Tuesday, November 27, 2012

ICSA 2012- EXPERTS DELIBERATE ON NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND BREEDING CROPS FOR FOOD AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE

LUDHIANA, NOVEMBER 27:-----



The eminent farm scientists from USA, Germany, and India gave detailed presentation on diverse theme areas of the "International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture for Food and Livelihood Security – ICSA 2012," organized at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).



Chairing the technical session, "Natural Resource Conservation- A Key to Sustainable Agriculture" Dr R.S. Paroda, former Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); said that sustainable agriculture cannot be ensured without natural resource management. Stating that protected cultivation is the most efficient system for productivity, he emphasized on managing the natural resources and addressing the climate change issues. He also spoke on the importance of farm diversification, water, soil, energy, power, cropping systems and intensity.



Dr M.S. Bajwa, Co-Chairman of the session, said that Punjab is making substantial contribution of paddy to the central pool at the cost of the depleting water resources and the Centre should compensate by giving royalty to the state. He also emphasized on adequate storage facilities for the management of farm produce.



Dr R.S. Zeigler, Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines; chaired the technical session on "Breeding Crops for Food and Climate Resilience" whereas Dr D.S. Brar, Adjunct Professor at PAU School of Agricultural Biotechnology (SAB) and former Head of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division, IRRI, Philippines.



A well-known rice breeder, popularly known as "Paddy Daddy," Dr Gurdev Singh Khush, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, USA and PAU alumnus; divulged that between 1966 and 2011, the population of densely populated low-income countries grew by 110 per cent. But the rice production increased by 180 per cent from 257 million tonnes in 1966 to 718 million tonnes in 2011. In spite of these advances in rice production, 800 million people still go to bed hungry every day and most of them are poor rice consumers, he pointed out. As population of rice consumers will continue to grow, it is vital to meet the increased demand from less land and with less water, less labour and fewer chemicals. Various strategies for increasing the rice yield potential include conventional hybridization and selection procedures, ideotype breeding, hybrid breeding, wide hybridization and genetic engineering, suggested he.

Speaking on the topic "Managing Soils for Feeding the Carbon Civilization," Dr Rattan Lal Sharma, Professor of Soil Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA; said that impact of the so called "Carbon Civilization" on the environment is likely to increase drastically with increase in population from 7 billion in 2011 to 9.2 billion in 2050 and 10 billion in 2100. He added that the finite resources are being jeopardized by severe soil degradation, urbanization and industrial uses, brick making and use for growing biofuel plantations. If soils are not restored, crops will fail and hunger will perpetuate, said he, while stressing on prudence governance and sustainable development for dealing with land and soil degradation.



Dr D.J. MacKill, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, USA; observed that rice production is under pressure due to water shortages, climate change, reduced arable land area, increasing cost of inputs, and pollution. Changes in the current rice production practices are urgently needed to enable farmers to adjust to these pressures, he emphasized, saying that tolerance to abiotic stresses submergence, drought, salinity and high temperature are readily available in particular rice varieties. Transferring these tolerances into high-yielding and productive varieties is necessary to provide protection to future varieties from climate change, said he.



Dr Hans-Peter Piepho from University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany; spoke on "Using series of experiments to identify adapted cultivars for sub-divided target regions." He stated that breeding for local adaptation may be economically viable provided there is sufficient genotype-by-sub-region interaction. If the targeted sub-region is part of a larger region covered by a testing network, information from neighboring sub-regions can be exploited in order to gain more precise estimates for the targeted sub-region, he said. For balanced data, the simplest approach is to use genotypic mean estimates for the whole target region, he added.



Dr Kulwinder Gill from Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA; disclosed that about 25 per cent of wheat crop is lost to various types of pests even though ample resistance genes are available. He said, "To protect and maintain yield potential of popular variety, we optimized a marker-assisted background selection (MABS)-based gene introgression approach in wheat where 97 per cent or more of a recurrent parent genome can be recovered in just two backcross (BC) generations. Marker assisted forward breeding (MAFB) was also optimized with the objective to improve upon the recurrent parent. This includes selecting plants with single plant yield analysis, selection for plant type, and single plant grain quality analysis."



Dr J.S. Samra, CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority, New Delhi; revealed that nearly 8.2 per cent of India's population of tribals and forest dwellers are major concern of inclusive growth and conservation of natural resources. He noted that demographic growth, change in food habits, urbanization, industrialization, climate changes and environmental needs are putting tremendous challenges on the natural resources. Dr Samra also dwelt upon over exploitation of groundwater, flood prone agro-ecologies, rainfed agriculture, climate change and protected agriculture.



Dr B.R. Sharma, Principal Researcher (Water Resources), International Water Management Institute, New Delhi; said that regional land and water productivity of both rice and wheat is one of the highest in the country. However, the large positive benefits have also created alarmingly high negative hydrological conundrums, he observed, while voicing concern over widespread decline in water tables. He emphasized on bringing more area under fruits and vegetables, reducing rice production, intensifying milk production and promoting processing of cereals, milk, etc.



Dr R.S. Kanwar, Vice-Chancellor, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, said that one of the major challenges for agricultural scientists in the 21st century is how to produce enough and safe food to feed the increasing population of the world. Stressing on making the students aware of water conflicts, water pricing and water laws, he said that the development of sustainable agri-production system is needed to protect the eco-system.


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