week 8-14 Feb:
• In a sign of the strength of India’s public research institutions, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) released seven new varieties of field crops including wheat, rice, chickpea, pigeon pea and mustard and identified 11 varieties of high-yielding agricultural and horticultural produce during 2015.
• All these varieties are not just resilient to several biotic (living organism like pests and insects) and abiotic (nonliving factors like light, temperature and water) stresses but also have enhanced nutritional quality.
• IARI, the flagship institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), announced the release and identification of these varieties during its 54th convocation in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.
• Since India’s current annual import bills on pulses and edible oils are Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 56,000 crore respectively, the focus of public research institutions has been on developing varieties which can fill the huge demand-supply gap.
• Mustard-30) developed by IARI scientists will not only increase productivity but will also be beneficial for health as it has low erucic acid. Higher erucic acid content leads to diseases like myocardial fibrosis in adults and lipidosis in children.
• Compared to normal mustard varieties which possess more than 40% of erucic acid, PM-30 possesses less than 2% of erucic acid using conventional breeding method.
• Seven of the 11 varieties, identified by the institute last year, are of different horticultural products. They include Pusa Betakesari (cauliflower), Pusa Sarda (Sarda melon), Pusa Madhurima (musk melon) and Pusa Bahar (Marigold).
• These varieties have been around as wild growth in different parts of the country. The institute identified them and put them on trial in different climatic zones for cultivation.