Onion and garlic are life-line in our country

摘要

With the interventions of improved technologies, annual growth rate of onion jumped to 12.5% during 2001-2016 which was 3.5% up to 2001. This is the only commodity which showed such a tremendous growth since 2001. It was possible only with the introduction of high-yielding varieties, and improved production and plant protection technologies developed by the Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research, Pune, which helped in enhancing the productivity from 10 to 16 tonnes/ha during 2001-2016 which was almost stagnant during 1976-2001. Likewise, growth rate of garlic was 5.96% during 1976-2001, which jumped to 9.23% during 2001-2016. The productivity of garlic has also increased from 4.73 to 5.75 tonnes/ha during 2001-2016. Thus, Directorate has notable contributions in enhancing the productivity of both commodities of commerce. The editor (Indian Horticulture) interacted with Director. The excerpts of the interaction are furnished here.