National Workshop on Earth Observations for Climate Services

20th February 2023, Ooty

ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Udhagamandalam and the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad have jointly organized a National Workshop on “Earth Observations for Climate Services” under the NICES Program here today.

  

The workshop was organized with a theme to sensitize the stakeholders on the latest developments in Earth observation-based science for the public good.

The workshop was participated by more than 75 delegates including scientists from ICAR-IISWC; NRSC/ISRO-; IIST-Trivandrum; IITM/MoES, Pune; Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalapakkam; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore; HRS, TNAU, Ooty; Regional Centres of ICAR-IARI, Wellington and ICAR-CPRI, Ooty; CWRDM, Calicut; KITS, Coimbatore and progressive farmers from the district Nilgiris.

  

Prof Dr V Geetha Lakshmi, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore and Dr Prakash Chauhan, Director, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad were the Chief guests of the function.

Dr M.Madhu, Director ICAR-IISWC, Dehrandun presided the workshop and Dr.G.N. Hariharan, Executive Director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai was the Guest of Honour.

Prof. Dr Geetha Lakshmi talked about the various global and regional climate models for assessing the future impacts of climate change on crop productivity. Further, she has also spoke about the various strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on agriculture and stressed the need for the development of a sound carbon credit policy for the Indian context.

Dr Chauhan delivered the keynote lecture on space observations for monitoring the changing climate in which he talked about the space inputs for climate change studies and also highlighted the research initiatives of NRSC on climate change research.  

The inaugural session was followed by a Farmers-Scientists-Students interaction in which the progressive farmers from the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu and students shared their experiences and received expert suggestions on various applications of space science in agriculture.

Dr M. Madhu, keynote address discussed the key strategies to achieve the national commitments on land degradation neutrality and also accentuated the need for the development of farmer-friendly technologies using remote sensing-based applications to conserve natural resources and to ensure food and nutritional security to future generations.

A panel discussion on the theme area of “Earth observation-based science for the public good” was held. The panel experts shared their experiences on the latest advances in climate change and natural resources management studies and also gave the road map for the development of more user-friendly applications for agriculture.

The workshop ended with a plenary session and concluding remarks by the Convenor Dr Rajashree V. Bothale, Deputy Director, ECSA/NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad.

(Source: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Dehradun)