ICAR future releases to have at least one trait to tackle climate change issue

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Kasaragod

Whatever variety that the ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) releases in future will have at least one trait to address the climate change issue, Himanshu Pathak, Director General of ICAR and Secretary of DARE (Department of Agricultural Research and Education), said on Friday.

In an informal chat with businessline on the sidelines of the national seminar on “Harnessing plantation sector for sustainable development goals”, organised by ICAR-CPCRI (Central Plantation Crops Research Institute) at Kasaragod in Kerala on Friday, he said ICAR institutes and top institutes of horticulture science and animal science have developed climate resilient varieties.

Stating that climate change is a very big issue, he said: “We have requested everyone that whatever variety they develop, there must be at least one component of climate resilience.” It should be tolerant to some of the abiotic stresses like temperature increase or drought or flood; or to biotic stresses. Mentioning that new insects and pests are appearing because of climate change, he said the varieties should be biotic stress tolerant and also abiotic stress tolerant.

Output steady despite…

Conceding that every variety cannot be tolerant to all kinds of biotic stresses, he said: “We have requested them that your variety, whatever you are going to develop, must be having at least one trait which will be addressing climate change issue.”

Highlighting the focus of ICAR on climate-resilient varieties and technologies in the past one decade, he said foodgrain production used to go down drastically earlier if there was a little aberration in rainfall.

Climate change is happening at least for the last 8-10 years, and monsoon aberrations are already there. However, total foodgrain or horticulture production has not gone down, he said.

Giving the example of wheat production in the last 4-5 years, he said the total production has not gone down despite terminal heat issues during March-April. Stating that now more than 70 per cent of area of wheat area is under climate resilient varieties, he said they have got tolerance even with the increase in temperature.

S&T adoption

On ICAR’s focus on biofortified varieties, he said 171 biofortified varieties of different crops have been released in the last three years. Giving the example of rice, he said the commonly used rice variety has got around 6-7 per cent of protein. ICAR has released rice varieties that have got more than 10 per cent of protein.

Earlier speaking at the inauguration of the seminar, Pathak said after independence, the 50s and 60s were mainly traditional farming, and the 70s focused on green revolution. He said more emphasis was given on fertilizer and irrigation in the 80s.

In the future, it is required to develop 50 per cent of the population on agriculture. This population has to progress and basically change the farming practices.

He said the adoption of science and technology, market orientation, gender and youth friendly farming, efficient use of inputs with nature friendly farming, and culture-blended agriculture are needed for the prosperity of Indian agriculture sector.

KB Hebbar, Director of ICAR-CPCRI, who touched upon the prevailing negative notions on arecanut and health in his welcome address, he said a multi-institutional project on clinical research studies to understand the effects of arecanut products on human health and to explore alternative uses for arecanut and its byproducts has been sanctioned by the Government.

Speaking on the occasion, VB Patel, Assistant Director General (Fruit and Plantation Crops), ICAR, said bioactive compounds need to be extracted from the plantation crops for sustainable future income.

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