The 16th High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC) Meeting of National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) Project was organized on 16th January 2025 at NASC, New Delhi.

Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) & DG (ICAR) while appreciating the progress of NICRA project stressed to prioritize research focussing more on pulses, oilseeds and horticultural crops. He further emphasized the need for assessing the impact of extreme weather events and development of better Emission Factors for greenhouse gases in agricultural sectors.

Shri Sanjay Garg, Additional Secretary (DARE) & Secretary (ICAR); Ms. Alka N Arora, Additional secretary (DARE) & Financial Advisor (ICAR); Shri Franklin L. Khobung, Joint Secretary (NRM), MoAFW; Dr B Venkateswarlu, Chairman, NICRA Expert Committee; Dr JK Jena, DDG (Fisheries); Dr SN Jha, DDG (Agril Engg.); Dr Raghavendra Bhatta, DDG (AS) and other senior officers from Ministry of MoEF&CC, IMD, DST, DBT, Jal Shakti and ICAR participated in the meeting and provided key inputs for further strengthening technical program of NICRA project. Dr S.K. Chaudhari, DDG (NRM) in his welcome address briefed about the achievements of NICRA project. Dr. Rajbir Singh, ADG (AAF & CC), presented the ATR on the previous HLMC.

Dr. V.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad presented the overview of NICRA. Dr. M. Prabhakar, PI, NICRA presented the progress of strategic research and Dr. G. Pratibha, Program Leader, NICRA-TDC made a brief presentation on progress of technology demonstration component. Two publications ‘Promising climate resilient technologies for West Bengal and ‘Voluntary carbon market in Indian agriculture: Status, challenges and way forward’ were released during the event.