The ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru’s scientists first recorded the highly polyphagous Invasive Rugose Spiralling Whitefly (RSW), Aleurodicus rugioperculatus Martin on Coconut at Pollachi, Tamil Nadu in 2016. Subsequently, the pest rapidly spread to all coconut growing Districts in India causing extensive damage to the coconut plantations and panicked farmers resorted to spraying of chemical pesticides, but, this turned out to be a temporary fix.    The ICAR-NBAIR identified the aphelinid parasitoid Encarsia guadeloupae causing natural parasitism of 56% to 82%. The farmers were trained in identifying, mass production and distribution of the parasitoid and were strictly advised not to apply the chemical pesticides. The parasitoids multiplied rapidly and natural parasitism increased phenomenally, thus, preventing the severe outbreaks. The growers were advised to grow Banana and Canna indica as banker plants for conservation and...

ICAR virtually celebrates 92nd Foundation Day and Awards Ceremony 16th July, 2020, New Delhi “Being agriculture-centric country, farmers are our treasure”, said Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare while inaugurating Virtual 92nd Foundation Day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research held here at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi today.   Shri Tomar stressed on the prevalence of laws for the prompt implementation of the Government of India’s various agricultural and farming communities welfare schemes. He also urged the ICAR to be vigilant with the help of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras for providing the farmers their due benefits from the schemes. Regarding the key achievements made by the Council in the last 90 years as a matter of honor for the country, the Minister also applauded the scientists for developing new and improved technologies and farmers who adopted and utilized them wisely. He appreciated the...

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi reviewed the progress of agriculture research, extension and education in India through videoconference earlier today. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister  of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare , Rural Development & Panchayat Raj, Shri Parshottam Rupala and Shri Kailash Choudhary, Union Ministers for State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare joined the review meeting.  In addition to the Senior officials from PMO, Secretaries from Departments of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Dairy and Fisheries were present.   Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra , Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR), presented the priorities, performance and preparedness to face various challenges. Since 2014,based on the research at various centers of ICAR, new varieties of field crops (1434), Horticulture crops (462) and Climate resilient varieties (1121) have been developed. Molecular breeding techniques have been used to develop varieties...

30th June, 2020, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi The Virtual 26th Meeting of the ICAR Zonal Committee - 1 (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh) was organized here at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi today. According to the Rule - 65 and Regulations of the ICAR Society, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research formed 8 Zonal Committees based on the agro-climatic zones in 1975. Since their inception, the Committees organize meetings after every two years to discuss the latest trends in agricultural education and farming. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare emphasized that the regional committees formed by the ICAR provides a better platform for establishing meaningful dialogue between research and development agencies in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and agroforestry. Highlighting the difference between the plains and the hilly areas in terms of farming, the Union...

The COVID-19 lockdown has impacted different sectors of the Indian economy. Its impact on Indian agriculture has been complex and diverse across various segments of agricultural value chain and across season when the lockdown was announced and crops like wheat, chickpea, mustard etc. were to be harvested. It was also the time for the farm produce to reach markets for procurement by government agencies. The immediate challenge, therefore, was market access for the farm produce, which was problematic due to absence of transportation and unavailability of workers for operations at farm and mandis The very livelihood of various actors of the supply chain of perishable To tackle this situation, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) issued state specific guidelines about harvesting and threshing of rabicrops along with the advisories on handling post-harvest operations like storage and marketing of the farm produce more efficiently. In order to cope with the case specific...