Comments
To arrest declining production and demand for sorghum in the country, it is necessary to create a viable market for it, said Dr Swapan Kumar Datta, Deputy Director-General (crop science) Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. He was speaking at the 41st Annual Sorghum Group Meetings at University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad.
Dr Datta said, “Looking at the nutritious value of sorghum, through alternate use like creating beer, potable alcohol from sorghum grain, and starch and cattle feed from it and also producing bio-ethanol.” “These steps will help to bring in livelihood, livestock, feed, fodder, food and nutritional security through sorghum. The farmer can be profited only when the value is added to the basic crop commodity,” he added.
A plan is afoot to re-orient research priorities during the 12th Five-Year Plan to achieve a turnaround to make sorghum as industrial crop from its present notion as a subsistence crop. “This can be achieved by linking the producer with the industry. It was assured that during the 12th Plan all out efforts will be made to encourage sorghum cultivation in the country to provide better profits to the sorghum grower,” he said. Dr R.R. Hanchinal, Vice-Chancellor, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad thanked the sorghum researchers for delivering excellent hybrids, varieties and the technologies for the sorghum growing farmers in the dry land regions of the country.
Dr J.V. Patil, Director, Directorate of Sorghum Research, Hyderabad, while presenting the achievements in sorghum through the project, said the national sorghum programme is geared to meet the challenges and cater to the needs of farmers and sorghum-based industries. Much emphasis is given to basic and strategic research at the Directorate of Sorghum Research. Transgenics of sorghum are field-tested, and marker assisted selection is practised on a wide scale for dealing with complex traits.
He also said while the national sorghum programme is well geared to meet the challenges and cater to the needs of sorghum farmers and sorghum-based industries, much more needs to be done on the fodder front.
On the occasion veteran sorghum researchers Mr J.V. Goud, Mr G.M. Padagonur, Mr R.V. Hiremath, Mr V. P. Deshpande, Mr M.S. Joshi, Mr Kajri, Mr Nayakar, Mr Parameshwarappa, Mr K.H. Anahosur, Mr K.A. Kulkarni were honoured.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.