The need for crop diversification as a solution to climate change and enhance the nutritional value of food was stressed by experts during a workshop organized at Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni in Solan district on Friday. They also underlined the need to focus on reaching a new universal agreement to fight climate change.

The workshop had been organized by the university’s Department of Environmental Science in collaboration with Ambuja Cement Foundation, Darlaghat, on the theme ‘Ways to fight Climate Change.’ The objective of the workshop was also to find out sector-wise adaptation and mitigation strategies to combat climate change.

More than a dozen experts from environmental science, agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry sectors, members of the watershed development team, members of climate-proofing projects and farmers came together to discuss the cause and impact of climate change and the need to devise suitable adaptation and mitigation strategies. Over 100 participants took part in the workshop.

Dr SK Bhardwaj, Head, Department of Environmental Science, briefed about the status of climate change and its global challenge. He pointed out that the average temperature has increased by 1.5 degree Centigrade during the last 120 years in Himachal Pradesh.

“Presently, every country in the world is working to keep the temperature rise below 2-degree Centigrade, but still the results are not satisfactory. There are projections that by the end of this century temperature may increase beyond 2-degree Centigrade which can be very devastating,” he said.

Director of Extension Education of the university, Dr Inder Dev, who was the Chief Guest on the occasion, opined that there was a need to kickstart an individual initiative to tackle climate change. He emphasized the need to grow more trees and adopt mixed farming.

Co-coordinator of the workshop Dr Hukum Sharma while discussing various ways to tackle climate change, outlined the importance of different adaptation practices to be adopted at the farm level under climate change scenarios to ensure food and nutritional security.