In a bid to strengthen cooperation in the field of agriculture, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will visit the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), under the ministry of agriculture, here on Sunday.
While the main purpose of her visit to country?s premier agricultural research institute is yet to be ascertained, sources told FE she would be interacting with top IARI scientists to find out new technologies on
augmenting rice and wheat production besides visiting institute?s field trial facilities .
Prior to her visit, several US officials have already visited IARI and discussed issues including farmers? exchange programme and technology transfer between both the countries.
Interestingly IARI also has a little bit of history associated with USA.
IARI, popularly known as the Pusa Institute, was initially established in 1905 at Pusa (Bihar) aided by a substantial donation of $ 30,000 from an American philanthropist Henry Phipps. Following a devastating earthquake in 1934, the institute was shifted to its present location in Delhi.
During the Green Revolution era initiated in 1960s, IARI played a key role in developing hybrid seed varieties in Wheat and Rice which resulted in significant boost in production leading to India?s becoming self-sufficient in essential food items.
It is estimated that during 1967-2004, mainly due to IARI, India produced an additional 1000 million tonne of wheat. A similar increase in yield was repeated in other crops such as rice, maize, pearl millet, etc.