‘Efforts on to develop drought and flood tolerant seeds’
   Date :16-Jul-2019

                                                                                    Javadekar 
 
Attempts are being made to develop heat and drought tolerant wheat, flood tolerant rice, drought tolerant pulses, water logging and high temperature tolerant tomato etc under NICRA project, says Javadekar
ENVIRONMENT Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday said in the Rajya Sabha that there is variable impact of climate change on crop production and efforts are being made to develop drought and flood tolerant seed varieties. The minister said the country is not only self sufficient in foodgrains production but also exports. “The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has conducted studies related to climate change under National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. ICAR has reported variable impact of climate change on production of certain crops like rice, wheat, maize, groundnut, chickpea and potato,” he said during Question Hour.
 
 
Under NICRA, he said attempts are being made to develop heat and drought tolerant wheat, flood tolerant rice, drought tolerant pulses, water logging and high temperature tolerant tomato etc. The minister said technology demonstration component of NICRA is being implemented in 151 climatically vulnerable districts of the country. “Demonstration of location specific climate resilient technologies is being undertaken to enable farmers to cope with current climate variability and to enhance their adaptive capacity,” he said. Such demonstration technologies include short duration and drought/flood tolerant crop varieties, resilient cropping systems, rainwater harvesting, enhancing stress tolerance in livestock etc. “Training programs have been conducted throughout the country under NICRA project to educate farmers on various aspects of climate change and adoption of climate resilient technologies to increase yields,” Javadekar said.