Food is the first among the hierarchical needs of a human being and this is likely to be the worst sufferer under conditions of global warming and sea level rise Prof M.S. Swaminathan Food security is a major concern in an era of climate change. Adverse changes in precipitation, temperature and sea level will harm present and potential food production. In countries like ours where population is still growing and per capita land and water resources are shrinking, this will be a disaster. Therefore it is urgent that we strengthen our agricultural production systems under conditions of uncertain weather patterns. Fortunately, weather forecasting techniques are improving. Given the prediction of a normal southwest monsoon this year, we should launch immediately a "bridging the yield gap movement" using clean technologies associated with conservation farming and green agriculture. The idea of the movement is to bridge the prevailing gap between potential and actual yields. BRIDGING THE YIELD GAP Over sixty per cent of our cultivated area is still rain fed. The yield gap analysis for rain fed crops in India undertaken by the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) led consortium has indicated that the productivity of many crops such as kharif sorghum and pearl millet can be increased many times from their current levels of productivity. The same is true for the productivity of legumes and oilseeds. Supplemental irrigation using harvested rain water would further increase these yields. Our committed Goal should be to increase average productivity of selected crops in rain fed areas by at least 50% by 2010. This can be accomplished through the following steps: