35 varieties of crops with special traits Crops dedicated to the nation
Recently, the Prime Minister has dedicated 35 varieties of crops with special traits to the nation.
Crop varieties with these special qualities have been developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). These crops are designed to tackle the twin challenges of climate change and malnutrition.
These 35 varieties include:-
Climate Resistant Crops: These include a drought tolerant variety of chickpea, wilt and sterility mosaic resistant pigeonpea, early maturing variety of soybean, disease resistant varieties of rice.
Highly nutritious crops: Biofortified varieties of wheat, pearl millet, maize and chickpea, quinoa, buckwheat, winged bean and faba bean.
These crop varieties with special characteristics will help in addressing the following problems:
- Climate change risks to agriculture (such as new pest attacks, increase in new diseases, etc.). As per the ICAR’s assessment of vulnerability to climate change, 109 rural districts in India are classified as very high-risk districts, while 201 districts are classified as at-risk.
- Anti-nutritional factors (ANF) have been found in some crops, which adversely affect human and animal health.
- ANF is defined as substances that are produced by the normal metabolism of species in natural foods. These have the opposite effect of optimal nutrition in foods.
- The Prime Minister also inaugurated the campus of the National Institute of Biotic Trees Management at Raipur, Chhattisgarh on the occasion.
Source – The Hindu
