IRRI South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC) and ICAR-CRIDA (ICAR - Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture) jointly organized a workshop on ‘Prioritizing Agronomy in Changing Environments (PAiCE)" under the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a regional program of Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) on 21st and 22nd August 2024, at ISARC, Varanasi. The Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a regional program of Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) aim to develop a regional strategy on climate change adaptation through agronomy. In this context, EiA-CSISA and ICAR-CRIDA started building a participatory approach in co-designing and developing climate adaptation and sustainable intensification implementation plans in Bihar and eastern UP.
An interactive tool, the PAiCE (Prioritizing Agronomy in Changing Environment), has been developed to aid in the prioritization process. Significant progress was made in terms of improving the tool with extensive consultations and workshops with different stakeholders.
The overall goal of the workshop was to finalize the PAICE tool and evaluate various adaptation options to deal with the climatic challenges and production constraints faced by the farmers in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar based on their economic feasibility, environmental concerns, etc.
The specific objectives of this workshop are:
The works shop started with the inaugural programme. Dr.AK.Singh, Vice Chancellor, R.L.B. Central Agricultural University, Jhansi, Dr. Vinod Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-CRIDA, Dr. Sudhanshu Singh, Director, ISARC, Mr. Ifitikahar Mostafa, Senior Agriculture Economist, World Bank, Dr. R K Malik, Consultant, CSISA were the dignitaries on the dais.
Dr. Vinod Kumar Singh, Director - ICAR-CRIDA briefed about purpose of the workshop and discussed about the overall development of the PAICE tool and appreciated the work going on with ISARC. He expressed his confidence in the PAiCE tool in guiding the policy makers.
Dr. Sudhanshu Singh, Director – ISARC emphasized to discuss thoroughly to finalize the inputs to the PAICE tool like list of key production constraints in eastern IGP and estimate their impact on crop production. He argued to bring this tool to global level.
Mr. Ifitikahar Mostafa appreciated the development of database frame work of PAICE tool and advised to have a roadmap for implementation and validate the tool thoroughly at ground level.
Dr. R K Malik emphasized the need to capture the ground realities in PAiCE tool.
Dr. A K Singh, Vice Chancellor, RLBCAU, Jhansi, suggested that the tool should be interactive and advised to take care of analysis of yield gaps, technology gap and also to consider about social aspects.
Dr. Virender Kumar, EiA regional lead joined virtually and presented frame work of PAiCE tool
Dr. B M K Raju, Principal Scientist (Agril. Statistics) presented progress so far with PAiCE tool and Validation of input data and outputs and ceiling on yield and also finalizing list of production constraints. He also discussed about listing of possible adaptation options to address production constraints and climatic hazards. A total 40 participants from ICAR-CRIDA,
ISARC and stake holders from various organizations were present. Later break out groups were made to discuss about inputs on adaptation, yield gain due to adaptation options and cost of adaptation and scoring of contextual factors and also discussed about assigning weightage. In the end plenary session was held and discussed about overall recommendations made in the workshop. Finaly workshop ended with vote of thanks by Dr. BMK Raju.
