Effective weed management could improve foodgrain production

Jabalpur, May 27 (UNI) National Research Centre for Weed Science (NRCWS) Director Jay G Varshney has claimed that effective weed management can help in increasing foodgrain production by 30-40 per cent.

Dr Varshney told UNI here that slow growth rate of agricultural production was a cause for concern and pointed out that production of crops had remained stable or declined.

A recent survey carried out by the NRCWS revealed that proper weed management could help increase production of foodgrain by 103 million tonne, pulses by 15 million tonne, oilseeds by 10 million tonne and cash crops by 52 million tonne.

This could help in earning an additional revenue of Rs one lakh crore besides improving agriculture production. However, an investment of Rs 100 crore was required for implementing weed management in the country.

The overall agriculture production in the state was 206 million tonne at present. The requirement for foodgrain production would increase to 256 million tonne by 2020. Effective weed management could help in meeting at least 50 million tonne of this requirement.

He pointed out that 37 per cent damage to crops was caused by weeds and effective weed management could help in improving production by 15-20 per cent.

The NRCWS was ready to take the responsibility to prevent the damage to foodgrains by weeds provided the Centre and the state government ensured necessary resources and funds.

Agriculture production could be improved only by improving per hectare production. At present, there was no possibility of bringing more land under cultivation.

Under these circumstances, better quality seeds and production techniques were the alternatives for foodgrain production.

Dr Varshney said an important meeting had been organised in New Delhi by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for improving foodgrain production.

The Union Agriculture Minister, Chief Ministers of all the states and eminent agricultural scientists would take part in the meeting.

The Centre would present its suggestions during the meeting.

UNI