India should replicate green revolution: Pawar

Pawar said the higher productivity and diversification process can only be ensured by taking latest research findings to farmer's field.

The country should replicate the success of Green Revolution that ensured higher production of rice and wheat in cash crops like oilseeds and pulses in sync with the endeavour to promote diversification of farm sector, Union Minister of Agriculture and Food Sharad Pawar has said.

HT Image

"The country has to achieve in oilseeds and pulses as to what was achieved in wheat and rice four decades ago," Pawar said addressing a meeting of consultative committee attached to his ministry in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The higher productivity and diversification process can only be ensured by taking latest research findings to farmer's field, he said.

While the country's oilseeds production has increased from 10.83 million tonne in 1985-86 to a record production of 27.26 million tonne in 2005-06, the production of pulses has remained stagnant at around 14 million tonne during the same period, an official release said.

The success of oilseeds could be replicated in the case of pulses too by broadening the genetic base of improved varieties, Pawar said.

The strategies of improving production of oilseeds and pulses include the successive development of high yielding varieties in these crops, Pawar said.

He stressed on development of appropriate plant types, exploitation of heterosis in selected crops for development of commercial hybrids and application of biotechnological tools for gene transfer and transgenic development in achieving globally competitive yields.