ICAR-IARI develops chickpea variety using Genomic technique that has drought tolerant and high yielding
The government’s research groups, ICAR and IARI, have come up with a chickpea variety called ‘Pusa JG 16’ that can handle drought and could help increase chickpea yields in central India.
According to a statement, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), along with the Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV) in Jabalpur, the Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya in Gwalior, and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancher.
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The variety will increase productivity in the Central Zone’s drought-prone areas, like Madhya Pradesh, the Bundelkhand area of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Southern Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, where terminal drought is a big problem and sometimes causes 50–100% yield loss.
‘Genome-assisted breeding techniques were used to create the Pusa JG 16 variety. This made it possible to transfer drought-resistant genes from ICC 4958 to the parent variety, JG 16. “The Chickpea All India Coordinated Research Programme tested this variety on a national scale to ensure it could withstand drought,” it added.
This variety is resistant to fusarium wilt and stunt diseases, has a short time to maturity (110 days), and can produce more than its parent, JG 16, even when it is stressed by drought (1.3 tonnes/hectares vs. 2 tonnes/hectares).
The Ministry of Agriculture announced the chickpea variety ‘Pusa JG 16,’ which made A. K. Singh, the head of ICAR-IARI, happy.
He stressed that this variety will be a great help to farmers in the Central region of the country, where droughts are common. Related Agri News | Centre govt exempts genome-edited plants from biosafety regulations for faster development of new varieties
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