India Fighting Global Warming Effect On Wheat Production

As global warming rears its ugly head, the Indian government is taking timely steps to counter the dangers on on wheat cultivation.

So far, wheat production in India is on the rise with 80.71 million tons in 2009-10 which contribute to 71% of total grain production in the country.

However, research findings of ICAR indicate that 3-4% of decrease in production occurs with 1 degree Celsius of temperature rise. This happens in the grain-filing stage.

Some steps to mitigate global warming include popularizing heat tolerance varieties. Crop advisories are also issued to wheat growing farmers for adopting latest crop production/protection technologies; timely sowing; resource conservation technology including zero seed drill and irrigation.

The ICAR has also initiated networking projects for developing thermal and drought tolerant genotypes that are suitable for changing climatic scenario.

[Times of India]