Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) Vice Chancellor, Onkar Nath Singh has stressed on developing climate smart crop varieties capable to perform better even under moisture stress and heat stress conditions. Farmers need to be provided alternate crop varieties and strategies to meet the challenges of changing climate, he said.
Singh was addressing the inaugural session of two-day virtual national seminar on ‘Crop Breeding for Wider Adaptation’, organised by Ranchi Chapter of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding (ISG and PB) in collaboration with ISG and PB, New Delhi and Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi at BAU on Saturday.
Chairman of the organising committee and ex-Emeritus Professor, School of Biotechnology, BHU, Varanasi, BD Singh said that gene editing has been used to generate useful crop plant strains that are in the process of being commercialized. These strains are being regulated under the existing regulatory laws developed for genetically modified crops and animals, he added.
National chairman of the Society and Director of Karnal-based Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, GP Singh also attended the seminar online. Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, MS Yadav welcomed the guests while Chairman, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding and organising secretary of the seminar, ZA Haider outlined the objectives of the event. Society vice president, DN Singh and Sohan Ram also expressed their views in the inaugural session.
Over 200 scientists, teachers and researchers from across the Country are participating in the two-day event in virtual and offline mode. The experts will discuss the plant breeding issues in different technical sessions themed on new frontiers in crop improvement, climate resilient breeding with quality enhancement, plant genetic resource management and pre-breeding, molecular breeding for crop improvement, traditional knowledge, breeders, farmers’ rights and intellectual property rights issues.