Minister urges students to help bring second Green Revolution

New Delhi, Feb 9:  Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday urged students of agriculture to use their skills and knowledge to bring a second Green Revolution in the country. “For bringing second Green Revolution in the country, the students trained in agriculture will have to come to the forefront and devote their knowledge and skills to agriculture and farmers’ welfare,” the Minister said on the occasion of the 55th Convocation of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) here.

Applauding agricultural scientists in the country, Singh said India was helping other countries by providing food security thanks to “meaningful and multiple changes” occurred due to adoption of crop varieties developed by the institute.

The (first) Green Revolution in India occurred in 1960s when higher-yielding varieties of crops were developed that led to increase in food grains production. Singh further said continuous development of agriculture in the states of Punjab, Harya and Western Uttar Pradesh happened due to presence of IARI also known as Pusa institute in Delhi.

“Due to this reason, two more IARIs (Assam and Jharkhand) have been opened, through which holistic development of agriculture is taking place in the entire country,” an official release quoted Singh as saying. He said the cultivation of wheat varieties developed by the IARI in 10 million hectares had resulted into production of 50 million tonnes. “The contribution of Basmati rice contributes about 22 thousand crore in agricultural export exchequer of about Rs 1 lakh crore and in this, the contribution of Basmati varieties developed by Pusa Institute is about 90 per cent,” Singh said. The IARI has released 11 varieties of different field crops such as rice, wheat, mustard and pulses in 2016. (IANS)