Our Reporter
Dimapur, Feb. 17 (EMN): Nagaland has received INR 1.10 crore as financial assistance for the promotion of agro-forestry under sub-mission on Agro-forestry scheme for the year 2020-21.
According to the information provided by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the department had implemented this scheme since 2016-17 to encourage and expand tree plantation of indigenous species of trees.
Under this scheme, 22 states /UTs have been provided financial assistance since 2016-17, while among three Northeast states, Nagaland received the highest financial assistance of INR 1.10 crore followed by Mizoram with INR 1 crore and Meghalaya 0.26 crore for 2020-2021.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the country has 161 state seed testing laboratories, while six central seed testing laboratories are functioning. These laboratories analyse seeds of native Indian crops and trees for various quality parameters.
The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) has conserved 94,609 native Indian varieties of different crops and trees in gene banks located in different states.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV and FRA) has also registered 1896 native Indian varieties of different crops enabling the farmer to commercialise these varieties.
In order to ensure availability of native seeds and improve their usage by farmers, Indian Council of Agricultural Research is developing high yielding and multi stress tolerant varieties of different crops, the Union Minister informed.
He added that in the last seven years, 1956 improved varieties have been developed, which includes 924 varieties of cereals, 291 oilseeds, 304 pulses, 239 fiber crops, 118 forage crops, 64 sugarcane and 16 under-utilised crops. In addition, 288 varieties of horticultural crops have also been developed.