Department of Agriculture, GoN has said the North East India including Nagaland is taking on a visible shift due to the impact of climate change.
KOHIMA, MAY 10 (MExN): Nagaland’s Department of Agriculture on Friday said the North East India including Nagaland is taking on a visible shift due to the impact of climate change.
This impact has resulted in higher frequency of natural disasters like droughts, floods, heat wave, hailstorm, etc, and has emerged as a major concern for agricultural productivity in general and food security in particular including lower nutrition quality of produce.
In an advisory to farmers, the Director of Agriculture, therefore, stressed on the importance of evolving strategies and contingency plans to cope with the climate change for sustaining agricultural productivity and livelihoods of farming communities.
This can be ensured by fully utilizing existing scientific knowledge on early warning systems, weather-based crop planning, and timely dissemination of agro-advisories to farmers, it said.
Towards this, the department advised staggered log bunding across the slope to check run-off water in case of heavy rainfall for hill agriculture and those practicing jhum/shifting cultivation.
It urged farmers to identify areas for gully plucking with locally available materials, to be vigilant for real time assessment and monitoring of crop situation, pests situation or any natural calamity. It advised the farmers to perform scouting on Fall Army Worm (FAW) in maize crop and other field crops.
While weeding operation should be carried out on timely interval to check crop-weed competition, it called for timely removal and destruction of pest and disease infected plant parts, weeds from the fields.
The department also encouraged farmers to adopt Integrated Farming System Approach and adopt systematic staggered sowing (2 weeks apart) in nursery bed in WTRC/TRC to cope with climate unpredictability.
It further advised farmers to prepare side-drains around nursery beds to prevent damages from flash floods and wash-off.
It called for early field preparation for WTRC/TRC; and adoption of direct-seeding in case of late monsoon. Adopt line transplanting or SRI in paddy for better moisture and weed management, it added.
As far as possible, use young paddy seedlings for better plant health and crop yield and reserve seeds for re-sowing in case of any crop failure. On any incidences of pest & diseases outbreak and natural calamity, the department has advised the farmers to immediately report to the nearest District or Sub-Divisional Agriculture Office.
