Dr. Anita choudhary
Head (Acting)
E-mail: head_envir[at]iari[dot]res[dot]in

Environmental pollution and climate change are the two major problems confronting agriculture today. Environmental impacts of agriculture and vice versa have raised serious questions about the sustainability of agricultural production systems because of widespread deterioration of soil, water and air quality. Climate change, caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, has emerged as one of the most prominent global environmental problems. These are likely to threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of people in India. To sustain the food and nutritional security of the country, urgent need is to make Indian agriculture more resilient to environmental degradation and climate change. To address these challenges Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture (CESCRA), a multi-disciplinary Centre was established at Nuclear Research Laboratory Building, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012 with its inauguration by Dr. S. Ayyappan, Director General, ICAR and Secretary, DARE in presence of Dr. H.S. Gupta, Director, IARI on January 11, 2012. Centre has emerged based on the outstanding contributions of two decades by the Division of Environmental Sciences. The Center has ambitious programme of collaborating with the public, private and civil society organizations to develop and demonstrate the technologies on-farm and promote them to enhance resilience of Indian agriculture and improve the livelihood of farmers. The mandates of the Centre include