310 of India's 651 agricultural districts highly vulnerable to climate change, says PM's principal secretary PK Mishra

New Delhi: PK Mishra, principal secretary to the PM, underlined on Wednesday that 310 of the 651 agricultural districts in the country are "climate-vulnerable" even as he placed emphasis on the integration of research, data and policy for sustainable food systems. He lauded India's leadership role in advancing the cause of global climate action and batted for international research cooperation, especially in the Global South, on this issue.

During a virtual address to the 20th Annual Meeting of Environment for Development Network at IIM, Kozhikode, Mishra underlined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative on International Year of Millets has led to more attention to their nutritional value. Mishra emphasised stronger integration of research, granular data and evidence-based policymaking to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, agricultural resilience, food security and nutrition.

He referred to assessments made under ICAR's National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture programme, which found that 310 out of 651 agricultural districts are "highly or very highly vulnerable". He said this underlined the need for interventions tailored to local conditions and a shift towards region-specific adaptation rather than uniform policies.