Meanwhile, these varieties will take more than 4-5 years to reach to farmers.“We have now developed the breed, and the process of developing foundation seeds and getting certification will take at least 4-5 years,” said Chouhan.Chouhan claimed that once the varieties reach farmers, the government plans to slowly reduce the area of paddy by 5 million hectares and increase production by 10 million tonnes.“The reduced paddy areas will be replaced with oilseeds and pulses crops to achieve self-sufficiency in coming years,” said Chouhan.ICAR has initiated mega genome editing projects for horticulture crops, animals, fish, and microbes.Other genome editing projects for crops such as bananas, wheat, mustard, tobacco, cotton, and tea are in the advanced stage. Some oilseeds and pulse crops, such as sunflower, soybean, groundnut, chickpea, urad, and masoor, are also in the pipeline.
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