The Hindu 21.01.2010
Need for judicious water budgeting stressed
Staff Reporter
| ‘Rice most vulnerable to climate change’ |
COIMBATORE: Scientists predict that by the end of the century the country will experience a three to five degree temperature increase and 20 per cent rise during all seasons. In that case, proper water budgeting will be needed to ensure equal distribution of water to the crops, M. Moorthy, Chief Engineer, Water Resource Organisation, Tiruchirapalli, said here recently.
He was inaugurating a one-day ClimaRice Stakeholders’ Workshop at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, attended by representatives from Government Departments, non-Governmental organisations and farmers.
“The task of stretching the limited water resources to meet the rising demands for water-derived goods and services for the utmost economy and optimum use of water resources is essential. Climate change studies undertaken so far also reveal that action is essential in order to prevent long-term damage to India’s water cycle,” Mr. Moorthy added.
He cautioned that the change to India’s annual monsoon was expected to result in severe droughts and intense flooding in parts of India. Measures that could be taken to reduce water deficit were related to cropping pattern and water distribution practices.
“Changing water timings, changing existing crops for others with lower water requirement, and reducing the irrigation area are some possible measures to reduce water deficit. However, these are also the most difficult to implement,” Mr. Moorthy said.
Speaking at the workshop, P. Murugesa Boopathi, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said rice was found to be the most vulnerable to climate change.
Although rice production would be affected by climate change, rice farming also had the capacity to amplify the problem. It led to release of significant amounts of methane into the environment, methane being one of the important green house gases, he added. He expected that the ClimaRice project would provide suitable rice agronomic techniques for adapting climate change and also enabled increase of public awareness about it.
Inger Sangnes, Counseller, Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi, said that climate change projects, especially the ClimaRice project, were high on the agenda of the Norwegian Embassy. While phase one of the project was being carried out in the Cauvery Delta zone, the second would continue there and also be extended to the Krishna Rive basin.
Nagothu Udaya Sekhar, ClimaRice Co-ordinator, Bioforsk, Norway, and S. Ranganathan, President, Cauvery Delta Development Studies, Thanjavur, spoke.
