Develop high yielding oilseed varieties

Tirupati: Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will review the performance of the agricultural research centres, particularly institutions involved in crop research, said ICAR Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) Dr A K Singh on Thursday while attending as a chief guest for the 3-day national-level annual group meeting on castor, sunflower, sesame and niger being organised at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) here.

Addressing the scientists, AK Singh gave a call to them to take up research which will benefit the farmers. Scientists should strive to bring results in research on oilseeds, he mentioned. Singh said that Rs 167 crore was given as fund in the year 2018 for agricultural research centres throughout the country on oilseeds research. He explained more than 45 lakh farmers are depending on oilseeds cultivation for their livelihood.

"Improving financial position of farmers depends upon your innovative research. There is a possibility to increase the crop area of oilseeds," the DDG stressed. "In India, every piece land can be used for agriculture. I am asking you to develop the better technology and germplasm resources for developing high yielding oilseed varieties," Singh made an appeal to scientists.

Earlier, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) Vice-Chancellor V Damodara Naidu stated farmers in the State are cultivating oilseeds crops in 1 lakh hectares and groundnut crop in 8 lakh hectares. He expressed anguish over groundnut farmers losing 60 to 70 per cent of their crop yield due to shortage of rainfall and not getting support price. "To bring better research results, the ANGRAU recruited 140 young scientists for field trials," he mentioned.

In the meeting, ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR), Hyderabad Director Dr A Vishnuvardhan Reddy said that there is a huge gap between oil imports and production of oil seeds in the country. He stated that the Central government is spending Rs 75,000 crore every year for importing oils from other countries.

To minimise the gap, the IIOR is developing high yield, disease resistant varieties in oil seeds, particularly in sunflower crop, he said and added 38 per cent of high oil content crops have developed by IIOR centres across the India. ICAR ADG Dr K Yadav, ANGRAU Director (research) Prof NV Naidu and PJTSAU V-C V Praveen Rao also spoke in the meeting. More than 200 reputed scientists, who are working in oilseeds research, have participated in technical sessions.