NIRDPR unveils programme to mitigate climate change impact in villages

The National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) Tuesday announced the launch of a World Bank-supported programme to train community resource persons and professionals in villages to combat the impact of climate change. As many as 638 drought and flood-prone villages in some districts of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar will be covered initially under the initiative, which will be scaled up nationwide subsequently, the NIRDPR said in a statement.

The new programme 'Sustainable Livelihoods and Adaptation to Climate Change (SLACC) is a certificate course. A training manual has already been prepared. According to the institute, the programme aims to create a cadre of over 200 certified 'climate-smart' community resource persons and over 100 young professionals in villages, who will combat the impact of climate change and secure their livelihood through climate proof planning and adaptations.

The cadre will further disseminate the climate resilient technologies to farming communities in their respective allocated villages, as assigned by the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) staff, it said. NIRDPR Director General W R Reddy said altogether 23 technology interventions are prioritised for farm level activities for climate resilience. They aim to reduce the cost of cultivation, improve yield and income, profitability, empower women and generate employment.

The SLACC project is funded by the Special Climate Change Fund, which was set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to finance global projects relating to adaptation, technology transfer and capacity building, among other areas. The SLACC project is being implemented in convergence with the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and other Centrally-sponsored schemes.

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