February 8, 2011

India needs to boost investment in agricultural research

India needs to enhance its investment in agriculture research and development (R&D), on lines with China and other developed nations, to develop new seeds and technologies for increasing farm output, an official said.

"Investment in agriculture R&D is less. It is close to 0.5% of farm GDP. China has close to 1% and it is almost 2.5% in developed countries," Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) Director H S Gupta, said.

On the issue of food grains requirement, Gupta said it would rise substantially by 2020 but exuded confidence that the production would match demand with the help of technology that is currently available with the farmers.

"The requirement for 2020 would be 130 million tonnes of rice and 110 million tonnes of wheat. We will be able to meet the target of 2020 with the current technology," he said.

India produced a record 80.71 million tonnes of wheat in 2009-10 crop year (July-June) and production of rice stood at 89.13 million tonnes in the same cycle.