NEW DELHI, 11 Aug: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday released 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient and biofortified seed varieties of agricultural and horticultural crops, aiming to enhance farm productivity and farmers’ income.
Developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, these varieties span 61 crops, including 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops.
Modi unveiled the seeds at three experimental agriculture plots in Delhi’s Pusa Campus, where he also interacted with farmers and scientists.
An official statement said that Modi stressed on the significance of value addition in agriculture while discussing the importance of these new varieties with the farmers.
The farmers present on the occasion said that these new varieties would be highly beneficial to them because of lower input cost.
The prime minister discussed the importance of millets and underlined how people are moving towards nutritious food. He also talked about the benefits of natural farming and the increasing faith of common people towards organic farming, noting that people have started consuming and demanding organic foods.
Modi suggested that the KVKs should proactively inform farmers about the benefits of the new varieties being developed every month to create awareness about their benefits, the statement said.
The PM lauded the scientists for the development of these new crop varieties.
The field crop varieties include cereals, millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, and fibre crops.
For horticulture, the PM released new varieties of fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, tubers, spices, flowers, and medicinal plants. (PTI)
