Umesh Srivastava, Assistant Director General (Horticulture), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has said that proper documentation of spice biodiversity to safeguard against bio-piracy of spices germplasm and development of urban horticulture for food and nutritional security are some of the key areas to be addressed in the next Five Year Plan.
He was inaugurating the 23rd national group meeting of the research workers of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices (AICRPS) at the Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR) here on Saturday.
“Development of varieties for different agro-ecological zones of the country is the need of the hour,” Dr. Srivastava said.
IISR Director M. Anandaraj urged the AICRPS scientists to work on developing location-specific technologies with an eye on commercialisation.
V.A. Parthasarathy, former Director of IISR, wanted the spice workers to concentrate on secondary agriculture so as to enhance productivity.
