Seven new varieties of crops released by IARI

New Delhi: In a development that could help improve country's food security in the long run, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) released seven new varieties of field crops including wheat, rice, chickpea, pigeon pea and mustard with enhanced nutritional quality.

As per the Times of India report, the IARI, which is the flagship institute of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), also identified 11 varieties of high-yielding agricultural and horticultural produce in 2015.

It is believed that all these varieties are resistance to both biotic (pests and insects) and abiotic (water, temperature, light) stresses.

The IARI announced the release and identification of these varieties during its 54th convocation in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday.

These varieties include the newly-developed pigeon pea (arhar dal) and mustard which have early maturity and high yielding properties. Both are considered quite important as they can help enhance the productivity of pulses and edible oils to meet domestic requirements fully.

It is said that Pusa Mustard-30 (PM-30) developed by IARI scientists has low erucic acid content (2%) as compared to normal mustard varieties which has 40% of erucic acid.

Higher erucic acid content can lead to diseases like myocardial fibrosis in adults and lipidosis in children.

The IARI, set up in 1905, has played a key role in providing human resource to the national agricultural research system.