News Excerpt:

The Prime Minister unveiled 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient, and biofortified seed varieties for agricultural and horticultural crops on August 11, 2024.

More detail about News

• Developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), these seeds cover 61 different crops, including 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops, and are designed to improve farm productivity and increase farmers' income.
• Among the field crops, the varieties include cereals, millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, and fiber crops.
• In horticulture, the Prime Minister released new varieties of fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, tubers, spices, flowers, and medicinal plants.
• The seeds were introduced at three experimental agriculture plots located at Delhi's Pusa Campus.

CR Dhan 416 Rice variety

• One of the newly released seed varieties is CR Dhan 416, a rice variety specifically designed for coastal saline regions.
• It yields an impressive 48.97 quintals per hectare and reaches maturity within 125-130 days. This variety is moderately resistant to several diseases, including brown spot, neck blast, sheath rot, rice tungro disease, and glume discoloration.
• Additionally, it offers complete resistance to brown plant hoppers, grasshoppers, and stem borers.

New Durum Wheat variety

• A new durum wheat variety was also introduced that is particularly suitable for the regions of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the plains of Tamil Nadu. This variety, adapted for irrigated conditions, has an average grain yield of 30.2 quintals per hectare.
• It is not only tolerant to terminal heat and resistant to stem and leaf rusts but also biofortified with higher levels of zinc (41.1 ppm) and iron (38.5 ppm), containing 12% protein.

Variety of Pulses

• A total of 11 new pulse varieties have been introduced, including chickpea, pigeon pea, lentil, field pea, faba bean, and mung bean.
• The chickpea varieties, ideal for timely sown, rainfed, or irrigated conditions during the Rabi season in the North East Plain Zone (NEPZ), yield 17.79 quintals per hectare and mature within 130 days.
• These varieties are moderately resistant to wilt, collar rot, and stunt, and are tolerant to pod damage.

Oilseed Varieties

• In addition, seven new oilseed varieties, such as safflower, soybean, groundnut, and sesame, along with seven forage crops, including forage pearl millet, berseem, oats, forage maize, and forage sorghum, were also released.

Sugarcane Varieties

• The Prime Minister further introduced four new sugarcane varieties, six fiber crops including cotton and jute, and 11 potential crops such as buckwheat, amaranth, winged bean, adzuki bean, pillipesara, kalingda, and perilla.

Horticultural Crop Varieties

• According to the Ministry, 40 new horticultural crop varieties have also been introduced, covering fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, spices, plantation crops, flowers, and medicinal plants.

Pusa 2002 Millet variety

• Millet variety ‘Pusa 2002,’ matures in just 70 days, compared to the usual 110 days required by other varieties.

Girnar 6 Groundnut variety

• Groundnut variety ‘Girnar 6’ is known for its high oil content and encouraged efforts to enhance the oil content in other crop varieties to improve their nutritional and economic value.

Biofortified Seeds for Enhancing Nutrition and Food Security

• India is advancing the development of biofortified seeds for pulses, wheat, mustard, millets, fruits, and vegetables to enhance their nutritional content and address food security concerns, as reported by a senior government official.
• This initiative aims to improve India's position on the Global Hunger Index, which highlights not a lack of food but the low nutritional quality of existing crops contributing to malnutrition among newborns and women.
• While India is food self-sufficient, the challenge is to boost the nutritional value of crops to combat malnutrition and anemia.
• Biofortified seeds with increased iron content will produce crops like red potatoes and red okra, as well as bananas with higher zinc levels. However, these biofortified varieties could be up to 10 times more expensive than current options.
• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its 113 institutes are working on developing these seeds to ensure they are suited to local climates and contain higher levels of iron, zinc, and other micronutrients.
• The goal is to replace the entire seed stock within four to five years, with new seeds being distributed through government channels.
• India's Global Hunger Index ranking dropped to 111 out of 125 countries in 2023, reflecting a "serious" level of hunger based on indicators such as under-nourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality.