A study on assessing area, production and impact of vegetable varieties from ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi has released a number of varieties and hybrids that have been widely adopted and cultivated by large number of farmers throughout the country. Therefore, the present study was taken up with the objectives to estimate the area covered by the Institute varieties and assess the production and economic impact due to the adoption and spread of ICAR-IIVR varieties in the country. The area covered by ICAR- IIVR varieties in the country during 2021-22 was estimated based on the number of quality seeds provided to the farmers and different government and private agencies through various channels. The average wholesale prices of different vegetable crops was collected and computed from Agmarknet. The analysis showed that ICAR- IIVR varieties has covered about 133133 ha in the country during the year 2021-22 including 23 vegetable crops and 62 varieties. The Institute variety has spread in 161 districts in 27 states and 3 UTs in the Country. The estimated incremental gain in production due to the adoption of ICAR- IIVR vegetable varieties was 112.67 thousand tons and the incremental gain in income with ICAR- IIVR varieties was estimated to Rs. 239.41 Crores during the year 2021-22. Tomato crop has the highest contribution in incremental gain in income among ICAR- IIVR varieties followed by chili, brinjal, bottle gourd and okra. Over the years, seed demand and sale of ICAR- IIVR varieties have been increasing indicating the growing popularity of ICAR- IIVR varieties among the farmers in the country.