NICRA Maps Climate Risk in 651 Districts and Scales Resilient Farming

27 Mar 2026 CW Team

To enhance resilience and adaptive capacity, location specific climate resilient technologies were demonstrated through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in 448 model Climate Resilient Villages across 151 climatically vulnerable districts, and capacity building for village seed banks and community nurseries was undertaken. Drought and flood tolerant varieties of rice, wheat, soybean and mustard were demonstrated in several NICRA villages and training programmes were conducted under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA). ICAR released 2900 varieties during the last 10 years (2014-2024), of which 2661 are tolerant to one or more biotic or abiotic stresses.

Technical assistance for small and marginal farmers has been extended to additional vulnerable districts beyond the 151 covered, and village level institutions such as Village Climate Risk Management Committees, seed and fodder banks have been established through farmer participatory approaches. ICAR has established 731 KVKs to promote new technologies and these KVKs organise training programmes that have reached 1.856 million (mn) farmers. Promotion of drought resistant and high yield seed varieties has been intensified to address environmental variability.

Government efforts also leverage artificial intelligence and IoT enabled systems to enhance productivity and farmer livelihoods. The Kisane-Mitra voice based AI chatbot supports 11 regional languages, handles over 20,000 queries daily and has answered more than 9.5 mn queries. The National Pest Surveillance System and ICT based KISAN SARATHI deploy AI and analytics; KISAN SARATHI has 27.5 mn farmers from over 0.343 mn villages registered.

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The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is implementing the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project to assess the impact of climate change on agriculture and promote future-ready technologies. District level risk and vulnerability assessment was carried out for 651 predominantly agricultural districts under Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change protocols and 310 districts were identified as vulnerable, with 109 categorised as very high and 201 as highly vulnerable. District Agriculture Contingency Plans have been prepared for all 651 districts to recommend location specific crops, varieties and management practices. To enhance resilience and adaptive capacity, location specific climate resilient technologies were demonstrated through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in 448 model Climate Resilient Villages across 151 climatically vulnerable districts, and capacity building for village seed banks and community nurseries was undertaken. Drought and flood tolerant varieties of rice, wheat, soybean and mustard were demonstrated in several NICRA villages and training programmes were conducted under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA). ICAR released 2900 varieties during the last 10 years (2014-2024), of which 2661 are tolerant to one or more biotic or abiotic stresses. Technical assistance for small and marginal farmers has been extended to additional vulnerable districts beyond the 151 covered, and village level institutions such as Village Climate Risk Management Committees, seed and fodder banks have been established through farmer participatory approaches. ICAR has established 731 KVKs to promote new technologies and these KVKs organise training programmes that have reached 1.856 million (mn) farmers. Promotion of drought resistant and high yield seed varieties has been intensified to address environmental variability. Government efforts also leverage artificial intelligence and IoT enabled systems to enhance productivity and farmer livelihoods. The Kisane-Mitra voice based AI chatbot supports 11 regional languages, handles over 20,000 queries daily and has answered more than 9.5 mn queries. The National Pest Surveillance System and ICT based KISAN SARATHI deploy AI and analytics; KISAN SARATHI has 27.5 mn farmers from over 0.343 mn villages registered.

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