World Pulses Day: We Need to Focus More on Research & Development of Hybrid Pulses: Dr. Shivendra Bajaj

Pulses have a great history, having been an important source of nutrition for humans and animals for over ten thousand years. Their importance was established, however, when, as a result of hunger, poverty, and food shortages, the world's concern evolved to include new goals such as feeding a large population with a healthy, sanitary, and adequate diet.

World Pulses Day this year is celebrated for the fourth time on February 10th 2022 (Thursday) with the theme, "Pulses to empower youth in achieving sustainable agri-food systems”.

This year’s FAO theme for World Pulses Day is “Pulses to Empower Youth in Achieving Sustainable Agri-Food Systems”. In the above context, Krishi Jagran have organized a Live session on “Pulses to Empower Youth in Achieving Sustainable Seed Production, Distribution & Agri-Food System”. This session took place on 10th February 2022 (2:00 PM onwards).

Many eminent speakers including, Dr. Shivendra Bajaj, Executive Director, Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), shared their views on the topic. Dr. Bajaj said that we need to identify the genetic resources & develop new varieties that are higher yielding.

He said in India, hybridization is gaining significantly but, in pulses, there is hardly any hybrids available. As we know that hybrids increase yield so we need to do more research to develop Hybrid Pulses.

We need to focus more on the development of hybrid pulses, and once we are done with it, there will definitely be a very significant increase in pulses production. And, this research must definitely happen in India.

We should not be hesitant to adopt new technologies, as there is a lot of potential in technologies. At last, he summarizes his speech and highlights three major points and said that:

• We need to focus on developing better seeds.

• We should try to make hybrid pulses.

• We should invest more in research & money to develop Hybrid Pulses, as well as adopt new technologies in the improvement of Pulses.

Note:

To watch the live discussion & to know the highlights of the whole session, we request you to kindly visit the Official Facebook Page of Krishi Jagran or Click Here, to have a direct glimpse of the session.