Quality seeds must for food security

CUTTACK: Assistant Director-General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Dr RP Dua on Tuesday stressed the need for provisioning quality seeds to the farmers for achieving the goals of food security. Inaugurating the three-day Regional Agriculture Fair at the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) here, Dr Dua said there should be a coordinated approach on the issue from research outputs to making quality seeds adequately available to the farmers at the grassroots. The State governments and the extension agencies have a key role to play in ensuring that good quality seeds are provided to the farmers so that productivity and yield can be increased significantly. The fair with focus on “Technologies and programmes for the second green revolution in Eastern India” is attended by more than 1,000 farmers from Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Over 70 stalls have been put up to demonstrate new technologies in farming, advances in farming system upgradation, crop diversification, horticulture, animal husbandry, farm mechanisation, organic farming and women in agriculture.  Besides, several seminars, workshops and farmer-scientist interface and field demonstrations are being conducted to enlighten the farmers on the necessity to incorporate best practices in agriculture. CRRI Director Dr Trilochan Mohapatra called upon the scientists to intensify research for developing new technologies and seed varieties to deal with the challenges of climate change, biotic and abiotic pressures. The eastern states are particularly exposed to the ravages of climate change from floods, cyclones, drought and increasing soil salinity. To compound problems, pest infestations are also on the rise. Thus scientists should focus intensively on developing seed varieties that are tolerant and resistant to the different stress factors, he said. Among others, Director of Agriculture R Santh Gopalan, former director Arabinda Padhee, former CRRI director Dr Sachi Patnaik and agri-entrepreneur from Keonjhar Khetrabasi Behera were present.