“Induced mutations have contributed significantly to the world agriculture by producing mutants with enhanced production and productivity in a large number of crop species,” scientists from Asia-Pacific countries said at the international conference on ‘Isotope technologies and applications—New Horizons’ which concluded here on Wednesday.
A recently made critical review of some of the leading countries adopting the nuclear agricultural techniques like China, India, Pakistan, Japan Italy, Thailand, Vietnam and USA has shown that they have released a large number of mutant varieties in some of the most important agricultural crops, MC Kharkwal of Indian Agricultural Research Institute along with his co-authors from various countries, said.
China tops the list with a release of more than 740 high yielding mutant varieties followed by India with 343, he said.
“China is leading the world in the use of induced mutations in its agriculture,” Xi-Uhong Xu of the Institute of Nuclear Agricultural sciences, Zhejian university, China said.