What happened (government measures announced)
The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare stated that the Government has taken measures to conserve indigenous germplasm, support research and seed production, and promote value addition and commercialization of traditional agricultural produce and indigenous/local crop varieties. The Government presented an institutional chain running from conservation and documentation of seeds to farmers’ legal rights and benefit-sharing, and then to processing and market promotion for traditional products.
Conservation and research of indigenous germplasm (ICAR and NBPGR network)
The Government stated that Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) works through the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) and a network of research institutes to carry out exploration, collection, exchange, characterization, evaluation, conservation, and documentation of indigenous germplasm. The same institutional network supports research for characterization and utilization of indigenous germplasm, landraces, and wild relatives.
The Government named ICAR-IARI as implementing <strong>13 dedicated research projects</strong>, supported by ICAR, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and Department of Science and Technology (DST). The Government stated that these projects cover crops including wheat, rice, maize, sesame, lentil, cucumber, and tomato. The projects focus on agrobiodiversity, germplasm evaluation, molecular breeding, genomics, and genome editing to develop improved, climate-resilient, and disease-resistant crop varieties.