G20 members stressed on raising climate finance to help farmers: Agri secy

The G-20 members stressed on the need to increase climate finance to help farmers take up adaptation measures in order to mitigate the climate change impact on the farm sector, agriculture secretary Manoj Ahuja said on Wednesday.

Addressing media on the concluding day of the G20 first Agriculture Deputies' Meeting here, Ahuja said: "Climate finance was one of the issues which was discussed. The members felt that there was a need for an environment for increasing climate financing in terms of financing farmers for adaptation measures."

The member countries also suggested that farmers can be incentivised if they are adopting climate friendly farming or green agriculture. One of the ways was carbon credit, he said.

The G20 nations also shared their experience on the impact of climate change in agriculture, he added.

Climate smart agriculture was one of the four priority areas discussed in the first Agriculture Deputies Meeting.

The secretary said: "There was also discussion on the impact of climate change on agriculture and its productivity. We discussed how we can help save agriculture and make it sustainable."

India also shared the steps taken towards 'climate smart agriculture' like mapping the vulnerable areas and conducting research, he said.

On the "food security and nutrition" issue, Ahuja said, there was a discussion on achieving one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of "zero hunger".

"It has been seen that food insecurity has increased after 2018. This is a cause of concern. We discussed what best we can do to reduce hunger," he said.

On the third priority area of strengthening the value chain in agriculture, the secretary said there was a detailed discussion on improving the 'farm to folk' value chain in agriculture. India has already shifted its focus on production-centric approach to value-chain approach.

On the fourth priority area of digital agriculture, he said India shared about the Agristack project that will help issuing farm advisories and move towards precision farming.

"Based on the outcome of this meeting, further discussions will continue in future meetings on agriculture to be held in Chandigarh, Varanasi and Hyderabad," he added.

The three-day event of the first G20 Agriculture Deputies Meeting of the Agriculture Working Group (AWG) concluded on Wednesday.

Around 100 delegates, including representatives of international organisations like FAO, IFAD and IFPRI, attended the event.

The secretary said 10 more countries will be invited in future meetings on agriculture.