Lok Sabha Question No. 1453 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-26
Subject: High Yielding Variety of Seeds
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Sunil Dattatray Tatkare, Supriya Sadanand Sule, Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, DNV Senthilkumar. S.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1453

TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 th  July, 2022

## HIGH YIELDING VARIETY OF SEEDS

## 1453.   SHRI SUNIL DATTATRAY TATKARE:

SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE: DR. SUBHASH RAMRAO BHAMRE: SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA: DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR. S.:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE d`f"k vkSj fdlku dY;k.k ea=h be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has failed to develop High Yielding Variety (HYV) of Seeds for various crops and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (b) the variety of High Yielding Variety of Seeds developed by ICAR, during each of last three years and the current year;
- (c) whether productivity level of food grains, pulses and other crops have remained far below than the international levels in spite of development of HYV of seeds by ICAR;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor and the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (e) whether the Government proposes to depute ICAR agricultural scientists to rural areas to teach farmers about the latest development made in agriculture sector in the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) the steps taken by the Government to undertake research and development works and develop new range of crops in order to increase agricultural production?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE d`f"k vkSj fdlku dY;k.k ea=h (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a)  &  (b): No  Sir,  ICAR  has  contributed  significantly  in  varietal  improvement programmes. Since independence, more than 6100 varieties of field and horticultural crops  have  been  released  in  India.  During  past  eight  years  National  Agricultural Research System (NARS) under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has released 1956 high yielding stress tolerant varieties/ hybrids of field crops of which 1622 are climate resilient. The details are given at Annexure-I .

During past three years and current year total 946 varieties of seeds including cereals  (379),  oilseeds  (146),  pulses  (168),  forage  crops  (55),  fibre  crops  (158), sugarcane (26) and potential crops (14) have been developed of which more than 86% varieties have been developed by ICAR.  In horticultural crops, also 317 varieties/ hybrids have been released.

(c) & (d): India with respect to the global productivity is lower in certain crops, while higher in others. The comparative statement is given at Annexure II .  In  addition to productivity per se , per day productivity is also important component for determining the genetic potential of crops. Per day productivity of major crops in India is better or at par with any of the high productivity countries. India has multiple cropping system with  high  cropping  intensity,  whereas,  in  high  productivity  countries,  the  crops  are taking longer maturity duration due to which only one crop can be taken and cropping intensity is low in comparison to India.

India has made a commendable progress in genetic enhancement of different crops and the productivity levels have increased to more than three times (2373 kg/ha during  2020-21  from  710  kg/ha  during  1960-61).  The  present  total  food  grain production  of  more  than  316  million  tonnes  has  been  achieved  mainly  due  to enhancement in productivity. The varieties developed by ICAR have revolutionized the Indian agriculture as a result there is 6.19 times enhancement in production of food grains, 3.30 times in pulses, 7.46 times in oilseeds, 10.31 times in cotton and 7.55 times in sugarcane since 1950; and 3.42 times in horticulture crops since 1992-93.

(e): In addition to the network of 731 KVKs for disseminating the latest developments made in agriculture sector in our country, ICAR has adopted 4055 villages by 1154 groups of 4417 scientists for direct interface with the farmers to expedite the lab to land  process.  During  2021-22,  41402  field  activities  including  field  days,  trainings, demonstrations,  technology  awareness  programmes  were  conducted  and  662916 farmers were contacted across the country.

(f): Since 2014, 286 varieties have been bred specially for flood/ water submergence/ water logging tolerance (43), drought/moisture stress/ water stress tolerance (175), salinity/ alkalinity/ sodic soils tolerance (36), heat stress/ high temperature tolerance (25),  cold/ frost/  winter  chilling  tolerance  (7)  using  the  precision  phenotyping  tools. Modern molecular tools like genomic selection using molecular markers and genome editing  techniques  are  also  being  deployed  in  crop  improvement  as  a  result  74 varieties in seven crops namely, rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, chickpea, soybean and groundnut developed through precision breeding tools have been released for commercial cultivation. Further, ICAR has developed 87 nutrition-rich crop varieties in important crops like rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, finger millet, small millet, lentil, groundnut, linseed, mustard, soybean, cauliflower, potato, sweet potato, greater yam and pomegranate.

*****

Annexure - I

## [Part (a) & (b) of Unstarred Question no. 1453 answered on 26 th  July, 2022]

## Field crop varieties released since 2014 to 2022

| Crops            |   No. of varieties released (1969-2022) | No. of varieties released (2014-2022)   | Climate resilient varieties (2014-22)   | Biofortified varieties   | Varieties developed by MAS   |
|------------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|--------------------------|------------------------------|
| 2858             |                                     924 | 807                                     | 63                                      | 60                       | Cereals                      |
| 956              |                                     291 | 252                                     | 14                                      | 8                        | Oilseeds                     |
| 1074             |                                     304 | 270                                     | 2                                       | 6                        | Pulses                       |
| 221              |                                     118 | 91                                      | -                                       | -                        | Forage crops                 |
| 500              |                                     239 | 154                                     | -                                       | -                        | Fibre crops                  |
| 142              |                                      64 | 42                                      | -                                       | -                        | Sugar crops                  |
| 49               |                                      16 | 6                                       | 8                                       | -                        | Others                       |
| Grand Total 5800 |                                    1956 |                                         | 1622                                    | 87 74                    |                              |

## Annexure - II [Part (c) & (d) of Unstarred Question no. 1453 answered on 26 th  July, 2022]

## A comparative data on productivity of certain crops in India and the world

|         |             | Yield (Kg/ha)   | Yield (Kg/ha)   |
|---------|-------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Sl. No. | Crops       | India           | World           |
| 1       | Cereals     | 3283            | 4071            |
| 2       | Pulses      | 704             | 964             |
| 7       | Sugar crops | 77347           | 68456           |
| 8       | Castor      | 2167            | 1678            |
| 9       | Coconuts    | 6825            | 5315            |
| 10      | Groundnuts  | 1632            | 1699            |
| 11      | Linseed     | 605             | 951             |
| 12      | Rapeseed    | 1217            | 2039            |
| 13      | Safflower   | 515             | 800             |
| 14      | Cotton      | 1378            | 2610            |
| 15      | Sesame      | 433             | 487             |
| 16      | Soybean     | 928             | 2784            |
| 17      | Sunflower   | 666             | 1802            |

Source:FAOSTAT; https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL Citedon 21.07.2022