Deficient rainfall in northern and central parts of the country may not result in drastic fall in food production, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) on Monday said.
While suggesting farmers to take up alternate short duration crops such soybean and groundnut in the rain deficient areas, H S Gupta Director, IARI, said the kharif sowing could still go on till August despite inadequate rainfall in many regions.
?We do not anticipate sharp decline in the country?s food production as there are many techniques available for dealing with such deficient rainfall,? Gupta said.
He said that the farmers can sow paddy till July-end, groundnut, sunflower and soyabean till August and maize till September, so even if the monsoon is delayed in some parts, it won?t have much impact on the output.
This statement by a top agricultural scientist came following the recent agricultural ministry data data which said that the sowing area under paddy has dipped by close to 20% to 74.28 lakh hectare till July 10, compared with 92.35 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
The country?s food production was estimated to 118.79 million tonne of food grains, including 85.46 million tonne of rice and 18.17 million tonne of oilseeds during Kharif 2008-09.
Gupta also recommended usage of ?direct seeding? technique for the rain deficient areas farmers in place of usual nursery technique. ?Even if it rains now in the northern India through direct seeding technique, the paddy can be planted,? he said
In a bid to augmenting yield in the rainfed areas, IARI scientists have developed a hydrogels for improving the water retention capacity of the soil. ?The gel which can be directly applied into the soil is expected to increase water retention capacity of soil besides increasing yield by as high as 50%,? Gupta said.
The hygrogels which has been patented has the unique capacity to retain water despite high atmospheric temperature. ?The technique which is being test at IARI Karnal also helps in improving germination and ensure 40-50% saving in water,? he said.
IARI in the recent years has developed 76 high yielding varieties of crops including wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet, forage sorghum, pigeon pea, chickpea, mustard, cotton and soyabean. Due to IARI?s wheat varieties, the country?s wheat production went up manifold duing 1967 ? 2004.