59th All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Virtual Meet

59th All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Virtual Meet

24th August, 2020, Karnal

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the two-day “59th All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Virtual Meet” organized by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, Haryana today.

In his inaugural address, the Director General applauded the wheat workers, policy makers and farmers for their untiring efforts and contributions in achieving a record production of 107.59 million tonnes. Dr. Mohapatra emphasized the role and importance of international collaborations with the CIMMYT and ICARDA and other international agencies in the endeavour. He also urged the scientists associated with the ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Projects to take the responsibility for exploring the possibilities of enhancing the farmers' income through wheat processing and value addition.

Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR emphasized the wheat’s role in the country’s food and nutritional security. He stressed on the need of improving the wheat’s nutritional quality by bio-fortification of the important micronutrients, such as, protein, zinc and iron in the food crops and, especially, in wheat.

Expressing his concerns over the Barley’s dwindling area in the country, Dr. Y.P. Singh, ADG (FFC), ICAR stressed on the need for brainstorming on the matter.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Gyanendra P. Singh, Director, ICAR-IIWBR, Karnal, Haryana outlined the highlights of the progress made under the ICAR-AICRP on Wheat and Barley during the period. He also highlighted the newly released varieties and the genetic stocks developed in Wheat and Barley.

A total of 12 new proposals were presented to the Varietal Identification Committee Meeting, under the chairmanship of Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crops Science), ICAR.

More than 300 researchers from India; Bangladesh; Nepal; ICARDA, Morocco and CIMMYT, Mexico virtually participated in the meet.

(Source: ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, Haryana)