New Delhi: The Union Minster of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Mr Radha Mohan Singh has said that for bringing the second Green Revolution in the country, students trained in agriculture will have to come to forefront and devote their knowledge and skills to agriculture and farmers’ welfare. Mr Radha Mohan Singh stated this on the occasion of 55th Convocation of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi recently.
Mr Singh said that due to the presence of Pusa Institute in Delhi, there has been continuous development of agriculture in the adjoining states like Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh and due to this reason, two more Indian Agricultural Research Institutes (Assam and Jharkhand) have been opened, through which holistic development of agriculture is taking place in the entire country. Mr Singh said that due to adoption of crop varieties developed by Pusa Institute, meaningful and multiple changes have been observed. Earlier, we were dependent on other countries for food grains, but now we are helping other countries by providing food security. Agriculture Minister applauded the agricultural scientists of the country, particularly the scientists of the institute, for this achievement.
Mr Singh said that with cultivation of wheat varieties developed by Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 10 million hectares, 50 million tonnes of wheat were being produced. The contribution of Basmati rice contributes about 22 thousand crore in agricultural export exchequer of about 1 lakh crore rupees and in this, the contribution of Basmati varieties developed by Pusa Institute is about 90 percent.
During 2016, IARI has released 11 varieties of different field crops such as rice, wheat, mustard and pulses. Pusa Double Zero Mustard 31, a canola quality mustard, developed by the institute, is the first variety of high quality in the country having less than 2 percent Erucic acid and less than 30ppm glucosinolates found in oil-cake, which is conducive for human and animal health. He raised the hope that a state-of-art automated phenomics facility established by IARI would be useful to study the environmental stress. He said that this facility would be used in developing plants from which higher yield could be secured with less use of water and fertilizers.
Mr Singh said that ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa has developed an innovative, eco-friendly and cost-effective wastewater treatment technology through which waste water can be easily made pollution free and useful for irrigation purpose with less than 1 percent energy and less than 50-60 percent investment and operational cost. The Minister expressed that this technology would be effective in checking the shortage of water and pollution of soil, ground water and food due to wastewater in future.
11 varieties of rice, wheat, mustard and pulses released during the year 2016.
Agriculture Minister said that under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minster Mr Narendra Modi, a number of agricultural and farmers’ welfare schemes had been stated to strengthen rural livelihood security besides promotion of food production. Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme, Prime Minister Agricultural Irrigation Scheme, Farm Mechanization Mission, National Agricultural Marketing, Rural Storage Scheme and Soil Health Card Scheme, are a few to mention. These schemes would be prove helpful in doubling the income of farmers. At the end, Mr Radha Mohan Singh extended greetings and congratulated the students, parents, teachers and all the people associated with the convocation program.
The Secretary, ICAR, Mr Trilohcan Mohapatra, dignitaries, scientists, students & innovative farmers were present on the occasion.
