Director’s Desk

Dr. Rajesh Kumar

Director

Healthy vegetable greetings to all!

Vegetables are important constituents of agriculture for attaining food and nutritional security. They also have the ability to generate on-farm and off-farm employment. An increase in availability, affordability and consumption of nutrient-dense vegetables is one of the ways to prevent malnutrition. India is bestowed with a huge diversity of vegetables and they are among the largest contributors (about 59%) to total horticultural produce in the country. Area under vegetable cultivation is continuously increasing, mainly due to higher productivity, shorter maturity cycle, high value and greater income leading to improved livelihoods.

Production of vegetables is touching new records every year, making it the most favoured agricultural commodity by farmers. Production during 2019–20 was estimated to be 191.77 million tonnes from 10.4 million hectares, whereas it was less than 20 million tonnes during independence. This manifold increase needs to be sustainable to meet the demand of 1.5 billion people by 2030. The present trends of global climatic uncertainty exacerbate the need for a strong vegetable research and development programme. It is extremely important to help farmers become more resilient in the face of greater warming, cooling, drought, salinity and flooding, or combinations of these constraints.

There is an urgent need to re-orient research programmes to manage likely changes in biotic and abiotic stresses due to climatic changes. Breeding as well as cultural technologies such as grafting, IPM and protected cultivation will have to be further exploited. Since inception of this institute in 1992, we have been known for standout research activities, sustainability and “veggie pride”, as well as for valuing the vegetable industry of the country.

I hope, with the support of all the staff of the institute as teammates, we will further achieve new heights in the coming days.

With best regards,