Zero tilling and organic farming will not only eradicate the need for expensive fossil fuel machinery, synthetic fertilizers and crop chemicals but also increase yields substantially and make way for farmers to return to their natural state, said Foundation for Farming, (Zimbabwe) Director Brian Oderive. He was inaugurating an international workshop on ‘climatic change in agriculture: Adaptation and mitigation strategies,' held at Gandhigram Rural Institute near here on Wednesday. Variations of temperature, rainfall, sunlight and wind were fundamentally critical factors in agricultural production. Projection of insufficient arable land and the need to feed an ever increasing world population demanded urgent discussion and implementation of strategies for adaptation and mitigation. Narrating the success story of zero tillage, the Director said that Zimbabwe was the second largest producer of quality tobacco before its independence next to US. “After independence, we stopped tobacco production and found alternate crops for survival. Amid stiff protests, we tried zero tillage which was heard from America in 1980s. To everyone's surprise, we had harvested 20 tonnes of maize in two hectares (national yield was 400 kg per hectare). Later, this annual cropping programme of zero tillage was extended to 3,500 hectares. Our success enabled us to lead the way for 85 per cent of all commercial farmers in Zimbabwe to accept and begin no tillage farming.” “Simple methodologies and management system developed by us meant for small scale farmers were shared by 28 nations of Africa and in four other continents. This system had made many yield records in Zimbabwe,” he added. India and Zimbabwe can have the courage to face realities and openness to deal with some of the sensitive issues like genetic modification and its effects, he insisted. In his address, Vice-Chancellor SM. Ramasamy insisted on integrated approach by scientists, environmentalists, chemists, geologists and sociologists to protect nature. In his felicitation, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Dean M. Sankaranarayanan said agriculture production was significantly affected by climate change. But agriculture itself was major contributor to increasing methane and nitrous oxide concentrations in earth's atmosphere. Flow of information should be expedited. Adaption and mitigation will require local responses and policy responses must reflect global impact and inter-linkages, he added.