R. Roy Burman

Climate Change Risk Perception, Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy: An Extension Outlook in Mountain Himalaya

Climate change is becoming an ever increasing global threat which is difficult to ignore. The major underlying cause is anthropogenic, i.e. excessive use of fossil fuels, destruction of forests for industrialisation and urbanisation with rapid overgrowing population. The danger is such alarming that ecosystem will be irreversibly altered which will lead to suffering of human life by many ways. The overriding appearance of climate change is the increasing average worldwide temperature which is popularly called as global warming, and as a consequence several regions of the Earth are facing visible problems such as melting of glaciers, sea level rising, deviations in precipitation patterns and increase in plant diseases, and a number of bourgeoning challenges for public health are coming across by many nations. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the Indian Himalayan ecosystem (IHE) is one of the extremely vulnerable zones followed by the coastal ecosystem towards the climate change in India, and as per projection the climate change will impart serious environmental, economic and social impacts of the Indian Himalaya agricultural production system. At this juncture, strong adaptation and mitigation strategy is needed for reducing the vulnerability of resource-poor hill farmers and sustainable development of the Himalayan ecosystem. Climate change adaptation involves holistic changes in agricultural and ecological management practices. It comprises a combination of distinct responses, the indigenous knowledge systems, alternative practices and accessible technologies. Adaptation policy should be taking into account the farmers’ perspective. In this piece of writing, the focus is to draw an outline of present condition and, furthermore, propose a strategy for effective adaptation and mitigation of climate change suited for Himalayan agricultural system.

Constraints Experienced by Agricultural Scientists and Extension Personnel in Rice Knowledge Management and its Delivery

Rice being staple crop, cultivated in almost all over India. In order to provide probable solution about rice cultivation to all the stakeholders, the Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad launched Rice Knowledge Management Portal (RKMP). The present study was undertaken with an objective to analyse the constraints experienced by agricultural scientists and extension personnel in rice knowledge management and its delivery. The results showed that agricultural scientists and extension personnel faced technological, social, economical and psychological constraints more severely. Under the technological constraints, lack of updated information and technical and Infrastructure problems while using information and communication technologies (ICTs), poor maintenance of ICT tools were major constraints. In case of social constraints, restriction to promote organization information followed by less networking among extension personnel found to be most limiting factor for using portal information. In case of psychological factors, beneits given to particular group of people was found most severe and techno-phobia was found least affecting to respondents for utilizing information. In case of economic constraints, high cost of internet and cost of computer/smart phones were limiting the use of information provided by RKMP. These indings will help in restructuring and necessary modiications for reaching the unreach for information dissemination and making portal more effective for users to ensure timely and relevant information.