Catalog

The course will focus on strategies for adapting to climate change’s impacts, mitigating its consequences, and addressing climate justice issues. Teacher candidates will engage in discussions about various approaches to climate resilience and explore the ethical dimensions of climate change. By examining real-world examples, participants will gain insights into effective adaptation and mitigation practices, preparing them to promote climate justice in their local areas.

Dryland agriculture has a distinct place in Indian agriculture, occupying 67 percent of the cultivated area, contributing to 44 percent of food grains and supporting 40 percent of human and 60 percent of livestock populations. Most of the pulses, oilseeds, and millets are confined to dryland ecosystems. Although India is blessed with an average annual rainfall of about 1200 mm, the fate of dryland crops oscillates with the quantity, onset, progress, spatial and temporal distribution of monsoon rains. In order to achieve evergreen revolution, we shall have to make grey areas (drylands) as green through the latest technological innovations.

Therefore, the course – Resource Management in Rainfed Drylands is designed to give a clear picture of agricultural technologies and practices developed by scientists in improving dryland productivity and to showcase the extraordinary amount of research and successful field action undertaken in dryland agriculture by India leading to enhancement of productivity in dryland agriculture.

For bringing inclusive improvement in the functioning of Agricultural Systems across the world, the training and teaching of the discipline of Agricultural Statistics are now of paramount importance. Understanding the recent statistical applications for data collection, small descriptive and predictive analysis on estimating yield and productivity is the need of the hour. The teaching and training aspects associated with these components are essential and a significant role is played by various institutes, both in research as well as teaching and training in the field of Agricultural Statistics and Computer Application.

This course is designed for agriculturists to learn to establish their own statistical inferences and comprehend the graphical user interface of the recent Android/iOS/Windows applications designed for the purpose. The candidates increase their productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness, facilitate access to markets, improve nutritional outcomes and enhance resilience to climate change. These technologies range from mobile apps to digital identities for farmers to solar applications for agriculture to portable agriculture devices.

The candidates taking this course would explore the Agriculture Industry using key insights to gain a richer and deeper understanding of the Agriculture Industry and gain a solid understanding of core concepts of statistics and data in agriculture, with a focus on used cases and potential impact. The farmers learning the concepts in this course are expected to have a closer acquaintance with digital tools helping them to enhance on-farm productivity.

Value Engineering techniques, which are founded on systematic problem-solving and cost-effective optimisation, have been utilised in industries such as manufacturing and construction. Nonetheless, the agricultural sector represents a prospective application area for these techniques. This sector relies heavily on machinery and equipment to meet the ever-increasing demands of global food production, and obstacles such as rising costs, resource scarcity, and environmental concerns require innovative approaches to optimise agricultural resource allocation and yield increase. This course investigates how value engineering methodologies, such as functional analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and value analysis, can be adapted and utilised effectively to improve the performance, efficacy, and sustainability of agricultural applications.

Insect pests cause huge economic loss to crops across the globe affecting total food production which is essential to meet the demands of growing human population. Avoiding such loss is of the immediate concern for all and this is achievable through Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

This course on IPM will cover the basics of insects and their dominance in nature, insects as pests, reasons for their outbreak resulting in crop loss, types of pests, and mode of surveillance, sampling methods and economic damage levels of pest populations. The course also explains about the principles and concepts of pest management and different components of IPM: legal, ecological, physical, cultural, mechanical, behavioral biological, botanical, chemical and biotechnological approaches.

This course also talks on Integration of different IPM tactics, their pros and cons and Implementation of AESA – Agro-ecosystem Analysis in pest management. Lastly, successful IPM cases in Cereals (Paddy), Commercial Crops (Cotton, Sugarcane), Pulses (Redgram, Soybean), Oilseed Crop (Groundnut), Vegetable Crops (Cabbage, Tomato) and Fruit Crops (Mango, Grapes) will be discussed.

One of the greatest challenges of the century is the need to feed the population with the available limited resources where the only solution is to increase the productive capacity of the eco-systems. Intensification of animal rearing is prevalent to explore the existing resources with maximum efficacy to increase the production per unit. But it creates conducive conditions for parasite transmission and growth. Parasitic infections are transmitted from animal to animal or from animal to human by contact or ingestion of infective larvae or oocysts through contaminated water, soil and food. Parasites reside inside or outside their hosts get host nutrition and blood, thus reduce production and cause financial losses due to control, treatment and mortality costs.

Economic efficiency plays a key role in livestock farming. Like in any other activity, farmers must produce at a low-cost to obtain a positive balance with better returns on investment. Economic losses occur not only when animals die, but also when they are unable to perform their regular work, or when they produce inferior meat, milk, wool, hides, or eggs. Parasitic infections can limit and restrict those economic results. Endemic parasites are a major cause for economic loss in animal husbandry, especially in tropical areas and the developing countries.

A proper knowledge of the parasites and vigorous application of this knowledge will help to protect the nation’s livestock industry. The veterinarians and personnel involved in the livestock services need to refresh and update themselves in control of parasitic infestations. Hence this course will be useful for all those involved in animal practice so as to reach those benefits to the livestock and their owners.

This course is intended for field workers and practitioners who are working with rural communities that are affected by climate change and seeking sustainable solutions to its impacts. The conservation of nature, including natural resources and natural processes, is based on a clear understanding of Indigenous communities and their strong relationship with nature. Indigenous practices and traditions preserve nature because they are based on respecting and adapting to natural cycles and local climate conditions. Understanding and acknowledging Indigenous community rights also contributes to human respect for nature. Indigenous communities have age-old traditions and practices that signify a spiritual and emotional connection to the natural environment. Adapting certain Indigenous practices will help to support other conservation efforts. We can implement and adapt small but steady steps based on Indigenous practices and traditions at a local level. If we are to change our behaviours and attitudes towards the conservation of Earth, we must understand the rights and traditions of Indigenous Peoples both locally and globally. This course contains both individual and group exercises to develop the learner’s skills in total biomass utilisation.

This course is intended for field workers and practitioners who are working with rural communities that are affected by climate change events and are looking to innovation as the key climate-responsive action to address community resilience. The course will explore alternative sustainable livelihoods to better manage natural resources as a result of innovation in climate resilience. Existing innovations can be tailored to suit local situations. Successful implementation of the innovation depends on institutional support, access to markets, skills and capacity enhancement and the availability of local/traditional knowledge. The concept of total biomass use will help the learner to understand best practices in natural resource management and conservation at a local level. The course will identify types of institutional support, networks and skills required to implement total biomass use and explore a climate-responsive livelihood through the innovation model that is adapted.

Gender inequality makes it more difficult to fight climate change. When women have the same opportunities as men, communities are better able to adapt to the impacts of climate change and build a more sustainable future.

This course is designed for people who work with communities at the grassroots level. It:

• provides a comprehensive overview of gender-sensitive livelihoods and how to develop them;
• encourages people to share their own ideas about and experiences of gender-sensitive livelihoods;
• explores ways of designing livelihoods that are gender-sensitive and protect the natural environment to help communities become more resilient to climate change; and
• encourages people to come up with new ideas about how to protect the environment, reduce the effects of climate change and create jobs that will last into the future.

This course looks at some of the causes of climate change and its effects on food security and food justice in particular. It discusses food and nutrition in relation to the geography of community spaces and presents various food insecurity scenarios at individual and community levels.

It also looks at:

• coping mechanisms that have helped people and communities to become resilient — for example, innovations in sustainable agriculture and subsistence food production to counter threats to livelihoods
• traditional best practices and the alignment with location-specific conservation of natural resources
• small-scale and traditional food processing techniques for preserving food for sustenance and survival