Induced mutations for human welfare through agriculture

Full text: Use of induced mutation for crop improvement started in 1920's. It gained momentum in 1960's when IAEA and FAO started training and guidance and funds were made available for undertaking mutation breeding. IARI established a Gamma Garden and a separate institution was carved by name 'Nuclear Research Laboratory' in 1970's. ICAR Institutes and State Agriculture Universities started using this facility for crop improvement. Similarly, BARC started extending its help for irradiating the seed material specially X-rays and it became one of the major source of generating variability for crop improvement. Induced mutation has resulted in development of more than 3000 varieties of different food, feed, fruit, vegetables and flowers. Apart from direct use of mutants as cultivars, mutants have played a vital role in creating useful variation for application in basic research and gene discovery. It has helped in increasing yield through use of heterosis by inducing male sterility. It has been used for creating useful variation for changing grain composition to improve nutrition and grain quality parameters, for tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses. Gene sequencing and related technologies have opened up new application of induced mutations. In model organisms induced mutations provide new opportunities for identification of genes/bio-chemical, cellular, developmental or functional pathways. The use of stable isotopes in basic research is of fundamental use in crop improvement. Apart from crop improvement the nuclear technology has been used for numerous other applications in Agriculture such as soil fertility, plant nutrition, use of fertilizer and irrigation, control of insect pest and storage. In recent decades BARC has come in a big way through funding for projects to State Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes and has signed MoU's with few of the Agriculture Universities for testing and popularizing their identified field crop varieties in pulses and oil seeds. The Groundnut varieties of BARC have spread on more than one million hectares and are providing additional income of more than five hundred crores annually on a continuing basis. These examples prove beyond doubt that induced mutations have played a vital role for human welfare through agriculture