.

These centres will help rehabilitate sustainable agriculture or introduce alternative vocations suited specifically for the post-tsunami local conditions.

Rai said a part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands' main rice bowl had virtually been destroyed by the tsunami because the topography had got changed and would henceforth be subjected to regular inundation during high tide. ICAR was chalking out strategies for coping with this situation.

One of the options under consideration was to promote brackish water aquaculture in the islands.

He also said ICAR had identified several salt-tolerant crop varieties for cultivation in areas where the soils had become saline because of sea water. Attempts were on to arrange for their seeds before the beginning of the next planting season in June.

The Virtual Academy for Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT), an ICRISAT initiative, has worked out a pilot project for setting up knowledge centres in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

These will be located in Adilabad, Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Guntur districts in Andhra Pradesh and Nashik, Ahmednagar and Pune in Maharashtra.

In Andhra Pradesh, these centres will educate agri-input dealers on drought preparedness and management. ICICI Bank and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management are also collaborating in this venture.

Both Dar and Rai said the new short-duration and high-yielding varieties of pulses like gram and tur, developed by ICRISAT and ICAR were helping in the diversification of agriculture in the Indo-Gangetic plain. The production of these pulses had remained stable despite the reduction in the acreage under them, Dar pointed out.