Green Revolution architect sounds alarm on India’s food security
The veteran expressed his concerns about rising temperature trends and gave suggestions for securing the country's food security with a series of tweets.
By Jayashree Bhosale, ET Bureau |
BCCL
PUNE: As 2016 proved to be the hottest year in recent times, MS Swaminathan, the architect of India's Green Revolution, thinks that it is time for India to take anticipatory action to insulate major crops from adverse impact of high mean temperature.
The veteran expressed his concerns about rising temperature trends and gave suggestions for securing the country's food security with a series of tweets.
"Having seen the hottest year in recent times, here are my suggestions for food security with wheat and potato," he tweeted.
Wheat is one of the main cereal crops of India and most susceptible one to changes in winter temperatures. Wheat and rice constitute the pillars of India's food security.
"A mean temp rise of 1°C will reduce duration of wheat crop by about 5 to 6 days and the yield will go down by 4 quintals per hectare. We should breed wheat varieties with high per day productivity than per crop productivity as they provide higher yields in shorter duration," he said.
While speaking about potato production, Swaminathan said, "Our country’s potato revolution by healthy seeds during aphid free season may be diluted if mean temperature goes up and aphids multiply. We should perfect the technology for growing potato crops from true biological seeds to cope with increase in temperature."
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends restricting rise in average mean temperature to 1.5°C.
"But actual increase may be higher," felt Swaminathan and warned that anticipatory research and development action cannot wait any further since there is very clear evidence of a gradual rise in mean temperature.
The veteran expressed his concerns about rising temperature trends and gave suggestions for securing the country's food security with a series of tweets.
"Having seen the hottest year in recent times, here are my suggestions for food security with wheat and potato," he tweeted.
Wheat is one of the main cereal crops of India and most susceptible one to changes in winter temperatures. Wheat and rice constitute the pillars of India's food security.
"A mean temp rise of 1°C will reduce duration of wheat crop by about 5 to 6 days and the yield will go down by 4 quintals per hectare. We should breed wheat varieties with high per day productivity than per crop productivity as they provide higher yields in shorter duration," he said.
While speaking about potato production, Swaminathan said, "Our country’s potato revolution by healthy seeds during aphid free season may be diluted if mean temperature goes up and aphids multiply. We should perfect the technology for growing potato crops from true biological seeds to cope with increase in temperature."
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends restricting rise in average mean temperature to 1.5°C.
"But actual increase may be higher," felt Swaminathan and warned that anticipatory research and development action cannot wait any further since there is very clear evidence of a gradual rise in mean temperature.
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