Agri minister urges ICAR to focus on developing bio-fortified crop varieties

Development of bio-fortified seed varieties and reduction of the yield gap between different regions are some of the issues that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) should take care of, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Thursday.

In a meeting with senior officials of the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE), the minister said efforts should be made to promote bio-fortified crops by developing new technologies. Besides, they should strive to achieve a balance in productivity of crops in all regions, according to an official statement.

“We should assess the work and we must have a network and whether our network has been able to give the expected results, is it working properly or not, for the purpose for which it was created. If there are gaps, a detailed report should be submitted,” Chouhan said. He further said that if targets are set and achieved, a new revolution can be brought about.

“You must be reviewing what our targets were, and how much we achieved. If we were able to achieve less, then what were the gaps that need to be filled. By doing this, we will achieve the targets set for 2047. We should also set targets for each year,” he said, stressing on the regular review of annual targets.

Pointing out how productivity in irrigated and non-irrigated areas is lower in Jharkhand compared to the rest of the country, he called for a campaign to balance productivity.

From the experience he had in Madhya Pradesh, Chouhan said productivity improvement should be a priority, an area that was neglected in the last 10 years as the focus was on farmer income. He directed agriculture scientists to focus on research to increase productivity, reduce production costs and raise farmers’ income.

Ministers of State for Agriculture Ram Nath Thakur and Bhagirath Chaudhary and ICAR director-general Himanshu Pathak were also in the meeting.