GUWAHATI: The second day of the SDG Conclave 2020 in Guwahati saw deliberations from various eminent speakers on different topics relating to the achievement of sustainable development goals.
Four technical sessions were organised on the second day of the conclave. One such session focussed on ‘climate adaptive agriculture’. Speaking during the session, Dr G Ravindra Chary, director, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad said that rainfall distribution is important for agriculture.
She added that many northeastern states have faced deficits in terms of rainfall over the past few years. These include Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
“When there is higher precipitation in fewer days, it will fall under extreme event and can cause soil erosion and other aspects which will impose challenges for agriculture and natural resource management,” stated Chary.
Further another panellist Mangsatabam Meitei, managing director, natural resources, North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) elaborated on the ongoing works under NERCORMP.
He mentioned that their project covers 10 districts in four states of the northeast namely- Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Manipur and has been under implementation for the past 19 years.
“The project includes critical features such as home gardening and we have covered a total of 2532 villages and 1.18 lakh households,” said Meitei.
Other sessions were organised on different topics including ‘SDGs in the north eastern region: pathways for localisation and achievement’, ‘Drivers of economic prosperity and sustainable livelihoods’ and ‘nutrition security and health and wellbeing for all’.
The three-day SDG Conclave 2020 which kicked off on February 24, is being organised by NITI Aayog in association with DONER Ministry, NEC, UNDP, RIS, Chambers of Commerce and Tata Trusts at Assam Administrative Staff College in Guwahati.
The inaugural session on February 24 was attended by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Assam finance minister Himanata Biswa Sarma, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Mizoram CM Zoramthanga, Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang, Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb, CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kant, UN Resident Coordinator of India Renata Lok Dessallien among others.