E-Resources

Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides post green revolution taught us a tough lesson that sustainable utilization of the resources is the way forward for prolonged growth in agricultural production sans deterioration of soil health. Just as biofertilizers are emerging as green alternative to chemical fertilizers, biopesticides have a huge role to play in sustainable management of crop pests and pathogens. In contrast to chemical pesticides, application of ecofriendly biopesticides does not lead to development of any resistance in pests and pathogens. Still this sustainable alternative is struggling to find its place in the market over its chemical counterpart owing to technological challenges and acceptance among the farming community. National Policy for Farmers (NPF), 2007, which aims to improve economic viability of farming and increase net income of farmers, strongly recommends the promotion of biopesticides. In spite of these efforts the biopesticides represent only 4.2% of the overall pesticide market in India compared to 40% in USA and 20% each in Europe and Oceanic countries. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, recognizing the importance of biopesticides started All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Biological control of Crop Pests and Weeds way back in 1977. Since the inception of this project different ICAR institutes accelerated the works on biocontrol and developed biopesticides against a number of crop pests and diseases. At present more than 970 biopesticide products have been registered with Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIB & RC) which is a governing body for insecticide registration in India. Most biopesticide producing companies are dependent on either a single strain or a handful of microbes for commercial production. Most ofthe times, the products developed using these strains have limited application and their activity range is narrow. To overcome this issue, there should be many bioagents available that are active against a wide range of pests and pathogens. Once there is availability of many bioagents to select upon, the challenges faced by biopesticides in the market can be handled well. This compendium entitled ?ICAR Technologies: Biopesticides for Eco-friendly Pest Management? is a compilation of microbial formulations developed by ICAR against crop pests and pathogens that are at various stages of registration and commercialization. It can be a useful source of information for students, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and most importantly farming community and policy makers.

Agriculture is the foundation of the civilization, culture and heritage of India. Agriculture in India is a complex mosaic of distinct agro-ecosystems, differentiated by climatic, soil, vegetation and other natural features. About half of the Indians derive their livelihood from agriculture and allied activities. It is one of the oldest systems of the world characterized by its diversity and heterogeneity, unorganized and stressed on account of natural and anthropogenic vagaries from ?seed to market?. Historically, stressed natural resources due to unfavourable weather, monsoon and natural calamities resulted in crop failures leading to food shortage that made serious impacts on the civilization. Post-Independence, the Indian agriculture transformed from a food-scarce to food-exporting country primarily due to science led innovations that caused multifold increase in the agricultural production from 135 million tons in 1950/51 to over 1300 million tons in 2021/22 in spite of increasing abiotic and biotic stresses and depleting alongwith deteriorating natural resources. The book ?Indian Agriculture after Independence? portrays the uniqueness, diversity, vastness and history; and captures the aspirations of Indian agriculture to develop a road-map for agri-food system matching with the 4th Industrial Revolution and the global commitments on food security, nutrition and sustainability. The first chapter provides an overview of Indian agriculture with its achievements and aspirations. The following three chapters detail out the crop and animal husbandry and natural resource management in the pre-independent India starting from the Vedic to British period. The subsequent chapters present the achievements of Indian agriculture after independence in the areas of field crops, horticulture, livestock and poultry, fisheries and aquaculture, crop and animal health, mechanization and postharvest processing, natural resources management, agricultural education and extension, as well as policy, investment, collaboration and organizational leadership.The book is an outcome of a sincere exercise by about 60 leading scientists and science-leaders of ICAR, from a range of disciplines. In the course of preparing the book, the authors and editors have received help and support from different individuals. We are extremely grateful to each one of them. Our sincere gratitude to the distinguished reviewers namely Dr. RB Singh, Dr. SP Ghosh, Dr. JC Katyal, Dr. Mruthyunjaya, Dr. MP Yadav, Dr. SL Mehta, Dr. P Das, Dr. VM Mayande and Dr. AG Ponnaiah for their constructive suggestions and guidance. The editors take this opportunity to express their gratitude to all the authors for developing the chapters in a comprehensive and time-bound manner. We sincerely thank Hon?ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers? Welfare, and Hon?ble Ministers of State of Agriculture and Farmers? Welfare, Govt. of India and Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR for their guidance and support in bringing out this publication. We are thankful to the ICAR-Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture, New Delhi for its support in formating, developing the cover page and printing of the book. We hope that the publication would be useful to the students, researchers, teachers, policy makers, planners, administrators and the farmers.