The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is placing greater emphasis on biofortification of crops to improve nutritional quality, Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General, ICAR, has said.
The ICAR has so far released 35 varieties of biofortified crops, including two varieties of sweet potato — Bhu Sona and Bhu Krishna — developed by the ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (ICAR-CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram, that are rich in Beta-carotene and Anthocyanin respectively, Mr. Mohapatra, who is also Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), said at the 56th foundation day celebrations of the CTCRI here on Saturday.
(According to the World Health Organisation, biofortification differs from conventional fortification in that “'biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during processing of crops.”)
The ICAR had prepared an action plan for the proposed ‘edible oil revolution’ which aimed at raising oil seed productivity at the national level, Mr. Mohapatra said.
The ‘pulses revolution’ undertaken over the past three years had effectively ended India’s dependence on imports, he said. “The country used to spend over ₹10,000 crore annually on pulses imports. Now we have more than what we actually require. We were importing five million tonnes of pulses, but we have had an additional production of six to nine million tonnes during the past three years,” he said.
Action plan
In tune with the Central government target of doubling farmer incomes by 2022, the ICAR had chalked out action plan which had been forwarded to the States, he said.
The ICAR had ‘adopted’ two villages each in every district — more than 1,400 villages in all — to demonstrate that technology intervention and associated activities could help achieve the target. Technologies that slashed farming expenses by reducing the use of fertiliser, water, energy and diversification were key to doubling farmer incomes, he said.
Mr. Mohapatra urged farmers in Kerala to interact with ICAR institutes in the State and take full advantage of technology to double their income by 2022.