Kerala has introduced a new strategy to make its agriculture sector more resilient to climate change, extreme heat, irregular rainfall, floods and other weather-related risks. The state’s Climate-Resilient and Energy-Efficient Agriculture (CREEA) report outlines measures to protect farmers while promoting a low-carbon and sustainable farming system.
The plan focuses on climate-resilient farming, emergency and risk planning, energy efficiency, net-zero agriculture and farmer capacity building. It also proposes setting up Kerala Climate-Resilient Agriculture Innovation Labs (K-CRAIL) at local levels to test sustainable crops, micro-irrigation and improved farming practices. Alappuzha, Palakkad and Wayanad were identified for the first set of these innovation labs.
The initiative also includes plans for community seed banks, farmer bioresource networks and an AI-powered risk-mapping platform that can use weather, crop and market information to help farmers make better decisions.