KVK, Wyra organised awareness programme on Release of 109 crop varieties developed by ICAR on 11.08.2024

KVK, Wyra organised awareness programme on Release of 109 crop varieties developed by ICAR on 11.08.2024 to popular them among farming community for improving their income generation. A revolution in agriculture is being fuelled by the world's need for nutrient-dense food, farmers' security, sustainable agriculture and environmental preservation. India has already surpassed China to become the highest populated country in the world. It is a bit sceptical whether rice and wheat will be able to fulfil the hunger of massive population while sustaining the ecosystem health. In this, context, the 109 released varieties with 61 crops that included 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops have greater potential. The field crops included cereals, millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton and fiber crops. For horticulture, the introduced new varieties included fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, tubers, spices, flowers and medicinal plants. These crops are high-yielding, climate-resilient and biofortified seed varieties to overcome weather vagaries as these are climate-friendly seeds and were designed to thrive under adverse meteorological conditions offering high nutritional value striving towards food and nutrition security. The newly released nutri-cereals like pearl millet, finger millet, proso millet and barnyard millet along with 11 varieties of pulses that are chickpea, pigeon pea, lentil, field pea, faba bean and mung bean as well as seven oilseed varieties such as safflower, soybean, groundnut and sesame help support India’s ever burgeoning population towards self-sustainability. This is where the millets and forage crop cultivation come to the rescue as they operate well on relatively poor soil thriving under dry conditions requiring minimal inputs. They were frequently seen growing on skeletal soil that is no deeper than 15.0 cm and were suited to a wide range of ecological circumstances. These crops are slow to break down in soil the slow composting nature helps in maintaining soil structure and retaining water thus preserving soil health for extended duration.