“We are already witnessing impacts of climate change in the form of extreme weather events like heat waves, intense rainfall episodes, droughts and hailstorms. We need to prepare our communities to face this challenge”, the Minister said while addressing closing ceremony of the two-day workshop on climate change for media at Environmental Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI), Hyderabad.

The Minister said the State government had launched a project in Mahbubnagar district for building capacity of agricultural households and make them climate resilient. B Kalyan Chakravarthy, Director General, EPTRI, P N Vasanti, Director General, Centre for Media Studies and Kirtiman Awasthi, Senior Policy Advisor, GIZ also spoke in the function.

The two-day workshop was organised by Centre for Media Studies (CMS), German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

The day long deliberations had a series of interactions with experts, scientists, policy makers with media professionals. Farmers were also represented to share their viewpoint during these deliberations. Senior thematic experts presented data about different aspects of climate change in the state and media experts discussed challenges of communicating climate change related issues to the public through media. The workshop included field visit to Jawahar Nager Solid Waste Management Centre and to see climate resilient agriculture initiative at ICRISAT.