1st December 2024, Varanasi
The ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur; ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, jointly organized a workshop on Developing Stewardship Guidelines for Herbicide-Tolerant Rice Technology in India today at the International Rice Research Institute South Asia Regional Centre (ISARC), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
The Chief Guest, Dr P.K. Singh, Agriculture Commissioner, Govt. of India, emphasized the need for stewardship guidelines to sustain the HT technology, as this technology saves water and reduces GHG emissions. He also highlighted carbon credit farming for the farmers and incentivized the farmers who are adopting HT DSR. Dr Singh urged highlighting the positive aspects of the technology and making simple guidelines so that it could be easily understandable by farmers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. There is a need to map the areas/ecologies where such HT technologies need to be promoted, he added.
Dr Sudhanshu Singh, Director, ISARC, Varanasi, highlighted the benefits of direct seeded rice (DSR) in view of water scarcity, GHG emissions, and other related issues. Under such a situation, HT rice will be the game changer. Therefore, developing the proper stewardship for this technology is the need of the hour to address the concerns and challenges.
Dr Yvonne Pinto, Director General, IRRI, said that DSR is an eco-friendly, sustainable rice production technology. However, its large-scale adoption is a major challenge because of weed management issues. A collaborative and comprehensive stewardship guideline is therefore required for sustainable HT rice resilient agriculture.
Dr AK Singh, emeritus scientist and former Director, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, made a detailed presentation on the history and development of HT rice in India. He highlighted the non-transgenic HT rice varieties such as PB 1979 and PB 1985, CRR 807, and hybrids Sava 127 FP and Sava 134 FP and shared experiences of largescale adoption of HT basmati varieties in Punjab and Haryana.
Dr D.K. Yadava, Assistant Director General (Seeds), ICAR, said that HT rice needs specific attention. Therefore, to remove the concerns of the farmers related to HT rice, robust stewardship from seed to harvest is required. SOPs of a package of practices for DSR is needed, he added.
Earlier, Dr JS Mishra, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur, stated that weed menace in DSR is a major concern. Therefore, based on the global experiences on long-term HT rice cultivation, a robust stewardship guideline for the Indian context needs to be sincerely developed.
More than 50 delegates attended the programme.
(Source: ICAR-Directorate of Weed Research, Jabalpur)
Read more: https://www.icar.org.in/workshop-ht-rice-stewardship-organized
