- Why in news
- On 23 January 2026 (Basant Panchami), ICAR and BISA held a NICRA review workshop in New Delhi marking 15 years of the programme. ICAR DG Dr. M. L. Jat also launched ACASA–India, a web-based climate adaptation atlas.
- What it is
- NICRA is an ICAR network project on climate-resilient agriculture. It combines strategic research, field demonstrations of resilient technologies in vulnerable districts, capacity building and sponsored research. It is aimed especially at rainfed and climate-stressed regions.
- Implementing body
- NICRA is run by ICAR under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. Its Expert Committee is chaired by Dr. B. Venkateshwarlu.
- Coverage
- NICRA is implemented at over 200 locations in 151 highly climate-vulnerable districts.
- ACASA–India
- A web-enabled digital platform built by ICAR-led NARES with BISA–CIMMYT for location-specific, data-driven adaptation planning.
- Age of programme
- The workshop marked 15 years of NICRA and sought to chart a data-driven roadmap.
- Related schemes
- The DG named NICRA, PM Fasal Bima Yojana and livestock and fisheries missions as part of India's climate-resilience ecosystem.
Don’t confuse with NICRA vs PMFBY: NICRA is an ICAR research and demonstration programme building adaptive technologies. PMFBY is a crop insurance scheme that compensates farmers for losses.
Don’t confuse with ICAR vs BISA: ICAR is India's apex agricultural research body under the Ministry of Agriculture. BISA is a partner institution working with CIMMYT in South Asia.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Gives farmers in vulnerable districts tested climate-resilient practices, especially in rainfed areas.
- ACASA–India supports location-specific adaptation planning and can serve as a model for other countries.
Problems
- Coverage of 151 districts is limited compared with the country's overall farm area, so scaling up is hard.
- Data and learnings are spread across many schemes and agencies and need convergence.
Way forward
- Build a unified national climate action platform with a centralised data ecosystem.
- Develop credible carbon credit methodologies for agriculture, as stressed at the workshop.
Put in your answer
NICRA reach: Over 200 locations in 151 climate-vulnerable districts show a field-level adaptation effort.
Resilience ecosystem: Climate resilience combines science, insurance, livestock and fisheries missions and institutional convergence.
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UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting ICAR project on climate-resilient farming, with Atlas of Climate Adaptation launched; release has few hard facts for statements.
Worth revising until Prelims 2027: most news questions come within two years of the event.