Brainstorming Session organized on “Indigenous oil seed crops improvement initiative” at ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi on 27th April, 2019

In the past, oil seed crops research has been primarily focussed on few major oil seed crops such as groundnut, rapeseed & mustard, soybean, and sunflower etc. while other indigenous crops like sesame, safflower, niger and linseed have remained neglected. Despite being good for human health and nutritive values, their potential could not be exploited and their production and productivity levels remain low as compared to the world average. Therefore, to review the status & research gaps of four prioritised indigenous minor oilseed crops viz. Sesame, Safflower, Niger and Linseed, a Brainstorming Session was organized on 27th April, 2019 at ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. The Brainstorming session was graced by Dr. GP Rao, Senior Adviser, DBT, Ministry of Science & Technology, GOI; Dr DK Yadava, ADG (Seeds), ICAR; Dr KS Varaprasad, Former Director, IIOR; Dr Kuldeep Singh, Director, ICAR-NBPGR, Dr SK Jha, PS, ICAR (OP); Dr Sanjay Kalia, Scientist E, DBT and scientists from NBPGR & also from different ICAR research institutes and SAUs. The problems related to genetic improvement, agronomic & genomic characterization and evaluation of germplasm resources of indigenous oilseed crops for agronomic traits and also for developing pre-breeding resources to accelerate the breeding programme were discussed for formulation of network project.

(Source: Dr Rashmi Yadav, ICAR-NBPGR,)