Topic
icar
Commodities Indian Agriculture Minister asks ICAR to tackle onion price gap
India's all-India modal onion price reached Rs 50/kg on Tuesday, with Punjab and Delhi prices up 130% and 83% respectively over three months. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asked ICAR to reduce the farm-retail price gap and questioned trader-driven inflation. The government is dispatching buffer-stock onions via 'Kanda Express' rail rakes to sell at Rs 35/kg in Delhi, amid a buffer stock of 1.21 lakh tonnes for 2026.
Commodities ICAR-IISR signs MoU with Bio Mountain FPC, launches AI-enabled spice tools
ICAR-IISR signed an MoU with Bio Mountain Farmers Producer Company Limited to disseminate improved spice production technologies. The institute also launched the AI-enabled NGS Toolkit and licensed a granular formulation of Lecanicillium psalliotae for cardamom to Botagnix Private Limited. Two licenses for the IISR Chandra black pepper variety were issued.
Commodities ISMA partners with ICAR-ISRI to set up ₹80 crore Advanced Sugarcane Seed Centre at Lucknow
ISMA signed an MoU with ICAR-ISRI, Lucknow, to build an Advanced Centre for quality sugarcane seed production at an estimated cost of ₹80 crore on a 50:50 sharing basis. The centre aims to supply disease-free, genetically pure, high-yielding seed to sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh and the subtropical region, boosting cane productivity, sugar recovery and farm incomes.
Commodities ICAR unveils India's first fully annotated T2T pigeonpea genome to speed pulse breeding
ICAR has developed India's first fully annotated telomere-to-telomere (T2T) reference genome of pigeonpea variety 'Asha', spanning 752.65 million base pairs across all 11 chromosomes. The milestone, deposited in NCBI as NIPB_CcT2T_4, is expected to accelerate climate-resilient, high-yielding pulse breeding and support India's Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses.
Manufacturing ICAR’s African Swine Fever vaccine to bolster India’s biosecurity
ICAR announced an indigenously developed live attenuated vaccine against African Swine Fever, developed at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases in Bhopal. The vaccine comes after ASF outbreaks in Assam and Mizoram caused an estimated ₹1,258 crore in combined losses. ICAR said the vaccine will help reduce pig mortality, minimise economic losses and improve farmers' livelihoods.
Commodities Jayant Agro Develops Short-Duration Castorseed with ICAR and University Partners
Jayant Agro-Organics Ltd (JAOL) is collaborating with ICAR's Indian Institute of Oilseed Research and Sardar Dantiwada University to develop short-duration castor varieties. Managing Director Abhay Udeshi says the initiative aims to encourage farmers to increase castorseed area by reducing crop duration. Current yields have risen from 600-700 kg/ha to 2-2.5 tonnes, and the company targets 3 tonnes nationally within 5-10 years, despite erratic monsoon and heat waves affecting this year's crop.
Commodities ICAR Hyderabad's Smart Seed Coating Technology Boosts Crop Yield Up to 37%
The Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR) in Hyderabad, under ICAR, has developed a biopolymer-based Smart Seed Coating Technology that wraps seeds in a biodegradable layer delivering microorganisms, nutrients, and crop-protection agents. Field trials across seven crops showed productivity gains of 12% to 37% over untreated seeds, with groundnut and soybean yields in Telangana improving by about 30%. The technology is patented in India and aims to partner with state seed corporations, FPOs, and private seed companies for distribution.