Title: Natural Hydrogel Coated Novel Seed Technology for Climate Resilient Agriculture
Name: Dr.Virender Singh Lather
ICAR-Indian Agricultural Institute, Regional Station, Karnal-132001, India
Natural gums are biopolymers produced by algal (alginate), plant (pectin), microbial (dextran) and animal (chitosan) and possesses useful properties i.e. non-toxic, high swelling ability, stability in wide pH and temperatures range, low mechanical-thermal-chemical stability, microbial-enzymatic degradation (biodegradability), biocompatibility, low cost etc which makes them versatile natural hydrogels for biomedical (drug delivery etc) and agricultural uses against sub-optimal moisture stresses in semiarid and rainfed ecology. The major Earth landmass conducive for agriculture is under abiotic stresses (drought, salinity, temperature) which likely to increase due to land degradation, urbanization and climate change. While ‘Green Revolution’ ensured global food security but increased consumption of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, ground water which caused serious environmental degradations whereas aerobic agriculture regularly suffered with poor productivity due to low seed germination, seedlings-plant growth, dry-matter accumulation etc. Hydrogels are known for mitigation of moisture stresses, but synthetic hydrogels introduced for agricultural purposes has not become popular due to their prohibitive cost, poor delivery system to root zones and environmental concerns as most of these contain polyvinyl alcohols or polyacrylamides which are considered as carcinogenic and non-biodegradable.
To make efficient use of hydrogels for crop production, Lather (2015) identified the cost effective natural hydrogels and developed farmer’s friendly herbal hydrogel coated seed technology (HHCST) for climate resilience agriculture by using local natural gums which are consumed as human foods since ages e.g. Gum Tragacanth (E-413), Gum Sterculia(E-416 ) and Xanthan gum (E-415) etc. Natural hydrogels coated seed delayed the wilting-mortality of seedling by saving irrigations water and facilitate the delay of first irrigation which in combination with pre-emergence application of ‘herbicides Pendimethalin’ prove as “Game Changer Technology” for effective weeds control in DSR (direct seeded rice), wheat and other crops including noxious Phalaris minor. With adoption of novel natural hydrogel coated seed technology, water and energy consumption reduced by half at reduced cultivation cost and environmental gains and less incidence of pests-diseases. The farmers shown keen interest in novel seed technology by planted thousands hectares of DSR-paddy, wheat and other crops by proving that if the technology is beneficial, there is no need for govt. subsidy regimes as prevalent in various countries.
Biography
Dr.Virender Singh Lather has completed his PhD (Genetics) from G.B. Pant University, Pantnagar and visited Washington State University as UNDP/FAO trainee in year 2000. He has served CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar as the Professor (Genetics & Plant Breeding) for 33 years before joining ICARI-IARI New Delhi in 2012. He has published more than 55 papers in reputed journals and serving as an editorial board member of repute Journal of NASS and others and also contributed for development six chickpea improved varieties including novel concept of tall and erect chickpea cultivar suitable for mechanical harvesting. He is now working on concept of natural hydrogels coated novel seed technology.
Presenting author details
Full name: Dr Virender Singh Lather
Contact number: +91-9416801607, +91-0184-2256211, +91-0184-2267169
Twitter account: DrVirenderLather@drvslather
Linked In account: Dr Virender lather
Session name/ number: Crop Science-Seed Technology
Category: (Oral presentation/ Poster presentation) : Oral