Current Affair 1:

News:

The Prime Minister released 109 varieties of 61 crops including 34 field crops and 27 horticultural crops. These varieties, developed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

ICAR has been running crop-improvement programme to develop new crop varieties and hybrids with wider adaptability and higher yield.

Learn about Biofortification:

Biofortification is the process by which the nutrient density of food crops is increased through conventional plant breeding, and/or improved agronomic practices and/or modern biotechnology without sacrificing any characteristic that is preferred by consumers or most importantly to farmers.

The methodology of Biofortification involves two principal methods: -

Selective breeding – This is the conventional method which requires crops which have naturally occurring high nutritious value -to be crossbred with high-yielding varieties. The development of the hybrid varieties must be monitored by nutritionists to check whether the improved levels of nutrients can be used by the consumers and how these levels are affected by storage, processing, and cooking of the food crop.

Genetic modification – Altering the genetic makeup of a crop by introducing foreign genes from the wild crop of same species or other species that code for the increased production of certain nutrients or disease resistance could make the host crop rich in nutrients and increase its quality. Alternatively, different genes which code for different nutrients can also be stacked in a crop to make it rich in a wide variety of nutrients.

One of the most glorious examples is that of golden rice which has been enriched with beta-carotene, a precursor of Vitamin A.

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