Proceedings of Stakeholder Workshop on “Climate Change and Coastal Aquaculture: Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigations for Resilience”
Stakeholders workshop on “Climate Change and Coastal Aquaculture: Impacts, adaptations and Mitigations for Resilience” was organised by Central Institute of rackishwater Aquaculture (CIBA), Chennai under the project “National Initiative on limate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) on 24th October, 2011 at Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Undi, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. About 100 people representing all the Stakeholders of aquaculture including aqua farmers, feed and input suppliers, aqua consultants, researchers (KVK and Water Management Project, (ANGRAU) Undi, RARS, ANGRAU) Maruteru, Fisheries Research Station, SVVU) Undi, College of Fisheries, Muthukur), ovt. officials (Department of Fisheries, Department of Agriculture, MPEDA, NaCSA, NABARD, Non Governmental Organisations such as Delta Farmers Association, Eluru) in West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh attended the workshop. Dr. Goipikrishna Principle Scientist and SIC (NGBD), CIBA Chennai, representing the Director of the Institute thanked all the participants for attending the workshop and briefly mentioned to the august gathering about the importance and relevance of studying the climate change parameters, events and their impact in aquaculture sector.
Dr. B. Venkateswarlu, Director, CRIDA, Hyderabad & National Coordinator, NICRA the chief guest described the origin of NICRA project, implementation and execution of the project all over India, funds allotted for long term research as well as for providing immediate solutions to the farmers in view of climate change, and also the present status and future directions of the NICRA project. Shri. M.V.S. Nagireddy, Governing Body member, ICAR, New Delhi the guest of honour highlighted the needs and aspirations of the farmers in Godavari District and the need of depth in research in effect of climate change on aquaculture. He also stressed the ICAR’s motto of ‘Farmers First’ and importance of scientists collaborating directly with farmers to understand and fulfil their requirements in a better way. He appreciated the efforts of NICRA project team from Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture for organising the workshop at right time. Dr. K. Suryanarayana, Associate Director of Research, RARS Maruteru, the special invitee has mentioned the about green house gases emission and exchange of gases by C3 and C4 plants and aquaculture systems. He also mentioned the importance and need for studying effect of climate change on agriculture as well as aquaculture.
Dr. R. Ramakrishna, Retired Scientist, Fisheries Research Station, Undi had given a lecture on Impact of climate change on the freshwater aquaculture. He explained the dynamics of climate change and its result on freshwater aquaculture and need for mitigating the effects. Dr. M. Muralidhar, Sr. Scientist, & Principal Inestigator, NICRA CIBA, Chennai presented the findings from focus group discussion meetings held in Dharbarevu and kivedu villages in the district during 23-24th September 2011. In both the villages farmers expressed that seasonal variations, rise in temperature, heavy & uneven rainfall pattern and cyclone are the major CC events perceived. The impact of these events on aquaculture, possible solutions and time frame for solving the problems expressed by farmers were presented. He also explained the objective of the present workshop and the methodology that is going to be exercised for getting action plan for farmers, scientists/technical people and policy makers to increase the overall adaptation capacity of farmers in mitigating the impact of climate change.
Dr. M. Kumaran, Sr. Scientist, CIBA has divided list of participants into three groups viz., farmers, technical and policy comprising mixed stakeholders in each group. CIBA scientists moderated the deliberations of different groups viz., Dr. M. Muralidhar for farmers group, Dr. J. Syama Dayal & Dr. M. Jayanthi for technical group and Sh. J. Ashok Kumar & Dr. M. Kumaran for policy group. In each group, adaptation measures were identified to reduce the impact of CC events and the responsible departments to act on the problem and the time limit. The salient adaptation measures identified in each group were presented in the open house and the unanimously endorsed measures from each group are given below. Farmers group:
Technical group: (responsible agency: Research Institutes – ICAR/SAUs) Pond dynamic studies including plankton diversity and water quality parameters in relation to climate change and extreme climatic events.
Policy group (Government level) measures:
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