Horticulture Australia signs deal with Indian govt

Indian government institutes will now be able to engage with Australian research and development (R&D) agencies, through an agreement with Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the Indian Council of Australian Research.

“India has one of the largest horticulture sectors in the world, with many of its growers facing similar challenges to Australian growers,” HAL chair Selwyn Snell said.

“Until now, the two countries have been working independently to advance their industries through research and development that focussed on overcoming such challenges. Working collaboratively will benefit both countries as we identify research gaps and potential opportunities.”

After the MoU was signed, a research workshop was held in Bangalore to identify key strategic collaboration areas, involving HAL, government departments, and representatives from various Australian horticultural sectors including apples, pears, almonds, mangoes, processing tomatoes, strawberries, table grapes and vegetables.

Free farm exim policy helped India earn $40 bn forex: Pawar

Country has not only met domestic demand, but has also exported 20 mn tonnes of grains

Sanjeeb Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said a liberal export and import policy has enabled the country to earn $40 billion of foreign exchange in 2012-13. Addressing the third ASEAN-India ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur recently, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said that India now produces over 260 million tonnes of cereals, 160 million tonnes of horticulture produce, 133 million tonnes of milk, 35 million bales of cotton, 24 million tonnes of sugar besides spices, etc.

This has enabled the country to not only meet the demand of 17 per cent of global population residing in India, but have also exported nearly 20 million tonnes of food grains, thus, becoming a major contributor to the world food basket.

“It is a matter of great satisfaction that the food basket of my country has been diversified with increasing share coming from relatively under developed regions,” Pawar said.

He said satisfactory production of food grains helped us to roll out Food Security Act in September, 2013 which gives legal guarantee to more than 800 million populations of food grains at affordable prices.  “We take pride in mentioning that this is world’s largest social sector programme,” Pawar said at the conference.

He also offered to share India’s vast experience in agriculture with ASEAN nations and sought collaboration on farm research to face common challenges of climate change etc.

India offers to share its vast experience in agriculture with ASEAN nations

Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Sharad Pawar narrated the progress of Indian agriculture sector in the recent past and offered to share its experience with ASEAN nations.

"We have not only achieved self sufficiency in food, but have also done extremely well in horticulture dairying ,milk production, fisheries , post harvest management and development of cold chain infrastructure. We now produce over 260 MT of cereals, 160 MT of horticulture produce, 133 MT of milk, 350 lakh bales of cotton, 24 MT of sugar besides spices, etc.," said Pawar.

"We have followed the Mission approach to address issues of production, productivity and post harvest management in many crops," he added.

Pawar, who was speaking at the third ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture at Kuala Lumpur, said our Agriculture Research System in the form of Indian Council of Agriculture Research is one of the largest in the world.

"When you visit India next year for the fourth Inter Ministerial, I hope that you and your delegation members can see for yourself the significant strides that have been achieved during the last few years. It is our belief that while economic growth is good, growth in agriculture is the best for it brings equity, equality and spread of resources to the largest sections of society," he added.

Pawar said it is a matter of great satisfaction that the food basket of my country has been diversified with increasing share coming from relatively under developed regions.

"From Andaman Nicobar islands to Kashmir and Lakshadweep to North Eastern States, India have very diverse topography with rainfall ranging from as low as 50 mm per year to 12000 mm. Not only we have been able to meet the demand of 17 percent of global population residing in India, but have also exported nearly 20 million tonnes of food grains, thus, becoming a major contributor to the world food basket. Thanks to the liberal import-export policy, India could earn 40 billion dollars through the exports of agriculture produce," said Pawar.

"The satisfactory production of food grains helped us to roll out Food Security Act in September, 2013 which gives legal guarantee to more than 800 million populations of food grains at affordable prices. We take pride in mentioning that this is world's largest social sector programme," he added.

Pawar expressed his desire to see the present cooperation and collaboration between the ASEAN and India strengthen further, especially in the area of capacity building, collaborative research programmes and efficient management of resources for increased production and productivity in agriculture.

"We shall be happy to share our successes and experiences in the field of agriculture and forestry with ASEAN countries," he said.

Pawar invited ASEAN agriculture ministers to India for the fourth ministerial meeting, to be held next year in New Delhi.

India ranks 1st in ladyfinger production

A business planning and development (BPD) unit for bhindi (ladyfinger) cultivation was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR) by deputy director general (horticulture), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) NK Krishna Kumar.

It is an initiative of ICAR under National Agriculture Innovation Project (NAIP), funded by World Bank, for promotion of developed technologies, development of technical/entrepreneurship skills of growers/entrepreneurs and to provide a platform for enterprising persons to develop agri-business.

IIVR director B Singh said that the objectives of the project is to develop agri-entrepreneurship and agri-business, facilitate technology commercialization, provide human resource development support for empowering entrepreneurship through training.

