Thiruvananthapuram, Wednesday 14 April 2010: Mullakkara Ratnakaran, Minister of Agriculture has taken the initiative to appoint a 12-member committee to study the impact of climate change on Kerala agriculture.

The decision to appoint the committee was taken at the behest of the Agriculture Minister at the end of a workshop held here under the auspices of the Agriculture Department to prepare a plan of action to tackle natural calamities.

The committee would have as members P.P. Balachandran, Director, Paddy Mission, Padma Kumar, Subramanya Iyer, T.R. Gopalakrishnan, and Nandini of Kerala Agricultural University, Sudevan of the Indian Meteorology Department and V.S. Ravindran and Krishna Kumar of the Central Plantation Research Institute, The committee will also have representatives from the Rubber Board, the Animal Husbandry Department, the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute and Indian Institute of Spices Research.

The committee has been asked to hold meetings every month to discuss climate change and its impact on Kerala agriculture and submit periodic reports to the Minister.