While addressing the inaugural session of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Environment for Development (EfD) Network at IIM Kozhikode, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra (IAS:1972:GJ) called for scientific research and evidence-based policymaking to tackle the challenges of climate change, agricultural resilience, and food security.
According to him, climate change must not be viewed merely as an environmental concern, as its implications extend to agricultural productivity, water availability, food prices, public health, and livelihoods.
Mishra pointed out that addressing climate change requires collective action, innovative partnerships, and solutions that respond to the development priorities of countries across the world.
Further, he emphasised the need to move beyond conventional measures of food security, saying adequate food production alone is not sufficient; ensuring access to affordable, diverse, and nutritious diets was equally important.
Mishra also highlighted the importance of crop diversification and referred to the Prime Minister’s initiative in securing the United Nations declaration of 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
He said that this initiative helped bring global attention to the nutritional value and environmental sustainability of millets.
He called for a shift towards region-specific climate adaptation while disclosing that assessments under ICAR’s programme had identified 310 out of 651 agricultural districts as highly or very highly vulnerable. He underlined the need for interventions tailored to local agro-climatic conditions rather than uniform policy approaches.
Mishra also touched upon the role of data in policymaking. He stressed that the priority should not simply be to generate more data, but to ensure that information is timely, reliable, comparable, and actionable. He called for greater use of disaggregated, district-level data to identify variations in rainfall, water availability, soil conditions, crop performance and nutritional outcomes.
Referring to India’s climate commitments, Mishra reiterated that the country is pursuing the twin objectives of becoming a developed nation by 2047 and achieving Net Zero emissions by 2070. while safeguarding economic growth, poverty reduction, and improved living standards.
While lauding India’s leadership in global climate action, Mishra referred to initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which reflect India’s efforts to advance international cooperation on clean energy and climate-resilient infrastructure.
He stressed the importance of international research cooperation, saying countries across the Global South faced common challenges relating to climate variability, natural resource pressures, and changing agricultural patterns.
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