Moving towards record wheat production this year: Chouhan
By Bhavey Nagpal
Union agriculture and farmers’ welfare minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday expressed high hopes that the country will witness record wheat production during the ongoing Rabi season and that has been only possible due to high yielding variety of seeds developed by the wheat scientists.
The minister said this during “Krishak Sanwad”, a dialogue with the farmers and wheat experts organised at Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) in Karnal.
Chouhan, who was on a day long visit here, also inaugurated a Genome Editing Lab funded by “Enhancing Climate Resilience and Ensuring Food Security with Genome Editing Tools”, one of the schemes by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The lab aims to utilise modern genomic tools to enhance desired traits for better adaptation and enriched grain quality, the IIWBR said.
“25% increase in production in last decade”
During a brief interaction with Hindustan Times, Chouhan said that despite climatic change and increasing temperatures, the productivity of wheat has not declined in the country.
“It is a proud moment for the country that despite the climate change, there has been an increase in wheat production by 25% in the last one decade, since Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister of the country. The farmers and scientists have done a commendable job,” he said.
When asked about this year’s figures for wheat yield, the union minister said, “Our teams are currently gathering data from the fields, and it will be shared as and when it is compiled.”
However, Chouhan said that at the farmer’s gathering, a local peasant Vikas Chaudhary informed him about getting wheat yield of 70 quintals per hectare (nearly 28 quintals per acre) at his farm using seeds from IIWBR.
“The wheat and barley institute has so far developed bio-fortified verities of wheat that are climate resilient and water intensive, and we aim to develop more of them,” he added.
Senior agricultural officials said that the field surveys are underway in several regions of Haryana as well and are likely to conclude by the end of the month.
The country is aiming to achieve an annual wheat production of 115 million tonnes (MT) in the 2024-25 season as against 113.2 MT achieved during the last season, which was an all-time high.
India, which is the second-largest wheat grower after China, achieved this feat despite a fall in area under cultivation.
During his public address with the farmers, the minister said that there was time in the 1960s, when the country was depended on “rejected” wheat from the United States and now it is not only self-reliant, but is also exporting the crop to other countries, in free of cost to a few of them.
21st convocation at NDRI
Earlier in the day, the minister also chaired the 21st convocation ceremony of ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).
The minister conferred degrees to a total of 201 students from various out of which 32 students were awarded BTech degree, 98 students were awarded master’s degree and 71 researchers were awarded PhD degrees
NDRI director Dheer Singh said the Best Thesis Research Award was given to Liza S, Animal Physiology in the Doctoral Programme; Poornima, Dairy Technology in the Processing Group and P Akshith Sai in Social Sciences and Management.
Similarly, awards were also given to students of the master’s programme as well, while Dairy Extension Division of the NDRI was handed over the Best Division Award for the year 2024.
During his address, the minister urged the students to think beyond salary packages and become a citizen with values for the society, also aiming to provide employment and skills to the youth.
The chief guest further added that convocation is an opportunity to take a pledge when the students completing their education ponder over imparting the nation a novel direction.
Bhagirath Chaudhary, Union minister of state for agriculture Raghavendra Bhatta, deputy director general (Animal Science), ICAR MS Chauhan, vice chancellor GBPUAT Pantnagar Srinivas Rao, director ICAR-IARI Pusa Campus other officials of the institute and local dignitaries were present.
In the evening, Chouhan was the chief speaker at a program organised by the Indian Medical Association on “One Nation-One Election”.
This article has been republished from The Hindustan Times.