ISPRS-GEO-ISRS

Joint International Workshop on

Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture (ICCA 2009)

Report

The International Workshop on 'IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURE' was organised at Space Applications Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad during December 17-18, 2009. The workshop was jointly organised by the ISPRS (International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) Working Group VIII/6 on 'Agriculture, Ecosystem & Biodiversity', GEO (Group on Earth Observations) Task AG-07-03 on 'Global Agricultural Monitoring System of Systems' and Indian Society of Remote Sensing. The workshop was hosted by SAC and ISRS-Ahmedabad Chapter. 127 delegates, including 11 international delegates from 9 countries, participated in the workshop. The Indian participants were from 45 organizations including ICAR centers, IMD, IITM, CSIR, IIT, IIIT, ICRISAT, IISc, State Agricultural and General Universities, State Remote Sensing Centres and DOS centers.

The Inaugural Session was presided by Dr. R. R. Navalgund, Director, SAC and he delivered the welcomed address and briefed about the activities of SAC with special reference to climate change studies. The activities of ISPRS, GEO and ISRS (including ISRS-AC) and GEO AG-07-03 were briefed by Dr. Haruhisa Shimoda, President, ISPRS TC VIII, Dr. Fan Jinlong from GEO Secretariat and Sh. A. S. Kiran Kumar Chairman, ISRS-AC, respectively. Dr. Jai Singh Parihar, Chair, Organizing Committee and Vice-President, ISRS briefed about the workshop. The workshop was formally inaugurated by lighting of lamps. Both hard and soft copies of the proceedings were released during the inaugural session. Dr. S. S. Ray, Chair, ISPRS WG VIII/6 proposed the vote of thanks.

In the technical programme, of the workshop there were two invited lecture sessions, 7 technical sessions and 3 short presentation session during the two day period. The invited lectures were delivered by renowned experts including, Dr. R. R. Navalgund (Director, SAC), Dr. P. K. Aggarwal (National Professor, Indian Agriculture Research Institute), Dr. Krishna Kumar (Climate Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology), Prof. Sulochana Gadgil (Professor, Indian Institute of Science) and Dr. P. S. Thenkabail (Research Scientist, United States Geological Survey). Sh. A. S. Kiran Kumar (Associate Director, SAC) delivered the special evening lecture. The seven technical sessions on themes of Earth Observation for Climate Change Studies, Climate Change Impact on Agriculture, Agricultural Monitoring, Long Term Changes, Climate Variability and Agriculture and Mitigation and Adaptation Measures had 36 presentations, while the three short presentation sessions had 28 presentations.

The concluding session had a panel discussion on Role of Different Organizations for Climate Change studies. The expert panelists were representatives of GEO, USGS, IMD, Agricultural University and ISRO. Dr. M. C. Varshney, Vice Chancellor, AAU chaired the panel discussion, while Dr. Parihar was the moderator. The Panel recommended that,

• Climate change is an urgent issue, especially for monsoon based agriculture.
• Earth observation data is an essential input for impact models and regional level study.
• There is need for free and easy availability of remote sensing data for the user community.
• The coordination between international organizations, such as GEO, ISOPRS etc. are highly recommended to work towards impact assessment.

The concluding session also adopted the Workshop Resolutions, which are presented in the resolution section.