Jharkhand to play key role in next green revolution: Experts

Next green revolution will come from country’s eastern region and Jharkhand with its rich biodiversity will play important role on this front, said Dr RK Singh, Additional Director General (Food & Fodder Crops) of ICAR. He said wheat production in the country has registered an increase of 8.9 times since independence but average productivity is 3.3 ton hectare only which has to be increased to 10 ton per hectare. Agriculture majors like Punjab and Haryana are already harvesting 5-6 ton per hectare.

Speaking at the 57th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers Meet at Birsa Agricultural University on Friday, Dr Singh said India is the second largest wheat producer in the world and production during 2017-18 was record 98.6 million ton from 29.7 million hectare area. Future research strategy should be focused on climate resilient varieties which could perform better under high temperature, erratic rain and moisture-stress condition also. With lesser availability of land, labour and resources for agriculture in days to come, vertical development is required in terms of money, labour and skill.

Dr GP Singh, Director, Indian Institute of Wheat and barley Research (IIWBR), Karnal said, among foodgrains, wheat is the largest cultivated crop across the globe having around 219 million hectare and barley occupies 48 million hectare. These two nutria-cereals collectively account for 37 per cent of the total food grains production of India. UP retains its first position in wheat production, followed by Punjab, MP, Haryana and Rajasthan.

The first session was chaired by BAU Vice Chancellor Dr Parvinder Kaushal, who stressed on devising strategies for utilizing the 14.6 lakh hectare rice fallow area of Jharkhand during rabi with wheat, barley and, pulse and oilseed crops. .

Dr AK Singh, Vice Chancellor, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour (Bhagalpur) chaired the second session of research review. Dr Ravish Chatrath, Dr RK Sharma, Dr DP Singh, Dr Sewa Ram, Dr AS Kharub, Dr Satyavir Singh and Dr MN Singh, all principal scientists from IIWBR presented research reports on crop improvement, resource management, crop protection, wheat quality, barley programme, impact of front line demonstrations & constraints and new initiatives on technology transfer.  

Dr DN Singh, Director Research, BAU welcomed the guests while Dr ZA Haider, Chairman, Dept of GPB, BAU proposed a vote of thanks.

About 300 scientists from different parts of the country and abroad are attending the meet.