Uttarakhand CM lays stress on land consolidation to boost agricultural productivity

Land consolidation is needed to safeguard crops from wild animals, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said while inaugurating Summit on Climate Resilient Mountain Agriculture on Wednesday.

He pressed on the need of rearrangement of land parcels in the state for better productivity and profit to farmers.

Rawat said along with climatic variations, wild animal attacks are one of the most widespread malaises ailing crops. While global initiatives are taken to mitigate the impacts, farmers in their own little ways could better productivity, he said.

The watershed management department along with Forest Research Institute (FRI) organised the three-day summit. Over 30 experts are attending the event.

He asked farmers to grow unseasonable vegetables to beat the climate change impacts. He said horticulture crops could also be grown to fetch better market rate.

On the occasion, he felicitated nine gram panchayats for their contribution towards water conservation, women participation and other standards.

He stressed on value addition of products by giving example of women folk in Bagehswar that are manufacturing biscuits from manduwa or finger millet.

He mentioned that several self-help groups were making prasad (offering) from local material and crops.

During the last Chardham yatra season, these groups generated ₹19 lakh of which ₹9 lakh was profit.

Satpal Maharaj, cabinet minister, stressed on the need of having seed bank so as to better crop productivity.

At another event at Wildlife Institute of India (WII), experts from the United Kingdom gathered to deliberate on integrating precipitation forecasts and climate predictions with basin-scale hydrological modelling in the Himalayas.

The experts shared their researches and insight on the Himalayan region and how to do better forecast at the three-day workshop that began on Wednesday.

The Indian Meteorological Department though has limited resources yet it has progressed tremendously in the last few years in climate prediction, they said.