ICAR-RCER Newsletter Jan.-June.2019

Abstract

Eastern region of the country need to be transformed from “Low productivity – high potential” zone to “High productivity region” for food, nutritional and livelihood securities through technological interventions. Inadequate supply of quality seed and planting material, low livestock productivity, low productivity of flood and flood plain ecologies, climate change impact, high population density (616 persons/km2 compared to 382 persons/km2 at national level), slow pace of mechanization, fragmented land holdings, poor supply of cost effective energy to the agricultural sector, the lowest per capita income, maximum number of economically most backward districts (69 out of 150 at ational level) and thereby poverty (32.1% below poverty line population) in the region are some of the limitations of holistic agricultural development in Eastern region. ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region undertakes multi-commodity and multi-disciplinary research to enhance the productivity of agricultural production systems, efficient management of available natural resources and dissemination of developed technologies in diverse agroclimatic zones of eastern region. To address the emerging needs of the farmers, Institute has developed several economically and environmentally viable technologies for enhancing food and nutritional security and farmers’ income in the region. The present issue of Newsletter contains the salient research achievements during the last six months highlighting the high productivity of September sown pigeonpea, identification of nematode and wilt resistant tomato hybrids, antioxidant potential of underutilized leafy vegetables, identification of rice genotypes for aerobic conditions, utilization of solar energy for dry season irrigation, etc.