Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday inaugurated the world's second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Pusa in New Delhi.
On this occasion, Tomar said that the farmers of India are fully capable of accepting the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and conquering them.
He said that our farmers are skilled human resources even without any major educational degree.
As per the release by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, the minister said this revamped state-of-the-art National Gene Bank is a powerful step in that direction.
"The staff working here must have felt satisfaction and happiness than how they are serving the agriculture sector and the country while saving the heritage."
"Today, the need for biofortified crop varieties is being felt, somewhere there is an imbalance, which the government is trying to overcome by taking the farmers along," he added.
Tomar said in ancient times there was a lack of resources and technology, but the fabric of nature was strong, there was complete coordination, due to which there was neither malnutrition nor death due to hunger in the country then.
"But when this fabric broke, we started facing difficulties and needed to make special efforts. Due to the successful efforts of the government with the farmers and agricultural scientists, today the production and productivity of food grains are increasing continuously," he said.
He said that if proper attention had been given to the development of agriculture twenty-thirty years ago, today the world would be dependent on India for agriculture and allied sector.
The National Gene Bank established in the year 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations, has the capacity to preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds.
Presently it is protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, of which 2.7 lakh are Indian germplasm and the rest have been imported from other countries. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is meeting the need of in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation through Delhi Headquarters and ten regional stations in the country.
( With inputs from ANI )
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