ICAR-CRIJAF organized Jute Seed Industry Meet in Barrackpore

ICAR-CRIJAF organized Seed Industry Meet on 09.08.2021 to sensitize the jute seed industry about the importance of new varieties and the licensing policy of the institute for commercial productions of seeds of these jute varieties.

ICAR-CRIJAF is the only research institute in the country that has contributed germplasm collection, maintenance, evaluation, utilization, breeding and release of improved jute varieties. There was a growth of 28 % in production of Jute Products and the Exports increased by 71% from Rs.562.401 Crore in 2015-16 to Rs.963.436 Crore in 2019-20 indicating a rising global demand due to increased preference for eco-friendly and biodegradable products in USA and Europe. Thus, there is great demand of high quality jute fibre to cater to need of International standard for production of jute diversified products. 

The quality of jute fibre depends on 3 factors:

• Varieties

• Retting accelerator and microbial consortium

• Water quality and retting process.

Jute varieties:

The ICAR-CRIJAF has developed seven fine fibre varieties in last ten years viz. JROMU-1, JROB-2, JROG 1, JRO-2407, JRC-532, JRC-9057, JRCJ-11. Besides, an action plan has also been prepared to replace old varieties (cv JRO 524) with relatively recent varieties (developed in 2007-08) like JRO-204, JBO 2003 H (Ira), CO 58 (Sourav). ICAR-CRIJAF fulfil 100% breeder seed requirement of jute in India and constantly augmenting production and productivity through new high yielding jute varieties.

Jute Seed Exports from India

Annual jute seed requirement in India is 4500 tonnes out of which 95% seeds are from ICAR-CRIJAF varieties.  Annually 3500- 4000 ton seeds of ICAR-CRIJAF variety are also exported to Bangladesh, costing Rs. 50-60 crores. This variety can be replaced by new varieties.

At present, the major concern in jute seed sector is the slow pace of varietal replacement with recently developed new varieties due to lack of awareness about the newly released high yielding varieties with multiple desirable traits by seed producers and farmers.

Hence, to popularize the new varieties, ICAR-CRIJAF organized Seed Industry Meet on 09.08.2021 to sensitize the jute seed industry about the importance of new varieties and the licensing policy of the institute for commercial productions of seeds of these jute varieties.  

Highlights of the Jute Seed Industry Meet:

Dr Gouranga Kar, Director, ICAR-CRIJAF addressed the Present Jute Seed Scenario in the country and the new varieties of ICAR-CRIJAF. He said that recent trend of increasing domestic consumption and export demand of jute diversified products has enhanced the requirement of quality raw jute for the industries.

The representatives of 12 Seed Industries participated in this meet and interacted with the scientists of ICAR-CRIJAF. The delegates also visited the newly developed solar-power free flow retting complex, frontline demonstration of new jute varieties and the fibre museum.

Dr. C. S. Kar, Principal Scientist and Nodal Officer (Seeds) welcomed the participants. In his remarks he mentioned about the seed production activity of ICAR-CRIJAF and the current varietal replacement rate. Dr. Ritesh Saha, Principal Scientist and I/C ITMU, discussed about the available varieties and technologies for commercialization and the licensing policy of the institute.

The institute has made an action plan for meeting the additional demand of jute fibre in near future by improving the productivity to 40 q/ha. In this direction, the role of recently released varieties is very important as these varieties are 15- 20% more productive and 21% finer than the older varieties. Hence, these varieties have tremendous potential for productivity enhancement of quality jute fibre. 

The availability of seeds of these new varieties among the farmers is the first step in this effort for which the seed companies must be very pro-active. Jute Seed Industries should come forward to develop MoU with ICAR-CRIJAF for commercial production of new varieties so that the time period between development and popularization of such varieties take less time.