He said that in 12th plan (2012-2017), ICAR has allotted Rs 5 crores to IIVR for initiation of flagship programme on ladyfinger.

India ranks first in the world with 5,784.0 thousand tonnes (72% of the total world production) of ladyfinger/okra. It is also cultivated in Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan, Ghana, Egypt, Benin, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Cameroon. Andhra Pradesh is the leading okra producing state which has production of around 1184.2 thousand tons from an area of 78.90 thousand ha, with a productivity of 15 tons/ha. It is followed by West Bengal (862.1 thousand tons from 74.00 thousand ha with 11.70 tons/ha productivity). The fruits are harvested when immature and eaten as a vegetable. The roots and stems of okra are used for cleaning the cane juice from which gur or jaggery is prepared. Ladyfinger provides an important source of vitamins, calcium, potassium and other minerals, which are often lacking in the diet of developing countries.

He said that the crop is prone to damage by various insects, fungi, nematodes and viruses, although there is wide variability in the degree of infestation. Some of the insects and pests are shoot and fruit borer, jassid, aphid, white flies and mites. It is also subjected to attack of many diseases affecting leaves, flowers and fruits. Its cultivation in India received a setback due to yellow vein mosaic virus (YVMV) and enation leaf curl virus (ELCV), spread by the vector of white fly (Bemisia tabaci). The loss in marketable yield has been estimated at 50-94%, depending up on the stage of crop growth at which the infection occurs. Lack of sources of resistance to these viruses in cultivated species has forced breeders to look into the wild species for resistance. The transfer of resistance from wild relatives has been hampered by sterility problems. Hence, continuous search for new sources of resistance and development of better varieties/hybrids with higher level of resistance should be the prime objective.

In India, a number of ICAR institutes, state agricultural universities and private seed companies are working on various aspects of genetic improvement of okra in order to develop high yielding and disease-resistant varieties. Through intensive research, over 50 improved varieties and hybrids have been released. Some of these varieties and hybrids have already made significant impact/contribution in revolutionising the production of okra in the country. Still a vast gap exists in the research efforts and the expected outcome, he said.

ICAR to address manpower shortage in farm research.

There is a wide disparity within states and between states on yield and productivity of various horticulture crops due to either non-availability of good planting material or of precision technology. Hence the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has launched major initiatives to take up need-based research and create a new generation of highly qualified scientists for this purpose.

ICAR is doing this through two initiatives called 'Farmer First' and 'Student Ready' to create suitable conditions for better and uniform horticulture production across the country. "We need to now focus on research that will solve the problems of farmers and is need-based. Council is trying to identify these problems for all horticultural crops or, for that matter, all crops under the Farmer First programme and take up research programmes based on demands of farmer," the ICAR deputy director general of horticulture N K Krishna Kumar told. 

Another major factor in improving the research quality in ICAR institutions was absence of qualified manpower. Kumar said there were many specialized areas in agriculture like plant breeding, virology, agriculture economics and micro-nutrition where qualified manpower was not available. To create manpower in these sectors council was focusing on improving the agriculture education through its Student Ready programme. "Human resource is the biggest hindrance in quality research in agriculture so the council is specifically targeting the post-graduate education in the state agriculture universities," he said.

ICAR, Kumar said, was also in the process of preparing a mega plan for ensuring biosecurity in agriculture to prevent entry of unwanted organisms like bacteria, viruses and fungi that move in and out of the country due to unchecked movement of the plant material. "We are hoping the National Bio-security Bill gets clearance during the ongoing parliamentary session. This will prevent entry of pathogens in the country and also allow India as a developed and responsible nation to not let domestic pathogens go out," he said.

The council was putting in serious efforts for conservation of all the genetic resources. But generally conservation was restricted to only seeds. So stress was now on conserving 'pollen grains' of various species through cryopreservation at minus 80 to minus 180 degrees Celsius for any future use. Registration of all plant varieties had become the order of the day, he added.

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ICAR plans to push fruit production 40% in five years

Horticulture is emerging as an effective tool for achieving both, 4% agricultural growth for the country and ensuring nutritional security for a large population. Hence, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is planning to increase the fruit and vegetable production by 40% in next five years.

ICAR is visualizing this growth through technology backing and a planned initiative of National Agriculture Resource System (NARS) with support from State Agriculture Universities (SAUs).

The council had launched 15 inter-institutional consortium projects and five 'Challenge' programmes.

ICAR was aiming to increase the fruit production from existing 251 million tonnes (MT) to 350 MT in next five years.

It is a big target as country achieved a ten times growth from 25 MT to 250 MT from 1950-51 until 2012. And now we want a 40% growth in horticulture to sustain the required agriculture growth.