Panchayat members to be trained as climate risk managers

A mass movement to mitigate the effects of climate change and global warming at the local level is being launched in Chennai next week, according to Prof MS Swaminathan, eminent agriculture scientist.

A male and female member from each Panchayat in vulnerable states will be trained as climate risk managers (CRMs). “They will be trained in the science and art of managing climate aberrations. This is to make them capable in local level planning and anticipatory action which can reduce human hardship and save lives and livelihoods,” Prof Swaminathan said here on Friday.
Prof Swaminathan, father of the Green Revolution which made the country self-sufficient in food and grains, said the successful completion of the training will result in India having the world’s largest army of climate risk managers.

He described CRMs as grassroots level workers capable of disseminating details about vagaries of weather to fellow villagers.

Initially, men and women selected from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa and the Union territory of Pondicherry will be trained as master trainers.

“We have prepared the training manuals in a layman’s language. Our objective is to make them familiar with short-term weather forecast which does not require much scientific knowledge,” said
Arivudhai Nambi, scientist, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), who is the chief trainer.

According to Nambi, the programme being implemented by MSSRF in association with the ministry of earth sciences envisages the installation of automatic weather station in each
Panchayat. “This AWS is capable of predicting local weather in an area spanning 6 to 7 km radius,” he said. Farming operations depend on wind speed, humidity, rainfall and temperature.

“Spraying of pesticides is not advisable if the wind speed is above 10 mph. During sowing, the land should be have water content of 25 ml. Such thumb rules will help farmers to save a lot on their input costs and to manage local agriculture resistance in a better way,” Nambi said.