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India, the world’s largest importer of pulses, can become self-sufficient in production in the next 3-5 years through the use of quality seed varieties and supportive government policy, global research body Icrisat has said.
India imports three million tonnes of pulses annually to meet domestic shortages. Production this year is estimated at 16.55 mt against the demand of 17-18 mt.
“India can become self-sufficient in pulses production in the next 3-5 years. We believe we can easily produce three mt of pulses in the country itself,” the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) Director-General, Mr William Dar told reporters here today.
He said the institute has developed pulses seed varieties that are resistant to climate change and “some of them will be rolled out through a partnership with Indian research institutes like ICAR’’.
Mr Dar, who was here for the four-day 64th meeting of the Icrisat governing board, which ended today, said there are pulses varieties that can be grown in the short and medium-term and adaptable to various ecology in India.
Launching the ‘Icrisat South-South Initiative’ to boost the India-Africa partnership in agri research for development, the Icrisat governing board Chair, Nigel Poole, said the initiative will help in exchange of research knowledge between the two countries for improving pulses and other agricultural production in dryland areas.
Mr Poole said there is a pessimistic view of tropical dryland farming. But Icrisat has lot of evidence to show that market-oriented agriculture can be promoted in dryland farms.
About 65 per cent of India’s agriculture is under dryland farming. Even pulses are grown in dryland areas of about 23 million hectares in the country at present, he added.
Hyderabad-based Icrisat is the only global institute of agriculture, which has its headquarters in India. The institute has released 57 varieties of chickpea and pigeonpea in India in the last 30-odd years, raising the production of pulses.
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