Draft report for the meeting Indian Council for Food and Agriculture Meeting with South Asia Director,World Bank.

1. Report on the ICFA meeting with World Bank on Projects in Climate Resilient Agriculture
in India
Indian Council on Food and Agriculture established for representing the voice of the food and
agriculture sector in India had a historic meeting with Mr. Martien Van Nieuwkoop on 21st
March at India International Centre, New in pursuance of the discussions held with Dr.MJ Khan
,the Chairman of ICFA and President of the Agriculture Today Group had with him in the
month of February 2016. Introducing the context of meeting in the background of the new
challenges for agriculture as a result of climate change, Dr.Khan requested the Director to
share his priorities in programming of World Bank for the region. Referring to the closing of
Planning Commission and the lack of communication for 9 months when there was not any
member in the NITI Ayog, he informed about the meeting the secretary and then shared about
four major shifts which has been focused in the agriculture. He defined the shift in terms of
increased focus on high value agriculture for achieving food sufficiency, reducing post harvest
loss, volume of production in terms of nutrition and strong productivity of the farm. He said
that these four shifts need to take place in Indian agriculture for which sector specific
reforms has to take place. Appreciating the INDCs with agriculture being the priority area for
action on climate change since bad monsoons have a direct impact on climate change and
then GHG emission from agriculture is also a significant in Nepal and Bhutan being 60 per
cent. While agriculture remains part of the solution for climate change, World Bank would
love to improve both adaptation and mitigation. Recognizing the role of agriculture in
reducing 2% in temperature, he thought India could push up the food prices. With India being
the importer of pulses now, India has a significant market for pulses.
Thanking Mr.Martien for describing the priorities for climate resilient agriculture in India with
the definition of the major shift , Dr. Khan requested Mr.Shyam Kharke, FAO representative
to share his views. Mr.Kharke highlighted the issue of sustainable performance in agriculture
and called for location of the production places where ground water level is better in
comparison with the regions where the level has significantly gone down. He thus focused on
recharging the ground water since 90 per cent of drinking water is ground water. He called
for ad for addressing the demand side for the water as part of the coping strategy for meeting
the needs of water which implies pricing water and then letting farmers adopt water efficient
irrigation systems. He warned that India would lose due to climate change if sustainability
was not built in for the use of ground water. He called for working with communities and
working with organizations in order to secure ground water use efficiency, availability and
sustainability. Further, he called for demystifying knowledge around climate change in order
to let all round engagement of the farmers which required large scale engagement of NGOs in
collaboration with extension service all over India. As climate smart agriculture is larger part
of the game, he said, we must have a management plan with clear definition of the location
and methodologies, institutions etc. In this regard, he believed that we can have diverse
roles, but we must prepare for the climate change management plan.
Dr.AK Srivastava responded to the concerns citing the plan of Centre for Agriculture and Rural
Development in tackling climate change through generating synergies in action from across
the stakeholders. He called for clear development of the contours of climate resilient

2. agriculture and for this he called for a national survey for urgent action for adaptation and
mitigation.
Responding to issue of climate resilient horticulture and agriculture, Dr.Krishan Lal Chaddha
,father of Golden revolution in India called for training of training of farmers in technologies
and strategies for mitigating drought. He called for development of diverse varieties in
response to diverse biotic and abiotic stresses while securing availability of water for all the
varieties .Realizing the importance of insurance for crops, he called for establishment of
network of weather stations while having a shift in the cropping pattern considering the
change in the nature of crops. For the new innovations, Dr.Khan suggested that precision
farming should be considered for support by World Bank . A study can be done for this since
1000 acres has been brought under precision while also recognizing the IFPRI has taken up the
case for preparing communities for precision farming. Mr. Makhija from Jain irrigation system
called for urgent steps for making agriculture based on science and technology making the
same attractive for youth. Citing the example of drip irrigation system, he suggested use of
water saving drip irrigation system which Jain Irrigation system has developed securing sixty
percent saving in the use of water with fertigation systems generating more savings for
fertilizers. Increased used of drip irrigation and fertigation was recommended. Mr.Kadke
addressed the need for decentralization for addressing the supply side and for this he called
for coordination among the donor organizations bring together all together having funds and
all those having the need for the same in order to address in the ground water situation
across the nation. Referring to production deficit , Dr.Khan called on Dr.Pental to share his
concerns. Dr.Pental sharing his work on mustard called for IPR led agriculture in India which
would ensure knowledge led agriculture in India. He called for robust technologies in
agriculture .In order to accelerate this process; he called for CG institutions to be supported
through World Bank projects. On the need for getting gene germ plasms adapted for climate
change, he called for support for development of germs plasmas in order to use them for
adapting to climate change. In not doing the needful, he said, we are collectively failing the
farmers in not giving seeds which respond better for climate change enhancing productivity,
profitability, availability and sustainability.
Policy environment in India was discussed. Mr.Scott S. Sindelar, Minister Counselor of
Agriculture Affairs, USA focused on pricing for water in order to ensure efficiency in water
use. He showed how global markets are responsive when pricing is judicious. He called for
climate smart agriculture with smart farmers. In order to keep the younger generation
attracted, he said we need to have pricing mechanism. He called for letting extension worker
have a new zeal for making agriculture attractive while addressing the issue of pricing .
Ms. Preeti Kumar from India office of the World Bank informed about the 500 hundred million
dollar loan which would be used for supporting the components of PMSKY and NRLM .She
informed about the work in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh with SHGs while expressing the need to
work with states. She informed about the Neelanchal scheme where work is taking place
through SHGs. In all the work, she emphasized, we need to work with producer companies
and SHGs. Mr. Kadke highlighted the role of behavior change along with the policy change.
Mr.Martein appreciated the drip irrigations system and informed on the projects in Pakistan

