International Conference on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Smart Agriculture (ICSSA-2023)

International Conference on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Smart Agriculture (ICSSA-2023)

The Department of Zoology organized an International Conference on Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Smart Agriculture (ICSSA-2023) from 6th to 7th April 2023. The conference was sponsored by Ministry of Earth Science (Govt. of India), NABARD Chhattisgarh, Chhattisgarh Environmental Conservation Board (CECB) Raipur and also supported by ANANT Fish and Feed, Raipur (Industrial Sponsor).

The inaugural ceremony was graced by the presence of esteemed dignitaries Shri Prem Kumar (I.F.S, Secretary of Forest and Climate Change Department, CG), Dr. Surendra Babu (General Manager, NABARD), Dr. P.K.Ghosh (Director, ICAR- National Institute of Biotic Stress Management), Shri Dilraj Prabhakar (IFS), Prof. R. Sridhar (V.C., Kalinga University), Dr. Sandeep Gandhi (Registrar, Kalinga University) and Prof. Krishan Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru University).

Dr Babu talked about the effect of climate change on different agricultural activities and oriented the audience with the mandate of NABARD regarding climate change mitigating efforts.

Shri Prem Kumar emphasized how the human activities are playing a Major role as a driving force for climate change and also talked about human driven extinctions in Australia, Madagascar and other areas. He also urged the students to play the role of Climate Cops.

Dr P. K. Ghosh, spoke about the issues and challenges faced by agriculture sector due to the change in climate. He also spoke about the methane emissions from paddy fields and cattle ranches. He also dismissed the myth around paddy fields being the biggest emitters of methane as conventionally believed.

Prof. Krishan Kumar, spoke about IPCC reports and its significance in understanding the climate change data. Dr. Gayatri V K, (Scientist, Govt. of India, Indian Meterological Department), shed light on how weather forecasting data are useful for farmers and other stakeholders. The conference had 3 international speakers, Dr. Edgar Gonzalez (UNAM, Mexico), Dr, Rumman Hossain (University of Akron, Ohio, USA) and Dr, Alok Pandey, (Lancaster University, UK). They shared their research work about the impact of climatic change and its mitigating efforts.

Dr. S. Gajalakshmi from Pondicherry University, spoke about the Greenhouse gases mitigation, nutrients and energy recovery in paddy fields integrated with plant microbial fuel cells.

The event witnessed 230 registrations in both online and offline mode by students, research scholars and faculty from across the nation, of which 65% were oral and poster presentations and the rest were enthusiastic attendees. The attendees were from different states of India like Manipur, Kerela, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar and Orissa. The Vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Manoj Singh, Convenor of ICSSA 2023. The organizers also received encouraging and affirmative feedbacks from the participants who learnt a lot about Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation as well as Sustainable Agriculture approaches.