THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI SHARAD PAWAR)
(a) No, Madam. The allocation for agricultural research has been increased during the last two years.
(b) to (d): Plan Allocation to ICAR have shown the following increasing trend over the last five years (XI Five Year Plan)
PLAN
(Rs. in Crore)
Year Allocation
DARE ICAR Total
2007-08 56.50 1377.50 1434.00
2008-09 91.00 1608.02 1699.02
Total for 2008-09 1760.00
2009-10 70.50 1689.50 1760.00
2010-11 80.65 2441.11 2521.76
2011-12 101.01 2748.99 2850.00
(e) The steps taken/proposed to be taken in this regard to boost agricultural production and productivity include:-
# Considering all the food crops, the varietal improvement with respect to yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses has led to enhanced food production from 208.60 million tonnes in 2005-06 to 241.6 million tonnes in 2010-11.
# Development of single cross hybrids (SCH) in maize over the open pollinated varieties/composites and also promotion of SCH in maize during the last 4-5 years, resulted in an increase from 15.1 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 21.28 million tonnes during 2010-11.
# The ICAR has developed several location specific cost effective technologies (suiting soil and climate) like crop diversification, resource conservation technologies (zero tillage, bed planting, laser leveling, SRI), soil reclamation/amelioration measures, integrated soil- water-nutrient management, water harvesting and conservation, participatory watershed models, micro irrigation, integrated farming system and agroforestry models etc to boost agricultural production and productivity in the country. |
