Author: rpuri

By Uttam Kumar, Mahesh Maske and Richa Sharma Puri

Climate change and erratic weather patterns are making agriculture more risk-prone and challenging for smallholder farmers across the globe. Today, many crop insurance products help farmers financially and reduce the risks associated with the loss of crops during bad weather conditions. However, a more systemic plan is required to strengthen the delivery of crop insurance in India. Therefore, the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), with the support of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), is piloting picture-based insurance (PBI) bundled with Picture Based Advisories (PBA) services in the villages of Haryana. It provides sustainable and scalable risk management solutions to the farmers in districts like Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Ambala and Yamuna Nagar. The objective is to monitor, assess and quantify the insurance loss during a crop season. It is a simple self-reporting system accessible on any smartphone as an app and helps record the image-based data to determine the level of losses in a farmer’s field.

To add more value to the existing PIB program, BISA organised an exposure visit to one of its state-of-the-art farms in Ludhiana, Punjab. It invited around 100 farmers from 50 villages of Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Yamuna Nagar districts of Haryana. The visit was planned to sensitise the program farmers about the diverse and advanced technologies and best practices adopted by BISA at its research farm in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the state government of Punjab. Spread in 550 acres in Ladhowal Ludhiana, BISA aims to harness the latest genetic, digital, and resource management technologies and use research for development approaches to invigorate the region’s agriculture and food systems while enhancing productivity, resilience, livelihood, and nutrition security to meet future demands.

Dr. Uttam Kumar, Senior Scientist (Wheat breeder) at BISA farm in Ludhiana welcomed farmers and gave a brief talk on the vision, mission and partnerships of CIMMYT/BISA/ICAR with national agricultural research systems. Further, he explained in detail and gave relevant information on the research infrastructure and facility available at the BISA farm. Later, farmers got the opportunity to visit the various wheat trials under evaluation at the farm. They also got to know about the varietal diversity, precision agriculture, climate resilient production systems, farm topography, smart mechanization and partnerships of BISA to other institutions which supports leveraging international agricultural research.  

To read more about Picture Based Insurance, please click here

By Richa Sharma Puri & Uttam kumar

A new partnership between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and CIMMYT will seek to improve nitrogen (N) retention and reduce greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in the wheat growing zone, focusing initially on Indo-Gangetic plains of India by developing new wheat varieties with the Biological Nitrification Inhibition (BNI) trait.

The new initiative called “Project for the Establishment of Nitrogen-Efficient Wheat Production Systems in Indo-Gangetic Plains by the Development of BNI Technology” was announced on April 11, 2022, when CIMMYT’s director general, Bram Govaerts, signed the corresponding agreement with Mitsunori Saito, JICA’s chief representative in India.

Thus, the research trials with BNI-trait are being carried out at CIMMYT-BISA research farms in India (Ludhiana, Jabalpur & Samastipur) and several ICAR institutions (IIWBR and CSSRI in Karnal, IARI at New Delhi). Recently, the JIRCAS-BNI team visited the BNI – wheat trials planted at CIMMYT- BISA research farms in Ludhiana (Punjab) and Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) where several elite wheat varieties carrying BNI – trait are undergoing field evaluations. These trials will help determine the BNI-trait expression and its impact on overall productivity. The team from JIRCAS observed some visible differences where BNI lines were performing better than the non-BNI lines under different nitrogen levels.

BNI wheat and its impact on the environment

In modern agriculture, the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers is huge. Around 70% of fertilizer applied in the field is not absorbed by the crops, thus making our farms a source of pollution. Not only this, but nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions add to the existing greenhouse effect way more than carbon dioxide. This release of Nitrogen is directly related to a nitrification process in the soil. Therefore, it’s critical to suppress the nitrification rate of agricultural soil. To combat this situation, a paper titled “Enlisting wild grass genes to combat nitrification in wheat farming: A nature-based solution” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). It was co-authored by JIRCAS, CIMMYT, the University of the Basque Country, and the College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University. The paper reported the successful development of the world’s first BNI-enabled wheat – high on productivity and low on nitrogen fertilizer – mitigating global warming. This BNI wheat uses nitrogen more efficiently than conventional wheat varieties. The successful implementation of BNI-Wheat Project has huge potential not only to save the cost of fertilizer but help in reducing the greenhouse gas emission from wheat crops. The joint efforts by JIRCAS and BISA in developing this next-generation wheat may revolutionize wheat production systems across the globe. 

