Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture

The principal focus of this book will be how to make agriculture/food production climate resilient in the ecologically sensitive zones. The Western Ghats, in the state of Kerala, India, in which Wayanad district falls, has 75% of its area classified as ecologically sensitive zones and there are three types of such zones: (1)Highly ecologically sensitive zones (2) Middle sensitivity zones and (3) Low sensitivity zones. Most of the construction has taken place in the first two categories, and, indiscriminate and intense quarrying has also taken place in these two zones. As aerosol load increases in the atmosphere, dust particles from rock quarries increases which leads to higher ambient temperature, leading to ocean warming in the Arabian ocean, finally, resulting in excessive cloud formation and consequent torrential rainfall. This has led to huge landslides, where more than 500 human lives were lost in addition to huge property loss making it a global disaster of immense proportions. The book highlights the crucial question how agriculture in these sensitive areas can be made climate resilient.