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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | PMO directs ICAR to develop temperature resistant crop varieties

PMO directs ICAR to develop temperature resistant crop varieties

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published Published on Sep 17, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 17, 2011

-The Economic Times

 

The Prime Minister's Office has asked the department of agriculture to focus on ushering in the next phase of reforms by achieving self-sufficiency in key crops and ensuring creation of farm infrastructure.

A review meeting of the agriculture sector, chaired by the Prime Minister's principal secretary, TKA Nair, has suggested specific measures to boost production, especially that of oilseeds and pulses, a government official said.

The PMO asked the agriculture department to adopt the cluster approach, which was immensely successful in raising output of pulses and oilseeds by grouping as many as 60,000 villages each for the two crops. Last year, the country produced a record 18.1 million tonne of pulses, but it was 2.5 million tonne short of meeting full demand. The production of oilseeds, too, was the highest at 31.1 million tonne in 2010-11.

India imports nearly half of its domestic requirement of vegetable oils. Under the PMO-suggested plan, a group of farmers will be selected in these clusters for demonstration of improved technologies, the official said.

"It's good that the PMO is finally reacting to the need to address pulses and oilseeds," said YK Alagh, chairman of an expert group on pulses in the agriculture ministry.

"But many measures are required, proper incentives need to be provided to farmers in terms of price support, a well-functioning procurement agency needs to be set up and tariff protection needs to be provided to farmers to strike a balance between prices and protection," he said.

In the ongoing eleventh plan, the country produced 20 million tonne of extra food grain under the national food security mission, but lacks adequate space to store this quantity. The PMO, therefore, asked the Food Corporation of India to fast-track new storage facilities with a total capacity of 15 million tonne in 19 states. It wants at least 4 mt of storage space to be ready by March. The country had a record harvest of 242 million tonne of grain in 2010-11, which is expected to be even higher this year because of the good monsoon.

The PMO also directed the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to develop high-yielding varieties that can withstand higher temperature and other abiotic stress factors emanating from climate change, the official said.

The review meeting was attended by the secretaries of the department of agriculture and other departments under the ministry. The secretaries of deparment of consumer affairs, department of food and public distribution and the ministry of food processing industries also attended the meeting.

The PMO said that state-level officials had begun to take more interest in the sector after the department of agriculture decided to delegate decision-making powers under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Scheme to chief secretaries of states.

It wants other departments to delegate similarly to incentivise states to bring agriculture to the centre of governmental efforts.

"Unless the government provides proper price support to the farmers and incentivize production for them, all these other measures are just an eyewash", Vijoo Krishnan, joint secretary, all India kissan sabha.


The Economic Times, 17 September, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/pmo-directs-icar-to-develop-temperature-resistant-crop-varieties/articleshow/10012524.cms


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