By Richa Sharma Puri

Wheat field day is the annual celebration of research, hard work, and perseverance. It’s an effort to accelerate the global breeding process and serve humanity with the best in Wheat. This event allows wheat breeders to evaluate/select new, improved advance breeding lines for possible use. It’s an amalgamation of farmers, researchers, and young students from the agricultural field, as it opens a platform for co-creation, knowledge exchange and experience sharing.

CIMMYT-BISA in India organises this day every year to showcase the breeding process, new breeding tools, mainstreaming of enhanced grain quality traits and integrating the traits needed for future wheat. This year also, BISA research farms in Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) and Ludhiana (Punjab) invited scientists from different parts of the country to have a firsthand look at the ongoing variety of trials. It’s been a premier event where researchers interact and learn about CIMMYT’s newest advanced wheat lines: heat, drought and disease resistant.  

This year in Ludhiana, more than 50 scientists from the national system and public and private sectors joined the wheat field day. Institutes like VNR Seeds, Shree Ram Seeds, IIWBR, PAU, HAU, BioSeeds, Nizuveedu Seeds, Star Seeds, Dayal Seeds, Nutranta, BHU, Savannah Seeds, and Ankur Seeds participated with full enthusiasm.

A total of 16787 entries and 19256 plots were planted at the BISA research farm, Ludhiana during the 2022-23 season. This includes 6058 standard yield trial plots and 13,198 small plots with two rows for stripe rust screening and line maintenance. Advanced wheat breeding lines from CIMMYT and international nurseries were made available for selection by public and private sector national partners, some of which are described below:

• Elite Parcela Chica (EPC): 1062 entry.
• South Asia Bread Wheat Genomic Prediction Yield Trial (SABWGPYT): 540 entries
• High Zinc Wheat Yield Trial (HZWYT):   50 entries
• Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trial (ESWYT: 50 entries
• Semi-Arid Wheat Yield Trial (SAWYT): 50 entries
• Heat Tolerant Wheat Yield Trial (HTWYT):  50 entries.
• Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield Trial (WYCYT): 40 entries
• Stress Adapted Trait Yield Nurseries (SATYN): 42 entries
• High Zinc Advanced Nursery (HZAN): 234 entries.

BISA, in the last decade has focussed on mechanisation to improve efficiency, yield production with the lowest cost of production. Thus, having a significant positive impact on Indian agriculture. On Wheat Field Day, BISA displayed innovative farm machinery, digital tools and equipment used in farming with latest technology.      

Bihar, India – On the last day of the Kissan Mela at Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) and Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, the Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRA) stall of Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) saw a tremendous turnout of women farmers and students. The Bihar government’ CRA program is aimed at developing and promoting technologies and practices that help farmers adapt to the changing climate and increase their productivity sustainably.

The farmers, scientists and students enquired about climate resilient varieties and technologies from BISA scientists and technical staffs. They witnessed live demonstrations of soil moisture meter and green seeker. Additionally, the video on wheat trials at BISA and CRA technologies showcased during the Kissan Mela was the center of attraction for many visitors.

The women farmers showed keen interest in seed production in their field and were interested in embracing new crops like millets, mungbean, and soyabean under the CRA program. The farmers coming from CRA villages gave testimony to Non- CRA farmers on how the CRA program has helped in getting better returns and saving, and expenses have decreased significantly.

Dr. Raj Kumar Jat, Senior Scientist and Incharge BISA, Pusa Samastipur, expressed his satisfaction with the large turnout of farmers, especially women farmers, at both centers of Kissan Mela. He added that the large number of farmers’ presence at both centers is a testimony of how the CRA program is bringing positive change in the lives of farmers in the state.

Looking into the huge turnout of farmers the CRA Stall was open from 10 am in the morning to 7:30 pm in the evening. The farmers from different districts kept visiting CRA stall on all three days of the Kissan Mela.

BISA is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition, and livelihood security as well as environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people. It is a collaborative effort involving the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). The objective of BISA is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future. BISA is more than an institute. It is a commitment to the people of South Asia, particularly to the farmers.