<span style="color: #222222;">Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today called for making agriculture climate-resilient, profitable and sustainable. Addressing the 41st convocation of Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Mr Naidu highlighted the importance of developing crops that can withstand drought, flood and diseases. He  emphasized the need to ensure remunerative prices to farmers and food and nutritional security to people. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Saluting farmers for displaying indomitable spirit and dedication during COVID-19, Mr Naidu emphasized on developing stress-resistant varieties along with climate adaptation strategies to increase the resilience of Indian agriculture and make it sustainable.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Cautioning about the negative impact of climate change on agriculture and food systems in coming decades, Mr Naidu called for development of technologies and methods, which can reduce the vulnerability of small and marginal farmers. Expressing concern over the challenges posed by receding water tables and increasingly polluted irrigation sources, he underlined the importance of developing climate-resilient, drought-tolerant genotypes and water saving technologies.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Referring to agriculture as the backbone of rural economy, the Vice President said that more than 50 per cent of the country's population is still dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.</span><br />''