Green Warehousing or Climate smart warehousing is the cornerstone of Sustainable Agriculture: Chairman (WDRA), Ministry of Food & Public Distribution, GoI  

NEW DELHI: Mr T K Manoj Kumar, Chairman, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India today said, “To realize the vision of climate-smart agriculture, we must embrace climate-smart warehousing or green warehousing. It’s an essential building block for a sustainable and resilient agricultural future.”

Addressing the conference on ‘Climate Smart Agriculture’ organized by FICCI, Mr Kumar emphasized the importance of adopting green warehousing practices in his address. Mr Kumar that “To achieve the goal of climate-smart agriculture, we must first ensure uniform and government-enforced standards across the warehousing sector. The Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDR) plays a pivotal role in this process by registering warehouses that issue negotiable warehouse receipts.” Mr Kumar further emphasized, “Grain storage forms a vital link in climate-smart agriculture, ensuring efficient and sustainable storage practices, reducing waste, and safeguarding the environment for a resilient agricultural future.”

Dr V N Kale, Additional Commissioner (M&T), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GoI today said, “The government is deeply committed to promoting sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.” Highlighting the significance of farm mechanization, Dr Kale stated that “Farm mechanization plays an important role in promoting Climate Smart Agriculture. Without farm mechanization, we can’t think about climate-smart agriculture.”

Dr Manoj Mishra, National Policy Advisor, FAOsaid, “The Climate Agriculture has integration to food systems. An investment in climate resilient Agri food systems drive enhancing solutions for Climate Smart Agriculture.”

Dr A Velmurugan, ADG (Soil & Water Management), ICAR said, “Any climate change technology that has to be inclusive, should be farmers oriented. We have to look out for the climate technologies starting from different varieties, different land management, water use efficiencies.”

Ms Amee Misra Senior Economist and head of Policy, UNDP India said, “If you look at the Indian agriculture, more than 50 per cent of the population is either directly or indirectly involved or dependent on agriculture and any kind of climate variability or extreme events have consequences not just for agricultural production and productivity, but food security in the country as well.”

Ms Anuja Kadian, Chair, FICCI taskforce on Sustainable Agriculture and Government & Industry Affairs Director, Asia Pacific, Corteva Agrisciencessaid, “Farmer-centric approach, impactful partnerships, and crop science innovation based on the predictable science-based ecosystem are crucial, at a time when India is championing sustainable agriculture development at the global stage.”

Dr Bharat Sharma, Scientist Emeritus (Water Resources), International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said, “In the fields of change, India sows the seeds of resilience with its Climate Smart Agriculture framework.”

Dr Ajeet Singh Nain, Professor & Director Research, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology said that sustainable agriculture cannot be achieved without Climate Smart Agriculture.