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With recurrent floods, storms and erratic rainfall adversely impacting farmers and agricultural productivity, the government will soon commence pilot programmes in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh for climate change mitigation through district-level contingency plans. An agriculture ministry said in the last three years 450 district-level contingency plans have been prepared to save agricultural crops from damage, and promote the usage of varieties of seeds which deal with erratic weather conditions. “The effectiveness of these contingency plans would be tested through these pilots to be carried out in six districts in three states,” CRIDA (Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture) Director Dr B Venkateswarlu said. CRIDA is a Hyderabad-based body affiliated with the ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research). Initiated by the agriculture ministry through ICAR and the respective state agricultural universities, a complete district dossier has been prepared which is expected to help the administration in dealing with the vagaries of weather for protecting the crop.