Farmers’ participatory seed production programme

Udhagamandalam: The foundation day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was celebrated by the Regional Station, Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Wellington near here recently.Speaking the occasion, the Principal Scientist and head of the station, R.N. Brahma, said that there was a proposal to launch a farmers’ participatory seed production programme this year. Under the programme the station would supervise the production of seeds by farmers. The seeds would be purchased by the station with a better support price.

Mr. Brahma said that in order to accelerate the crop introduction and diversification process, the station has taken up a large scale breeder seed production programme for the wheat varieties released. It was also conducting regularly front line demonstrations (FLDs) during the rabi season to promote wheat cultivation in non-traditional areas.Senior Scientist M. Sivasamy said that farmers in Tamil Nadu were now exploring the possibility of taking up alternative crops in areas where water was scarce.In tune with this the station, after several years of research has found that wheat was an ideal alternative since it was a short duration crop, required less irrigation and did not require transplanting.

In keeping with this the station, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has released a variety HW 3094 for cultivation in non-traditional areas like Theni, Dindigul, Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Vellore, Thiruvanamalai,Villupuram and Thiruvallur.The short duration variety which matures in 90 days was foot rot resistant, thermotolerant and yields 2 to 3 tonnes per hectare.The Senior Scientist, A.J. Prabakaran, said that recently another high yielding wheat variety HD 2833 (Pusa 105) developed at Wellington in collaboration with the Division of Genetics, IARI, New Delhi, has been notified by the Central Varietal Identification and Release Committee for cultivation in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.It could be raised as a mono crop between November and February or as an intercrop with coconut, mango, tapioca and banana.