Adaptive Rice Cultivation for a Changing ClimatE (Ad-RiCCE)

Rice, the most consumed cereal of the world is very sensitive to drought and heat. Inefficient use of water and burgeoning demand from other sectors combined with rising global temperatures will lead to reductions in rice productivity as well as adversely affecting farmers’ income. Despite efforts in developing water saving practices and varieties, neither water management nor improving rice production was attained due to the lack of converging efforts between scientists, policy makers and farmers. Here we combine the expertise of plant scientists, social scientists and policy makers to develop and disseminate water saving practices and water-productive varieties though a farmers’ participatory approach. Cauvery, a major south Indian river, supports irrigation to over 5 million hectares of rice cultivation. Dwindling water resources and a general rise in temperatures is decreasing water availability in mid-reach while expanding the parched tail-end areas of the command. A focused trans-disciplinary approach will harness the available water and genetic resources efficiently through precise irrigation scheduling to protect yields and hence societal well-being. Further, we also propose developing water productive varieties for warmer climates through combining the knowledge on physiology, molecular genetics and modern Biotechnological-Omics approaches. These learnings will be up-scaled from plant to canopy to field levels using crop modelling and Genomic selections. modern biotechnological approaches. Such climate adaptive rice varieties will enhance yield levels with reduced use of resources. The water thus saved will support additional production in tail-ends and agri-based industries substantially improving farmers’ economy in the region. This experiential learning by all stakeholders will accelerate the dissemination of accrued knowledge to facilitate technological adoptions in Cauvery basin that can be extended to other regions. In the process the program develops excellent human resources in all the areas of research.