One of the major highlights of the first week of the ongoing COP26 climate summit in Glasgow was 27 countries becoming members of the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Policy Action Agenda for the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture and Global Action Agenda for Innovation in Agriculture,’ India being one of them. However, Indian environmental ministry said that India did not sign up for Sustainable Agriculture Agenda at COP26.
The Centre dismissed reports of the country signing up to the agenda as “baseless” and “factually incorrect.” The reason given by the government was that the country already has a National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) in place.
Image: Copernicus/EU
Gaurav Khare, official spokesperson of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, who is part of the Indian delegation at the COP26 summit, said;
Certain media reports have stated that India has signed the COP26 Action Agenda on Sustainable Agriculture at the ongoing Climate summit at Glasgow. It is clarified that such statements are baseless and factually incorrect.
Khare said that the country’s existing plan aims to evolve and implement strategies to make Indian agriculture more resilient to the rapidly changing climate. He noted that the NMSA was approved for three major areas – Rainfed Area Development (RAD); On Farm Water Management (OFWM); and Soil Health Management (SHM).
Four new programmes were later introduced namely Soil Health Card (SHC), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY), Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) and Sub Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF). Khare further highlighted that Indian agriculture remains on the path of sustainability with several plans in place.
The clarification comes as a shock as the UK’s COP26 release around the announcement had noted “all continents were represented, with countries including India, Colombia, Vietnam, Germany, Ghana and Australia,” for the sustainable agriculture agenda.
Understandably, it was a mix-up. But one might wonder that if India is already striving to achieve sustainable practices in agriculture, what is the harm in signing up for the global goal?
Via: Times of India