Hyderabad, Oct 5 : Three new chickpea varieties, with traits like enhanced drought tolerance, disease resistance and high yield, developed by ICRISAT in collaboration with ICAR, are set to become available to Indian farmers as they have been notified for cultivation by the Central Varietal Release Committee.
“Genomics driven interventions to enhance crop yield and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses are the need of the hour under changing climate, ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) said in a statement here on Tuesday.
The National agricultural research system led by ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) has been working in this direction to develop high yielding and climate resilient crop varieties.
The new chickpea varieties — IPC L4-14, BGM 4005 and IPCMB 19-3, are a result of ICRISAT’s collaborations with ICAR-Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR) in Kanpur and ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi.
Of these three varieties, two (BGM 4005 and IPCMB 19-3) were among the 35 crop varieties dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month on September 28. Two of these were chickpeas developed in partnership with ICRISAT.
These new varieties are well poised to strengthen food and nutrition security as well as livelihoods in India by providing adaptation mechanisms to the climate related challenges confronting the agriculture sector,” said Dr. Jacqueline Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT.(UNI)