E-Paper
Vigyan Yuva awardee Swarup Kumar Parida: Chickpea that tolerates drought
The agricultural scientist uses novel techniques for molecular breeding of superior crop varieties, particularly a drought-tolerant variety of chickpea.
Swarup Kumar Parida of the National Plant Genome Research Institute, New Delhi, one of the winners of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards in Agricultural Science, describes his work on molecular breeding of superior crops, particularly drought-tolerant chickpea.
What I do
I work in the area of next-generation molecular breeding for crop improvement. We have developed novel concepts and diverse integrated genomics-assisted breeding strategies for rice and chickpea aimed at improving yield, plant architecture, nutritional quality and rice and chickpea to abiotic stress.
How I do it
We employ multiple integrated genomic strategies to introgress (transfer genetic material) superior genes and favourable traits into a number of popular Indian cultivars. Our marker-assisted breeding has led to five high-yielding, stress-tolerant crop varieties enriched with nutritional quality traits. Our research outcomes represent the top 5% of the quality output in the area of molecular genetics and genomics-assisted crop improvement.
For drought-tolerant chickpea, we used the drought-tolerance characteristic of an Indian landrace and introgressed it into an already popular chickpea variety, which led to an improved desi variety with enhanced yield and productivity (11-15% higher) under drought stress. This variety, with 23-25% seed protein content, is resistant to major diseases such as fusarium wilt, dry root rot, collar rot and pod borer of chickpea.
These improved drought tolerant high-yielding chickpea varieties, now approved by the government, will ensure pulse crop self-sufficiency, productivity as well as food and nutrition security amid the scenario of climate change.
