Chandigarh, Oct 10- A 3-day international symposium on global cotton production technologies in respect of climate change began at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) Hisar today with a call to agriculture scientists to develop new varieties as well as hybrids of cotton that are more tolerant to various diseases, pests and climatic changes.
While stating this today, a spokesman of the university said that the symposium was organised jointly by Cotton Research and Development Association (CRDA) and CCSHAU in collaboration with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He said that about 250 cotton scientists from India and abroad participated in this symposium.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. S. K. Data, Deputy Director General, ICAR said that production of cotton was not commensurate with the increase in area that had taken place largely due to adoption of Bt cotton in irrigated areas in north India. He called upon the scientists to develop new varieties as well as hybrids of cotton that were more tolerant to various diseases, pests and climate changes. He further urged them to improve quality of cotton seed oil by evolving varieties which possessed low Gossypol content in seed. This, he said, would ease situation of edible oils in the country. He also laid emphasis on low cost cotton production technologies to enhance profit of the farmers.
Dr. K. S. Khokhar, Vice-Chancellor, CCSHAU said that climate change was posing a serious threat to production of crops worldwide. Underlining the role of climate in crop production, he said that due to favorable climatic conditions, Haryana recorded highest production which was 52 quintals per hectare of wheat in the country last year. He said with increase of every one degree Celsius in terminal heat temperature, the production of wheat was bound to drop by 10 per cent. He said that it had been estimated that by the end of this century, there would be an increase of two to five degree Celsius in temperature as a result of which the production of wheat in Indo-Gangentic plains would fall by five MT.
He said that on this occasion, Lifetime Achievement Awards, Public-Private Partnership Award and Corporate Advisor Award were presented and two books were also released.