Modern seed hubs to boost crop yields

India is planning to set up five modern seed breeding facilities across the country to encourage advanced seed research and develop high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of crops, senior government officials said.

- Vijay C Roy [e-mail]

A controlled atmosphere accelerates plant growth, allowing multiple generations each year.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

India already has two such facilities at Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) centres, and is expected to increase it to seven by the end of this fiscal year, the officials told Mint.

The seed breeding technology enables rapid crop development by creating controlled environmental conditions such as temperature, light intensity and day length in a chamber, allowing processing of seeds in a shorter time compared to the conventional way.

The process of multiplying seeds from the original plant breeding material to the final seeds that are distributed to farmers is known as ‘generation.’ This can be used in crop varieties such as wheat, rice, cotton, soybean, millets, maize and mustard.