Recent Current Affairs related to ICAR

India has inaugurated its first farm-level soil carbon payment initiative at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana, Punjab.

The payments are distributed as part of the ‘Aadi’ farmer carbon programme, which was launched by Grow Indigo in 2019 under the technical guidance of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). A total of 2,550 smallholder farmers from Punjab and Haryana will receive disbursements of over ₹2.9 crore for implementing verified regenerative agricultural practices.

It is to be noted that the initial phase of the project covered 30,000 acres and generated over 50,000 verified carbon credits. Individual payouts to the farmers ranged from ₹3,000 to ₹15,000, depending on the volume of verified carbon credits generated from the landholdings.

The National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) has launched the first ‘Soil Texture Map’ of India during its 50th Foundation Day in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

It is to be noted that soil texture refers to the relative proportion of sand, silt, and clay in the soil, which determines critical properties including water-holding capacity, drainage, aeration, and crop suitability.

Vice President CP Radhakrishnan has launched the first non-Genetically Modified Organism (non-GMO), high-expansion popcorn maize hybrid seed of India at Musunuru in Eluru district of Andhra Pradesh.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has released scholarship and fellowship funds for agriculture students through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), Pusa, New Delhi.

Under the initiative, Rs 21.35 crore was disbursed via Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) directly to the bank accounts of over 6,000 students.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed India’s first fully annotated Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) reference genome of the pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) variety ‘Asha’.

This genome has been approved as the global reference genome to facilitate the development of climate-resilient, high-yielding, and nutritionally enriched pigeonpea varieties.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has unveiled ‘MA-104’, India’s first indigenous live attenuated vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF). The vaccine is developed by the ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (ICAR-NIHSAD) in Bhopal.

It is to be noted that ASF is a highly contagious viral disease affecting both domestic and wild pigs, with a mortality rate of nearly 100%.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan unveiled the roadmap for 'Viksit Krishi and Samruddh Kisan' as a key pillar of 'Viksit Bharat 2047' during the 98th Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi.

During the event, 43 new crop varieties, 17 technologies/products, and 14 publications were released, and over 70 MoUs were signed.

ICAR aims to establish 100 'Climate Smart Villages' before its centenary. Under 'Mission ICAR-100', Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) will be transformed, with each KVK mandated to cover at least 100 villages. Additionally, under the 'One Institute-One Grand Innovation' initiative, every ICAR institute is tasked to develop at least one transformational innovation within 2 years.

The National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, has designated the Borjuli wetland in the Sonitpur district of Assam as a 'Biodiversity Heritage Site'. This initiative aims to conserve India's wild rice genetic resources, specifically the ancestral species Oryza rufipogon.

The conservation is being carried out under the project 'In-situ Conservation and Management of Wild Rice (Oryza rufipogon) of Assam', which has been operational since 2022. The project is executed by scientists from the ICAR–National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR), New Delhi.

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR), Hyderabad, has launched “Oilseeds Kisaan Mitra,” a WhatsApp-based AI advisory service.

The initiative aims to harness digital technology to benefit the farming community. It enables oilseed farmers across India to access free, trusted, and instant crop advisory through WhatsApp.

Scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in Cuttack, Odisha, led by Kutubuddin Ali Molla, have developed and validated a platform named “Plant-OpenCRISPR1” (POC1).

This represents the first AI-designed genome-editing platform in the world for plants, developed utilizing rice as a model crop. The POC1 platform facilitates advanced gene knockout, base editing, and prime editing in rice crops using AI-designed enzymes, surpassing conventional Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technologies.

It is to be noted that the research findings have been accepted for publication in the international journal “New Phytologist”.

Union Minister JP Nadda and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan have launched the ‘SEHAT Mission’ (Science Excellence for Health through Agricultural Transformation) in New Delhi. The mission is jointly launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW).

The initiative aims to connect agriculture, nutrition, and public health through scientific collaboration to build a framework for ‘Healthy Food, Healthy Farms and a Healthy India’.

Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao, the Director and Vice-Chancellor of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI), has been conferred the 9th “Prof. MS Swaminathan Award” for the 2024-25 period in Hyderabad. The award carries a Gold Medal and a cash prize of ₹2 lakh