Green revolution wheat, rice varieties not drought resistant: ICAR

NEW DELHI: Varieties of wheat and rice introduced during green revolution period are not resistant to drought and flood situation, agri-research body ICAR has said.

Replying to an RTI application, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) said that the green revolution varieties give better yield only when such crops are provided with abundant water along with fertiliser.

With the changing climate, the temperature is rising across the globe which is adversely affecting the wheat production, the government research body said.

"Green revolution varieties of wheat and rice gives better yield only in case of abundant water and fertiliser, while these varieties don't have the ability to bear drought and flood situation," ICAR said in the reply.

ICAR said that from last few years scientists have been developing seeds that are drought and climate resilient to meet these challenges.

Besides wheat, the research for such drought and flood resilient seeds have also been done for tomato and split red gram (arhar dal).

For the current crop year (July-June), government has estimated wheat production at 95.76 million tonnes. But due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms the production is estimated to decline by 4-5 per cent.

The Green Revolution in India began in the late 1960s with the introduction of high-yield crop varieties and application of modern agri-techniques.