PM Modi releases 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient, and biofortified seed varieties

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient, and biofortified seed varieties aimed at enhancing farm productivity and improving farmers’ incomes. 

Developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state agriculture universities, these seeds cover 61 crops, including 34 field crops and 27 horticultural varieties.

Mint first reported this development on 9 August.

According to a statement from the agriculture ministry, Modi launched the seeds at three experimental agriculture plots on Delhi’s Pusa Campus and also interacted with farmers and scientists. 

The field crop varieties include cereals, millets, forage crops, oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane, cotton, and fiber crops. For horticulture, the Prime Minister introduced new varieties of fruits, vegetables, plantation crops, tubers, spices, flowers, and medicinal plants.

One of the 109 seed varieties released is CR Dhan 416, a rice variety ideal for coastal saline areas. It yields 48.97 q/ha and matures in 125-130 days. This variety is moderately resistant to brown spot, neck blast, sheath rot, rice tungro disease, and glume discoloration, besides offering full resistance to brown plant hopper, grasshopper and stem borer.

Modi also released a durum wheat variety, suitable for Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the plains of Tamil Nadu. Adapted for irrigated conditions, it has an average grain yield of 30.2 q/ha. This variety is tolerant to terminal heat, resistant to stem and leaf rusts, and biofortified with higher levels of zinc (41.1 ppm) and iron (38.5 ppm). It also contains 12% protein.

New varieties launched: Barley, pulses and more

Among the field crops, new varieties of barley, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet were also released.

In pulses, new varieties of chickpea, pigeon pea, lentils, and mungbean were introduced. The chickpea varieties are suitable for timely sown, rainfed, or irrigated conditions in the Rabi season within the North East Plain Zone (NEPZ). They yield 17.79 q/ha and mature in 130 days. These varieties are moderately resistant to wilt, collar rot, and stunt, and are tolerant to pod damage.

“Among the 69 field crops, there are 23 cereal seed varieties, including rice, wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, proso millet, and barnyard millet,” Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters.

These are climate-friendly seeds and are designed to thrive in adverse weather conditions and offer high nutritional value, Chouhan added.

According to the ministry, 11 varieties of pulses have been released, including chickpea, pigeon pea, lentil, field pea, faba bean, and mungbean. Additionally, seven oilseed varieties, such as safflower, soybean, groundnut, and sesame, and seven forage crops, including forage pearl millet, berseem, oats, forage maize, and forage sorghum, have also been introduced.

The PM also introduced four sugarcane varieties, six fibre crops, including cotton and jute, and 11 potential crops, such as buckwheat, amaranth, winged bean, adzuki bean, pillipesara, kalingda and perilla.

The ministry said 40 new horticultural crops have also been introduced, covering fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, spices, plantation crops, flowers and medicinal plants.