3. where the irrigation systems has brought in change. He shared the growth of poultry which
has brought change. Agriculture counselor highlighted the importance of horticulture and
Dairy sector growth and cited the example of his country which has focused on development
of the sectors generating abundance of export earnings for the nation.
Dr. Sudhir Kochar suggested that World Bank should be adopting the consortia approach for
funding programmeswith focus on innovations using satellite data for precision in cropping
patterns securing best for the farmers. Denotification of the 25 varieties of trees for carbon
sequestration is important along with securing trans-boundary movement of agriculture
products. Here, there is a need to secure climate smart agriculture securing protection to all
in the food value chain and trade value chain. Considering the need to make cities secure in
the post carbon and post nuclear age sufficient in food, nutrition, water, he called for keep 5-
10 per cent of the urban habitats reserved for multi-story climate smart agriculture.
Reflecting on the responses of the states , Dr.Sudhir Kumar Goyal shared that most of the
states do not have plans on climate resilient agriculture. Preeti informed that Bihar has a
roadmap for agriculture. She further called for having all Food Producing Organisations
working together for climate resilient agriculture. She highlighted that Indian Council of Food
and Agriculture should be joining all the stakeholders together for seeking synergies for
climate resilient agriculture seeking redress of gaps and policy and programmes which
bringing together farmers , FPOs and SHG federations together for securing climate smart
agriculture with abundance for all.
Dr.R.P Singh highlighted that disasters are happening due to single cropping and therefore,
there is a need to promote multi-cropping securing diversity .Also, there is a need to work on
good projects since we are wasting lot of production due to absence of adequate rural storage
and harvest management. For animalhusbandry sector growth, he called for focus on fodder
production in order to secure protection cattle population ,therefore World Bank should be
taking up projects for boosting fodder production in order to secure animal husbandry
generated GDP for India while securing nutrition for billions. For crops, he called for low
volume high price crop production support. Sharing the example of Ethiopia, he called for
technology transfer there in order to get best from agriculture since agriculture there has 65%
dryland agriculture.
Mr. Mohan Saxena of Ayurvet Limited called for value creation system through hydroponics
which is established with the cost of Rs.50000,- Focusing on Livestock sector, he said that the
sector has to be boosted securing food for 9 billion and there has to be a food and nutrition
revolution riding on the mobile revolution using the technology for dissemination of
technologies
Dr. M.Moni being the pioneer of integrating ICT in agriculture informed about the new
graduation and post graduation courses which has been initiated by Shobhit University .He
called for introduction of agro informatics at ITI level in order to get youths in the rural areas
engaged in generating value in agriculture working for climate resilient agriculture generating
value in the rural areas keeping the talent oriented to rural livelihoods integrating the best in

4. technology. He called for traders and farmers working together with FPOs and self help
groups through using the ICT for communicating better and securing value at all levels.
Dr.M.Mukhtar Alam ,Executive Director ,Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development shared
about the work of CARD for weather secure habitats in urban areas in the post carbon and
post nuclear age for making cities food, nutrition ,water and renewable energy self reliant
and therefore securing smooth transition to renewable energy secure inclusive futures for the
cities. He informed on the e-discussion on the same which was conducted by Solution
Exchange ,Climate Community of UNDP with inputs from the Centre for Protected Cultivation
Technologies ,IARI and others. Endorsing the suggestion of Mr.Surinder Kochar, he informed
that a semispherical design of the Climate Smart and Weather Secure Design has been
patented by Dr.Mohideen Ibramsha, former faculty of Indian Institure of Technology and the
derivative works are planned to be patented. He suggested that CARD would be pleased to
present the design for agencies in public and private sector with the technical support of
Deen Technologies should there be an opportunity for the same. Mr. Kochar suggested that
the design should be taken by ICFA for needful support from ministries or through a
consortium of the organization. Mr.Kochar also suggested that smart city designs should have
mandatory provision of having 10 per cent area under agriculture ,animal husbandry and
horticulture.
Mr.V.P.Singh called for preparation of strategies for securing insulation of companion crops in
the face of adverse impacts of climate change through focus on diversification of the sytem
for spreading the risk far and wide in order to adapt to climate change.
Responding to the all the submissions on the ideas for programming for World Bank,
Mr.Martien Van Nieuwkoop, the South Asia Director affirmed that the ideas presented in the
meeting were relevant. Out of all, he appreciated the idea that climate smart agriculture
requires smart farmers who are updated with all the best knowledge in agriculture along with
the focus on production of millet, meat through livestock, agro forestry and high efficiency
agriculture. He felt that as elsewhere, share of agriculture and allied share has to increase in
GDP of the nation since this is important for making youths get attracted to agriculture. For
the proposals, he said, World Bank responds to the request of Department of Economic Affairs
on financing for projects. On the developments in the policy and programming in agriculture,
he felt that much action is happening but there is a need to scale up operations for more and
more GDP generation from agriculture and allied sectors.
Sh. Alok Sinha , Director General of Indian Council for Food and Agriculture thanked all for
participating in the meeting highlighting on three major areas related to optimum use of
water for rain fed agriculture in dry land ,generating abundance of ground water for
agriculture across the regions, calibrating cropping patterns for adapting to adverse impacts
of climate change.
Report: Dr.M.Mukhtar Alam , Executive Director, CARD