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Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda today said the state government is looking into Genomic science based DNA mapping to increase drought resistance in certain crops. Karnataka
Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda today said the state government is looking into Genomic science based DNA mapping to increase drought resistance in certain crops. "Genomic
science is bringing revolutionary changes.We are now beginning to assess genomic science based DNA mapping to increase drought resistivity in crops," Gowda said. "The technique is
genome based marker assisted breeding technique," he said, intervening during the discussion on the budget in the assembly. His response came as Basavaraj Bommai (BJP) said the
government, institutes of agriculture research and agri universities have not been able to provide alternative to farmers during the years of drought. "Don't indulge in fund
oriented R&D, but have growth oriented R&D," Bommai said. Karnataka is continuously facing drought for the last five years. Gowda said five crops-- Tur, Gram, Jowar, Ragi and
Groundnut- have been chosen, to increase their drought tolerance, as also disease resistivity. He said field trials of the varieties will be done during the year and based on its success
they may be distributed to farmers from next year. "State government is bearing the scientific experiment related cost of this," he added. (This article has not been edited by
DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)