ICAR-IARI Annual Report 2015-16

Abstract

Agricultural production must increase by 60% by 2050 with dwindling cultivable land and resources under the vagaries of global climate change, while enhancing farmers’ income and environmental sustainability. To address these challenges, IARI has made focused research and developed several technologies for crop production & protection in the background of improved natural resource management strategies to mitigate/adapt to the changing climate challenges. While addressing the core issue of “more crop per drop” and degraded soil - water resources, the institute took lead in developing several fresh/waste water management and resource reuse/ recycling protocols, standardized a number of micro- irrigation & protected cultivation technologies and water conserving bio- engineering measures, besides commercializing hydrogel formulations and developing precision farming & decision support systems for effective forewarning and contingent planning of extreme weather conditions, degraded soil water resources, pests and crop conditions during growing seasons. To manage degraded soils and improve fertilizer use efficiency, IARI has also developed an improved Pusa STFR meter for suggesting crop and soil based fertilizer recommendations and supporting Soil Health Card Scheme of the government. Besides this, the institute laid special focus on developing several new farm machinery, resource conservation technologies, climate smart and GHG emission mitigation strategies, and beneficial microbes for sustainable natural resource and crop management. All these efforts integrated with genomic- aided precision breeding programs resulted in accelerated development of a number of varieties & hybrids with improved yield, quality and adaptability in the field and horticultural crops. The visionary research programme on speciality breeding for conservation agriculture (CA) resulted in the release of a bread wheat variety HDCSW 18, specifically suitable to CA, which is expected to enhance the wheat yield and environmental benefits to the larger areas of CA in the country. A Fe - and Zn micronutrient rich bread wheat variety HS 562 and a semi-dwarf durum wheat variety HD 4728 were also released for different regions of the country. A short duration Basmati rice variety Pusa Basmati 1609, with inbuilt blast resistance, was released to minimize resource use and enhance yield in the Basmati growing regions. A dual purpose pearl millet variety Pusa Composite 701 and an extra-large seeded Kabuli chickpea variety Pusa 3022 and soybean variety, Pusa 12 (DS12-13) were also released. In mustard, a double zero (erucic acid <2% and glucosinolates <30ppm) variety Pusa Double Zero Mustard 31 with an average seed yield of 2.38 t/ha was released for the first time. Twelve varieties/hybrids of vegetables viz., bitter gourd (Pusa Rasdar and Pusa Purvi), summer squash (Pusa Pasand), Cherry tomato (Pusa Cherry Tomato 1), early cauliflower (Pusa Kartiki), snowball cauliflower (Pusa Snowball Hybrid 1), b-carotene rich cauliflower (Pusa Kesari VitA 1), muskmelon (Pusa Sarda and Pusa Mudhurima) long melon (Pusa Utkarsh), round melon (Pusa Raunak) and parthenocarpic cucumber (Pusa Seedless Cucumber 6) were also developed. In fruit crops, two mango hybrids (H 1-5 and H 12-5), three grapes hybrids (R P , ER-R P and ER-R P ) with special quality were developed. In ornamental crops, two varieties in gladiolus (Pusa Srijana and Pusa Unnati) and a marigold variety (Pusa Bahar) were released for commercial cultivation. Two promising varieties of Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum Little Orange and Chrysanthemum Pink) were also developed. The Institute has also made commendable progress in development of several molecular diagnostic protocols for early diagnosis and management of many fungal and viral diseases. The so developed natural resource management and crop production/protection technologies were widely disseminated vide a National Agricultural Fair “Krishi Unnati Mela-2016” organized during March 19-21, 2016, that was inaugurated by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. About 500 public and private exhibitors from across the country participated and over 1 lakh visitors gained benefit from the Fair. For speedy dissemination of technologies from lab to land, IARI also adopted several villages under Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav programme. In addition, the Institute met the needs of the farmers through Agricultural Technology Information Centre (ATIC), Kisan Call Centre (1800-180-1551) and mKrishi. The institute is also mandated to impart quality agricultural education in the country. The 54th Convocation of the Post Graduate School of Institute was held on February 5, 2016 with the Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee as the chief guest. Many scientists and students received prestigious awards and recognitions, and brought laurels to the Institute. The Institute’s achievements during this year are expected to contribute significantly to improve environmental sustainability, profitability and livelihood food security of the Nation.