The 15th High Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC) meeting of National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project was held at NASC, New Delhi on 18th April 2024. Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR chaired the meeting. Dr SK Chaudhari, DDG (NRM) welcomed the participants. 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 TR Sharma, DDG (CS); Dr JK Jena, DDG (Fisheries); Dr RC Agrawal, DDG (Agril. Edn.); Dr B Venkateswarlu, Chairman, NICRA Expert Committee; Dr. Sanjay Kalia, DBT; Dr Anita Aggarwal, DST; Dr DS Pai & Dr Goroshi, IMD; Dr SM Dixit, Min. of Jalshakti; Drs Ruchika Dral, P Chand & A Raju, MoEFCC; Dr Rajbir Singh, ADG (AAF&CC); Dr A Velmurugan, ADG (SWM); Dr AK Tyagi, ADG (AN&P); Dr KP Singh, ADG (Farm Engg.); Dr RK Singh, ADG (Agril. Extn.); Dr S Pandey, ADG (FVS&MP); Dr VK Singh, Director (ICAR-CRIDA), and Scientists from CRIDA NRM Division, ICAR also participated and provided inputs.

Hon’ble DG, ICAR appreciated the progress of the project and the recognition for NICRA project at both national and global level. He stressed on prioritization of research under NICRA, develop partnerships with other ministries/stakeholders for harnessing funding opportunities and upscaling of climate resilient technologies. He emphasized to develop a methodology for assessing the resilience potential of cluster of villages due to adoption of different technologies. He further suggested to develop methodologies for carbon trading in Indian agriculture and implement pilot projects on carbon farming.

Shri Sanjay Garg emphasized on the need to have close linkages with state governments for scaling of NICRA outputs. Ms. Alka Arora stressed that the infrastructure created under NICRA should be maintained properly for efficient use by researchers and students. DDGs and ADGs of ICAR and officials from various ministries/departments provided many key inputs for further strengthening of NICRA program.

Dr Rajbir Singh presented the ATR on the previous HLMC, Dr VK Singh presented a brief overview of NICRA followed by presentations by Dr M Prabhakar, PI-NICRA and G. Pratibha, Program Leader, NICRA-TDC. Major recommendations of the meeting include: assess the impact of climate resilient technologies on carbon & water footprints; develop a concrete plan/road map to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture sector particularly from rice cultivation and livestock sector; digitization of NICRA outputs & outcomes and sharing with all the stakeholders; develop a methodology for assessing the resilience potential of cluster of villages due to adoption of different technologies.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks by Dr KA Gopinath, CO-PI, NICRA.