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HomeAgroPolicyNational Gene Bank at ICAR- NBPGR conserves traditional agro-products

National Gene Bank at ICAR- NBPGR conserves traditional agro-products

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Govt adopts measures for preservation and promotion of traditional agro-products in the country

The National Gene Bank (NGB) at ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR- NBPGR), New Delhi is currently conserving more than 4.52 lakh accessions of various crops of which over 0.92 lakh accessions are of indigenous/local/traditional varieties and landraces. This information was given by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in Rajya Sabha.

 

ICAR-NBPGR has evaluated 635 designated rice landraces from Assam, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for major nutrients. Based on farmer’s preference, local demand and nutritional value of 24 landraces from Assam are identified for promotion under a trading name ’Native Basket’ of these marketing of four landraces namely Amona Bao, Kola Joha, Boga Bet Guti, Ronga Bao is already started, similarly, two landraces from Himachal Pradesh are identified for promotion under the trade name ’Mountain Grain’ and in Chhattisgarh 15 rice landraces are promoted through Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishvavidalaya (IGKV), Raipur under the brand name “Indira”. 

 

Geographical Indicator (GI) is obtained for popular small seed aromatic rice ’Jeera Phool’ and application for GI is submitted for landrace “Nagri Dhrubraj”.

 

To improve the access to good seeds, 23 community seed banks were established at the community level involving KVKs and Self Help Groups in remote and tribal areas of the country. A total of 26 community seed banks conserving >4000 native landraces and farmers’ varieties of many food crops have been strengthened and established ICAR-NBPGR and Biodiversity International are jointly executing UN Environment implemented a project entitled ’Mainstreaming Agricultural biodiversity conservation and utilisation of the agriculture sector to ensure ecosystem services and reduce vulnerability’ in seven states and Union Territory of Ladakh, to make communities more resilient to climate variation by growing more variety of crops. Under the project, More than 25,000 farmers across four agro-ecoregions covering 120,000 ha in India maintain and use 20 crops including rice of traditional local varieties, many of which were lost or got degenerated due to non-cultivation and poor maintenance.

 

Besides, in the United Nation- Global Environment Facility (UNEP-GEF) project, NBPGR, Biodiversity International and other institutes are also executing “Seeds for Needs” project using crowdsourcing (CS) and Participatory Varietal Selection trials (PVS) approaches to look for the “best set” of traditional varieties of wheat and rice farmers across four states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, UP and MP). So far, a set of selected varieties of wheat (44) and rice (34) were promoted with 15000 and 7000 wheat and rice farmers, respectively. 

 

The government has also been promoting traditional ways of crop cultivation through dedicated schemes of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER). In addition, organic cultivation on either side of River Ganga, natural farming, large area certification and support for individual farmers have also been introduced under PKVY to increase organic coverage using organic/ bio inputs for the production of organic products.  

 

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