
To feed the growing population, the importance of low-income generating crops – rice and wheat – cannot be undermined. As the science has turnaround, these commodities can be made equally important by the private sector like many other hybrid oriented crops such as fruits and vegetables, RB Singh, Chancellor, Central Agriculture University, Manipur said today.
Addressing the Awardees of the Monsanto Beachell – Borlaug International Scholarship Program (MBBISP) in New Delhi, Prof. Singh said, “ The two pillars of global food security is off course, the rice and wheat. These are the grains of life as the very large proportion of population across the globe depends on these crops.”
Highlighting the increase in food production, he added, due to the green, blue, yellow and white revolutions, the food production increased by many fold; the grain production increased by 5.5 times, milk production increased nearly by 10 times, horticultural production increased by 9 times, fish production increased by 11 times since 1951. Today, in the production of most agricultural commodities, India is at No. 1 or 2.
“Despite the increase in food production, the enigma of India is , the one forth of the country is suffering from hunger. Thus in this scenario of asymmetry in rice and wheat development, we will have to look at it differently to feed the growing population,” he emphasised.
With 1.3 billion plus population which is unlikely to be 1.6 billion plus by 2050, India needs to address the challenges of agriculture sector with the support of new technologies and innovations. India is not just a country, it is exporting food grains to many other countries. Thus, if Indian agriculture does well, the whole world will do well, the veteran agriculturalist added.