The two days national conference on climate smart regenerative agriculture for food, health and environment security was held at Gurbachan Singh Foundation for research, education and development (GSFRED) research centre, Karnal on 20-21 March, 2026. About 300 scientists, industry representatives NGO’s students and farmers participated from almost all states of the country including Panjab, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pardesh, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Pondichery etc. About 40 lead and oral presentations and similar number of poster presentations were made by young scientists, research associates and post-doctoral students covering seven sub themes of the conference. Each sub-theme of the conference was chaired and co-chaired by national experts in the area of climate change and regenerative agriculture. The first panel discussion on One health-One Planet was moderated by Dr. M.L. Madan, Former, DDG (AS), ICAR, New Delhi. Drs. J.S. Samra, former, DDG (NRM), ICAR; Dr. B. Parkash, former Technical Expert, National Rainfed Area Authority; Dr. S.K. Malhotra, Vice Chancellor, MPUHT, Karnal, Dr. Gyanendera Singh, Former Director, ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal and Dr. R.K. Yadav, Director, ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal participated as experts and offered valuable suggestions.
The most fascinating part of the conference was school students interaction with eminent national experts in the area of climate change and regenerative agriculture. About 60 school students displayed cutting edge scientific theories through models covering subjects of climate change, regenerative agriculture, food security, nutrition security, health security, environmental security, air quality, green house gas emissions, artificial intelligence, integrated farming food systems etc.
The Second Panel on climate policy, economics and sustainability was moderated by Dr. Gurbachan Singh, Founder Chairman, GSFRED and Drs. M.L. Madan, B.Parkash, Gyanendera Singh and Randhir Singh participated as experts. The valedictory function was also held under the chairmanship of Dr. Gurbachan Singh, Former Union Agriculture Commissioner, Chairman, ASRB, Govt. of India and Director, ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal. In this two days conference following recommendation were discussed and drafted.
There is need to establish automatic weather stations upto block and village level for accurate record of change in weather parameters, its periodic monitoring and for developing climate change management strategy; establishment of crop weather watch group at state level, district level and block level involving experts from agriculture, meteorology and all allied departments to prepare agro-advisories to manage climate change impact on agriculture including livestock at the grass root level ; need to strengthen research and development efforts to promote integrated farming food system models (crops, livestock and trees) to make agriculture climate resilient and doubling income of small and marginal farmers who account for more than 80% of total farmers in the country; increasing water availability through in-situ and ex-situ harvesting and storing each drop of rainwater. At present, hardly 30 to 35 percent rainwater is used and rest goes to the sea. There is strong need to construct reservoirs along all seasonal rivers to tap part of water flowing through these rivers for ground water recharge, controlling floods and use for irrigation and drinking purpose; need to develop and promote multi-stress tolerant climate resilient plants, crops, varieties and livestock including microbes; crop diversification from high water demanding crops like rice and wheat to low water requiring crops such as maize, soybean, green gram, black gram, mustard, lentil and chick pea is need of the hour. For diversification to happen proper marketing, value addition, assured MSP and trade facilities need to be created at block, cluster of villages and village level; strong need to promote the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the field of climate smart regenerative agriculture; promotion of problem solving, multidisciplinary farmer participatory research and skill and entrepreneurship development in the area of climate smart regenerative agriculture.
