Agri Min to ensure adequate supply of gypsum

The Agriculture Ministry will take steps to ensure adequate supply of gypsum, which is a key soil nutrient for raising yields of pulses and oilseeds.
The agri-grade gypsum and phosphogypsum are used as source of sulphur - a secondary nutrient which have become deficient in oilseeds and pulses growing areas. Gypsum contains 18-20 per cent of sulphur and its use helps in raising yields by up to 30 per cent in pulses.
The government is focusing on increasing the production of pulses and oilseeds as the country is dependent on imports.
The issue was discussed at a pre-Kharif meeting chaired by the Agriculture Secretary SK Pattanayak and co-chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Research and Education (DARE) Trilochan Mohapatra.

"Agriculture Secretary directed to identify different sources of supply of gypsum, so that it is made available for enhancing the productivity of oilseeds and pulses," an official statement issued by the agriculture ministry said.
Pattanayak stressed on application of drip irrigation technology in sugarcane cultivation throughout the country.

Mohapatra emphasised that "developing transgenic groundnut, sunflower and castor varieties resistant to peanut bud/stem necrosis disease, alternaria and botrytis diseases, as the search for resistance sources in the germplasm has not given the desired result so far".
The objective of pre-Kharif meet was to jointly identify emerging research areas and evolve strategies for better implementation of the government's schemes and programmes during the coming crop season.

In the meeting, it was decided that the crop varieties released by ICAR after 2011 should be promoted throughout the country in order to achieve higher rate of varietal replacement.
The state governments would be asked to put seed indents for all the recommended varieties of various crops released after 2011. A honey-testing lab will be established at IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) here in the national capital.