In an endeavour to create mass awareness for adoption of climate resilient technologies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate 35 crop varieties with special traits to the Nation tomorrow at 11 AM through video conferencing, in a pan India programme organised at all ICAR Institutes, State and Central Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendra. During the programme, the Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation the newly constructed campus of National Institute of Biotic Stress Tolerance Raipur.
On the occasion, the Prime Minister will distribute Green Campus Award to Agricultural Universities, as well as interact with farmers who use innovative methods and address the gathering.
Union Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel will be present on the occasion.
The crop varieties with special traits have been developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR to address the twin challenges of climate change and malnutrition. Thirty-five such crop varieties with special traits like climate resilience and higher nutrient content have been developed in 2021. These include a drought tolerant variety of chickpea, wilt and sterility mosaic resistant pigeonpea, early maturing variety of soybean, disease resistant varieties of rice and biofortified varieties of wheat, pearl millet, maize and chickpea, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean and faba bean.
These special traits crop varieties also include those that address the anti-nutritional factors found in some crops that adversely affect human and animal health. Examples of such varieties include Pusa Double Zero Mustard 33, first Canola quality hybrid RCH 1 with <2 per cent erucic acid and <30 ppm glucosinolates and a soybean variety free from two anti-nutritional factors namely Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and lipoxygenase. Other varieties with special traits have been developed in soybean, sorghum, and baby corn, among others.
The National Institute of Biotic Stress Management at Raipur has been established to take up the basic and strategic research in biotic stresses, develop human resources and provide policy support. The institute has started PG courses from the academic session 2020-21.
The Green Campus Awards has been initiated to motivate the State and Central Agricultural Universities to develop or adopt such practices that will render their campuses more green and clean, and motivate students to get involved in Swachh Bharat Mission, Waste to Wealth Mission and community connect as per the National Education Policy-2020.
