Modi releases over 100 climate-resilient crops

PM Modi urged scientists to engage with farmers monthly to promote new technologies and crop diversity.

New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday released 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient varieties of 65 crops in the national capital’s Pusa complex, the government’s farm-research hub, asking agricultural scientists to engage with farmers once every month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with farmers and scientists at the India Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa in New Delhi on Sunday. Union minister of agriculture and farmers' welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also present. (HT)

The Prime Minister released seeds and planting material at three sites in demonstration fields of the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He was accompanied by Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with ministers of state Bhagirath Choudhary and Ram Nath Thakur.

Interacting with scientists, Modi said experts from the ICAR, agricultural universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (district farm science centres) should “proactively interact with farmers and inform them about new varieties and technology every month”.

Modi also met a group of farmers and sought their views and suggestions for the government. He asked farmers to adopt technologies for value addition and diversify their crops. High-yielding and climate tolerant crops, he said, would cut costs for farmers and offer enhanced nutrition to consumers.

Climate-change adaptation has become urgent for the world’s second-biggest grower of wheat and rice, and the largest producer of onion, sugar and banana, experts say. Intense heatwaves and an irregular monsoon have dented output of wheat and pulses in the past two years, stoking food prices. “India is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries; there is a greater need for adaptive strategies in agriculture,” the government’s Economic Survey 2023-24 states.

Chouhan said the government was focusing on a “lab to land” approach so that “science reaches the farmer directly”. The new varieties, seeds of which now need to be produced on a large scale, will fully reach farmers’ fields in three years, he said.

The traits unveiled on Sunday include rice that can withstand submergence or flooding, climate-resilient guava, a green gram variety especially customized for the national capital region, buckwheat, heat-tolerant durum wheat, high-calcium finger millet, cashew, pure-line ashwagandha (withania somnifera, a herb) and a superior mango variety, among a slew of other strains.

The varieties include 34 field crops and 27 horticultural traits. The field crops include millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton and a clutch of fibre plants. The ICAR continually conducts research and develops newer traits and seeds of all key crops.

“We still have one of the lowest yields per hectare in many crops. Production is high but productivity is low. Due to limitations of horizontal land expansion, agriculture can only grow vertically. This calls for vigorous research,” said VK Singh, a former scientist with ICAR.