Question : Investment on Agricultural Research

(a) the details of the total public investment both by Union Government and States allocated for agricultural research in the country and the share for rice research and wheat research separately out of the investment over the last decade;

(b) the total High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) and hybrids of different field and horticulture crops which were released to the farmers in different States during the last decade;

(c) the details of the land area under cultivation of different HYVs of rice and wheat in different States over the last decade and output thereof; and

(d) the details of the strategy adopted by the Government for further development of rice and wheat sectors in the country?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
(SHRI SUDARSHAN BHAGAT)

(a) Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is the apex body for agricultural research in the country. ICAR has been provided Rs 20945 crores {Revised Estimate (RE)} during the years, 2007-08 to 2015-16 and Rs. 3700.00 crores {Budget Estimate (BE)} for the year, 2016-17. The share of rice during the same period was Rs. 248.44 crores RE and Rs. 39.41 crores BE and of wheat was Rs. 180.23 crores RE and Rs. 29.87 crores BE, respectively.

(b) A total of 1511 varieties/hybrids comprising 1356 of field crops and 155 of horticultural crops have been released for cultivation in different states during the last decade (2007 to 2016).


(c) Rice and wheat were cultivated in 43.3 and 30.2 million hectare area, respectively, in the country in 2015-16. The major rice growing states are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Punjab, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and wheat growing states are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar covering about 78 % and 89 % of total area under rice and wheat, respectively. All area of rice and wheat was under high yielding varieties (HYVs), except a negligible area was under local popular cultivars in rice.

The spread of HYVs of rice and wheat over a larger area has resulted in increase of production of rice from 99.6 million tones in 2007-08 to 104.3 million tones in 2015-16 and of wheat from 78.5 million tones in 2007-08 to 93.5 in 2015-16, respectively.

(d) In order to improve breeding efficiency and precision, integrated crop improvement approach including cutting edge technology like, marker assisted selection has been envisioned to develop improved varieties with increased yield, quality and climate resilience. Pre-breeding has been intensified to generate new variability through introgression of desired alleles from diverse sources.

The Central Government schemes like, Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI), National Food Security Mission (NFSM) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY) are the major development schemes to popularize improved varieties and technologies for increasing the production of rice and wheat in the country.

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