Union Minister inaugurates genome-editing lab at wheat & barley research institute

Union Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the genome-editing laboratory funded by one of the ICAR schemes at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), targeting utilisation of modern genomic tools towards enhancing desired traits for better adaptation and enriched grain quality.

Besides, Chouhan also interacted with the staff and students. The Minister met several farmers, who shared their experiences with high-yielding wheat varieties developed by the institute. He mentioned that one of the farmers reported a yield of 31 quintals per acre using the institute-developed wheat variety, while others achieved yields as high as 27 quintals per acre. “These are encouraging results. If we want to increase farmers’ income, we must focus on increasing production while simultaneously reducing the cost of cultivation,” Chouhan asserted.

The farmers expressed their gratitude to the minister and scientists for providing climate resilient varieties, which could withstand temperature fluctuations particularly during the day in February-March. The farmers were also happy that input cost had reduced since no fungicide’s sprays were required due to the deployment of disease resistant varieties. Some of the farmers showed interest in the hull-less varieties of barley, as they were told that DWRB 223 had recently been released.

He emphasised the need to connect scientific research with grassroots farming, highlighting the importance of the ‘lab to land’ approach. He said the research being conducted by scientists in laboratories must directly reach the farmers so that they could benefit from innovations in agricultural science.

Highlighting the impact of scientific intervention in agriculture, Chouhan said despite the challenges posed by rising temperatures due to climate change, wheat production had not declined.