Develop Effective Roadmap to Usher Another Revolution in Wheat Production-Harish Rawat

50th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers’ Meet Inaugurated

New Delhi, 02 September, 2011

‘Wheat Production in some states of India has large gaps in potential and realized yields. Some of the gaps can be filled up through development of infrastructure facilities, while the production related barriers can be effectively overcome through adoption of appropriate interventions and technologies. Officials of different states must quickly transfer the technology available in the national system to minimize these gaps ’, said Sh. Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Agriculture, Food Processing Industries & Parliamentary Affairs. He was inaugurating 50th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers’ Meet (September 1-4, 2011) jointly organized by the ICAR institutes, Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal  and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.

‘World population is expected to reach more than 8 billion by 2030. In India, 95-100 million tones of wheat would be required to be produced to cover an estimated demand for 345 million tones of food grains in 2030. The need to produce more wheat has to be met with fewer resources in a sustainable and cost effective manner’, he added.

He also urged agricultural scientists to work on expected onslaught of climate change so that challenges due to abiotic and biotic stresses can be addressed. ‘I am sure that this large group of wheat researchers from national and international systems gathered here will consider all the possible strategies to be faced by farmers across the country’, he said.

Earlier, Dr S Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE and Director General, ICAR urged scientists to plan out the future for more wheat production.  He appreciated the multidisciplinary and multilocational coordinated trials and experiments that have enabled the country to harvest highest ever of 85.93 million tonnes of wheat during 2010-11.

Dr M V Rao, Former Special DG, ICAR discussed the different phases of wheat and barley improvement since green revolution. He stressed the importance of collaborative efforts between scientists and farmers for enhancing and maintaining food security in the country through technological interventions and policy support.

Dr Indu Sharma, Project Director, DWR highlighted the leading role of DWR in national wheat and barley production systems. ‘This special event of golden jubilee meet will be utilized to have a free interaction and to develop strategies for enhancing productivity, quality and marketing prospects of wheat crop under changing climate condition’, she added.

Dr Swapan K Dutta, Deputy Director General (Crop Scinece) and Dr H S Gupta, Director, IARI also graced the occasion.

The Workshop which marks 50 years of most successful ever coordinated programme (All India Coordinated Wheat and Barley Improvement Project) in the country will deliberate on emerging issues and use the consensus among almost the entire wheat and barley fraternity to address these in a most effective manner. The meeting also has the benefit of participation by most of the past wheat and barley scientists, CGIAR institutions, ACIAR and the likes as much as that from the current international and national leaders in different disciplines including those from industry.

Dignitaries released the publications brought out by DWR and honored former project directors of AICWBIP along with team awards.

(Source-NAIP Sub-Project on Mass Media Mobilization, DKMA)