East-West Seed India and FICCI organized a webinar on “Can vegetable farming help fight climate change?’ Strategies and way forward” with experts such as Dr. B N S Murthy Horticulture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Dr.Naveen Kumar Patle, Deputy Commissioner Horticulture and Director, Central Insititute of Horticulture, Nagaland, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Dr.Malavika Dadlani, President, Indian Society of Seed Technology, Dr. Ramakrishna Nair, Regional Director for the World Veg that was moderated by noted journalist R N Bhaskar, Consulting Editor, Free Press Journal. Nearly 400 participants across India participated actively in the Webinar.
Said Dilip Rajan, Managing Director, East-West Seed India in his opening remarks, “East-West Seed India together with FICCI has curated a series of six webinars to focus on the benefits of vegetable farming for smallholder farmers in India. Agriculture may be the sole bright spot in the overall gloomy economic outlook due to Covid-19. Vegetable farming offers better economic returns for smallholder farmers, enhances the health and nutrition of consumers while reviving our stalled economy. Experts reiterated in today’s webinar that vegetable farming can help fight climate change by reducing tillage, expanding crop rotations, cover crops, and re-integrating livestock into crop production systems.”
V Ram Kaundinya, Director General of FSII and Head, Agriculture Committee FICCI said, “Climate change is real. It will intensify further in the next two decades. We may see water-related issues – both droughts and floods – happening repeatedly. Environmental temperatures are expected to rise. With every one degree rise in temperature, the crop yields would drop. We need climate-resilient agriculture to fight climate change. We need crop varieties that will use natural resources more efficiently. Vegetables have a huge role to play here. Not only will the demand for vegetables rise due to improved living standards, but vegetables should also provide an opportunity for more environmentally friendly agriculture both in protected cultivation and open cultivation.”
