Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) led National Agricultural Research System (NARS) has developed 1956 high yielding varieties/hybrids of 80 field crops since 2014 which include 173 less water requiring varieties/hybrids of cereals (94), oilseeds (14), pulses (25), fiber crops (8), forages (12) and sugarcane (20).

Total of 56 less water requiring varieties/hybrids of field crops have been developed during  2018-19 to 2020-21, comprising of 31 of Cereals (10 of Rice, 7 of Wheat, 3 of Maize, 2 of Sorghum and 9 of Millets); 6 of Oilseeds (2 of Soybean, 2 of Groundnut, 1 of Sesame, 1 of Indian mustard); 10 of Pulses (1 of Urd bean, 4 of Pigeon pea, 1 of Horse gram, 2 of Chickpea, 1 of Lentil and 1 of Faba bean); 2 of Forages (1 each of Fescue grass and Setaria grass); 2 of cotton and 5 of Sugarcane.

During last 3 years, 6975.32 quintals (2018-19: 2446.7 q, 2019-20: 2204.45 q and 2020-21:2324.17 q) breeder seed of less water requiring varieties was produced and supplied to various public and private seed production agencies for downstream multiplication as foundation and certified seed by ICAR. A total of 74,43,879 q of certified/ quality seeds of high yielding varieties/hybrids (including stress tolerant) was made available during the years 2019-20 to 2020-21.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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