PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR A CHANGING AGRICULTURE

Abstract

Scientific research in post-independence India has made many significant contributions- one of the more important of these has been in the field of agricultural production. India in the early 1950s was agriculturally a backward country with very low crop yields, accounting for the country's endemic poverty. There has been a marked improvement in agricultural production, especially during the past 25 years, although much remains to be done. Following this improvement, India became in 1991 the second largest producer of rice in the world, the third largest producer of wheat, the second largest producer of sugarcane, the fifth largest producer of cotton and the fifth largest producer of potatoes [1]. Production of many other crops including some of the coarse cereal grains like pearl millet, oilseeds like rape-seed, mustard, and fruits and vegetables like apples, grapes and tomatoes has also seen a major increase.