| Nitrogen-use efficiency refers to the yield of a crop relative to the nitrogen, both natural and artificial, available to it. |
| ICMR New Seed Varieties: • Prime Minister released 109 high-yielding, climate-resilient, and biofortified crop varieties at the India Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. • These include 61 crops, such as cereals, millets, pulses, and horticultural varieties. • Farmers praised the new varieties for reducing costs, boosting yields, and supporting natural farming. |
- Biotechnologists at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGU), New Delhi, have discovered significant variation among popular rice varieties in India regarding nitrogen use efficiency (NUE).
- The study, published in the Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, found that the best rice varieties had five times the NUE of the least efficient ones.
- This finding can lead to the development of high-yielding, nitrogen-efficient rice varieties, reducing fertilizer costs and nitrogen-linked pollution.
- India’s cereals consume two-thirds of all urea in India led by Rice.
- However, high NUE doesn’t always correlate with the highest yields, which are typically preferred by farmers.
- The focus of Indian agriculture has historically been on maximizing yield, especially during the Green Revolution, leading to increased fertilizer use and pollution.
Dig Deeper: Read about Legume-based Crop rotation.
