Pulse revolution underway in India: ICAR

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, September 24

The Government of India was planning to promote pulses cultivation in northern hills. Dr TR Sharma, Deputy Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), who was at Palampur Agriculture University, today said that pulse revolution in the country was underway as this year the production has touched 25 million tonnes.

Dr Sharma said the scientists need to intensify work on developing pulses with high protein content, having traits like short duration and climate resilience. “As taking care of crop production and crop protection measures can bring five per cent jump in the crop yield so the profile of each pulse crop should be developed”, he said.

He said 71 bio-fortified crop verities have been developed and 35 climate-resilient crop varieties dedicated to the nation.

Prof HK Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor, said that inputs like quality seed, breed and feed at the doorsteps of farmers, facilities like storage, post-harvest processing and assured marketing were a must to enhance productivity and income of the farmers. All institutes must have genetic resource network involving their research centres.

The VC said the Palampur Agriculture University was ready to extend its resources to other institutes for research work. Major and minor crops should be given importance in research as per the need of the region.

Dr SK Sharma, Chairman, Quinquennial Review Team on Pulses, said that due to shortage of resources and manpower in farm universities and other research institutes, pulses should be prioritized statewise like rajmash and urdbean for J&K and HP and urdbean and lentil for Uttarakhand.