Talk on managing climatic risks in agriculture at PAU

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 11

PK Aggarwal, an expert from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), and Regional Programme Director, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), delivered a talk on ‘Managing Climatic Risks in Agriculture: Big Data Provides New Opportunities’ at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) here.

The talk was held under the aegis of the Ludhiana chapter of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS).

Aggarwal said many climatic challenges were cropping up across the globe. He said: “Climatic risks were increasing and the challenges were affecting the food production as well as 56 per cent of world’s population. The climatic changes were one of the major reasons for the crop failure and farmer suicides in India.”

He apprised the audience of newly-coined technique — Data Pool — for dealing with climatic changes.

He suggested the use of big data for managing climatic risks in agriculture, dwelling on the use of extension modes such as mobile phones, camera, micro-satellite pictures, social media, etc.

He cited the example of the use of satellite pictures for observing nitrogen level in wheat in developed nations.

He said the data collection could contribute to prosperity in agriculture and research.

Earlier, SS Kukal, Dean, College of Agriculture, PAU, welcomed the guest speaker. Dr AS Nanda, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU, honoured Aggarwal with a memento and appreciated his talk.