It will also promote indigenous research and science, incentivise pulses production, rationalise pricing.
The inferno of environmental pollution that the nation’s capital and its surroundings have been witnessing has many causes, including weather conditions (thermal inversion) that facilitate the settling of particulate matter and other pollution, dust on the streets generated in part from construction activity, and vehicle-related emissions. Particularly critical is the burning of paddy after the kharif harvest which happens every year.
Multiple causes will require a broad-based response but one of the permanent solutions to the pollution problem must address paddy burning. This is where pulses come in. In the Subramanian Committee report on pulses that was submitted last month to the ministers of finance, agriculture and consumer affairs, the possibilities created by a new variety of arhar (pigeon pea) developed by K.V. Prabhu and his colleagues at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) were discussed.
This variety (Pusa Arhar16) has the potential to be grown in the paddy-growing regions of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and eventually in all of India. Its yield (about 2000 kg/hectare) will be significantly greater than those of the existing varieties and because its size will be uniform, it will be amenable to mechanical harvesting, an attractive feature for farmers in northern India who currently use this technology for paddy.
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