Govt aims 60 pc of wheat area under climate resilient varieties in rabi season amid El Nino fear
Ahead of rabi sowing from next month, the Centre on Tuesday said it targets to bring 60 per cent of the total wheat area of 30 million hectare under the climate-resistant varieties amid strong El Nino conditions.
Despite the challenges of climate change, the Union Agriculture Ministry has kept a target of achieving a record wheat output of 114 million tonne in the 2023-24 rabi season against the actual output of 112.74 million tonne in the year-ago period.
Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, begins in October, while harvesting starts in March/April.
Addressing a national conference held to chalk out a strategy for sowing rabi (winter) crops, Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said: “There are certain changes in climate change, which is affecting agriculture. Our strategy is climate resilient seeds”.
Faced with a heatwave in 2021, the government encouraged farmers in 2022 to go for heat-tolerant wheat varieties in 47 per cent of the total wheat acreage of 30 million hectares.
“We are targetting to increase the coverage of area under heat-tolerant wheat varieties to 60 per cent this year,” Ahuja told PTI on the sidelines of the event and urged states to push farmers to grow heat-resistant varieties.
While addressing the event, the secretary said more than 800 climate-resistant varieties are available in the country. These seeds need to be put in the seed chain as part of the seed rolling plan.
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