Tripura Develops Three New Varieties of Pulses

Tripura Develops Three New Varieties of Pulses

Tripura University to set up Pulse Research Centre

In an important breakthrough in the field of agriculture the ICAR centre here developed three new verities of pulses which would, scientists believe, bring about a major change in the pulse quality as well as production.
The new varieties invented by the ICAR Agartala were named as ‘Tripura Moong’, ‘Tripura Maskalai’ and ‘TRCP -9’. After a long drawn technical and scientific procedure the central government had already issued the notification on the innovation and the ICAR was now ready to distribute them to the farmers for cultivation.
The introduction of new pulses varieties here was lauded by the leading scientists in the field recently during a two-day seminar on pulses in Tripura University. The seminar organized by the Botany department of the Tripura University was attended by 80 leading scientists in the field of pulse research.
“In the last three to four years India made remarkable achievement in the field of pulse production which lowered the pulses price to a great extent”, said N P Singh, Head of Pulse Research Centre in Kanpur. He said, “ the achievement was possible due to the relentless and rigorous efforts of about 350 scientist working in 51 centres. As a result while three years ago pulses’ price had been Rs 200 to Rs 300 per kg , now it stood at Rs 50 to Rs 60”.

Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Tripura University Prof V L Dharurkar in his speech focused on various problems of pulse development in India and appreciated the efforts of the scientists in this field for increasing the production of pulses.
“With the innovation and scientific approach in the four corners of India the pulse production has increased in last 2 years and now the people have been provided with pulses at very affordable price”. He pointed that new types of pulses developed in the state should be popularized amongst the farmers and effective methods and mechanism should be put in place for taking the new varieties from lab to land in the fastest way. ‘Extension of mass media support is also very important in this regard’, he added .

The Hon’ble Vice Chancellor has declared that Tripura University will develop a small pulse research centre with the help of Botany department and state agriculture department . The ICAR’s pulse division has also assured its help in setting up of the centre and popularizing the pulses.
Dr Basant Kandpal , Joint Director of the ICAR Agartala who headed the team of scientists who developed the new pulses said, the three new varieties developed in Tripura would be distinctly different from other pulses in four ways- first, the production was expected to be around 10 percent higher, second, quality of these pulses would be better, or at least at par with the common pulses, third , susceptibility for plants’ diseases of these pulses would be less and fourth, harvesting time would five to seven days less than that of common pulses.

“The Tripura Maskalai will be slightly different also in its colour from the common Maskalai daal here. While the common maskalai is black in colour, the new variety is slightly green”, said Dr Kandpal.
He also provided information about various step taken by the organization to double the farmers’ income in the last four years.

Due to central government’s support and Tripura government’s initiative, the joint director said, new experiments were being done in agriculture and horticulture fields to enhance farmers’ income
Shri NP Singh in his speech pointed out that there had been shortage of pulses in Tripura . But due to efforts of the scientists 30 percent production has increased here. He however maintained that about 70 percent local pulse production was required in the state. He called upon the Agri -scientists to popularize the newly developed pulse categories in Tripura.
The three scientists working in the pulse research also presented their papers in the Tripura University seminar.