Three-day national meet of wheat scientists at Ranchi from August 24
Ranchi: About 300 scientists from across the country and abroad will discuss the ways and means of increasing the area, production, productivity and nutritional content of wheat and barley at the three-day Annual Group Meeting of All India Coordinated Research Project on Wheat and Barley being held at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) from August 24 to 26.
The event being organized jointly by Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), Karnal and BAU will have representation from almost all the states, country’s 70 state, central and deemed agricultural universities and five international research institutes located in different countries. The meet will be formally inaugurated on August 25 by Droupadi Murmu, Governor of Jharkhand while Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, Dept of Agricultural Research & Education, GoI and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi will chair.
Addressing media persons on Thursday (August 23), BAU Vice Chancellor Dr Parvinder Kaushal said wheat research scientists group is the second largest in the country after that of rice under the national agricultural research system. In Jharkhand, he said, wheat is grown in an area of 2.21 lakh hectare with average productivity of 2.13 ton per hectare as compared to national average of 3.17 ton per hectare. Wheat productivity in the state has to be increased to about 5 ton per hectare for doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Of the total 28 lakh hectare cultivable land of Jharkhand, about 14.6 lakh hectare remains without any use in rabi season after harvest of rice. Efforts are on to bring this land under wheat coverage on residual moisture by short-duration, drought-tolerant varieties like Birsa Gehun-3 of BAU, K-9107 of Kanpur, PBW-343 of Punjab and HD-2967 of Haryana. Cropping intensity in Jharkhand in hardly 125 percent as compared to national average of 150%, Punjab average of 193% and Haryana average of 188%, the VC added. Lack of assured irrigation facility is the main limiting factor on this front, he held.
Dr Kaushal stressed the need of including barley in food habit which has higher fiber and protein content than other cereals. Present area of barley in Jharkhand is nearly 3000 hectare only because of lack of awareness about its importance among farmers. Since barley can be grown on single irrigation only, there is vast scope of its expansion in this state. A-300 variety of barley is most suitable for this region, he said. The VC stressed that one kg of red gram, barley, soybean, ragi and jwar/ bajra each should be mixed with wheat for daily domestic use of flour to ensure enhanced nutrition.
BAU Director Research Dr DN Singh and Chairman, Dept of Genetics & Plant Breeding, Dr ZA Haider was also present during the press meet.
Deliberations will be held in five technical sessions on principal investigators’ report-research presentation, research planning, finalization of work plan and recommendation, research progress on north eastern plain zone, international linkages and status reports from states and farmers view on R&D. The session on international linkages will have participation of Dr Ravi Prakash Singh, Dr Govindan Velu and Dr Pawan K Singh from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Mexico, Dr Ronnie Coffman, Vice Chairman, Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, Cornell University, New York, Dr Ashutosh Sarker and Dr RPS Verma, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Lebnon, Dr PK Joshi, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA, Dr Baidya Nath Mahto, Ececutive Director, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Kathmandu and Dr Legjay from Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Bhutan.
Others who have confirmed their participation include Dr AK Singh, Deputy Director General (Crops), ICAR, Dr RK Singh, Additional Director General (Food & Fodder Crops), Dr GP Singh, Director, IIWBR, Karnal, Dr BS Tyagi, event convenor from IIWBR, Dr B Rajender, Joint Secretary (Crops), GoI and Dr HS Gupta, former Director, India Agricultural Research Institute.