Agricultural research strategies should be shifted from crop-centric research in irrigated areas to location-specific cropping systems in dry lands, hills and tribal areas, Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), said here on Wednesday.
“Agricultural research should also take into consideration climate change, which continues to be a major area of concern, as it causes fall in yield by 4.5 to 9 per cent,” Dr. Bhanwala said while speaking at the fourth convocation of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University.
Expressing concern over the spate of farmer suicides owing to mounting debts, he said time had come to look at the root causes of the malaise. Quoting the Prime Minister, he said everyone should come together to ensure a better future for farmers.
Though the World Bank indices of growth in crop production show that in 2013 India’s achievement was better when compared to the neighbouring countries, the production of major crops was quite low.
“Factors influencing yield gap like bio-physical factors, water stress, flooding, sub-optimal planting, soil problems and weed pressures and socio-economic factors like insufficient credit, lack of knowledge on the best practices and profit maximisation approach need to be addressed,” he said.
Incidentally, Nabard created a Rs. 200-crore Producers Organisation for Development and Uplift of Corpus Fund to be utilised for setting up more than 2,000 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) in two years to address the requirements of new business opportunities with credit from financing institutions.
Presenting the annual report, Vice-Chancellor A. Padma Raju said the university had released 394 improved varieties/hybrids in different crops. Four mega varieties of rice released by the University - Swarna, MTU 1010, MTU 1001 and BPT 5204 - have occupied 10 million hectares of rice area in India.
BPT 5204, a versatile mega rice variety with good adaptability, was developed and released from Agricultural College, Bapatla, in 1986 as Samba Mahsuri. It occupies 10.27 lakh hectares accounting to 23.2 per cent of the total rice growing area of the State.
Later, awards were also presented in the best scientists category and extension scientists. The Acharya N.G. Ranga Young Scientist Award was also presented.
