Okra – CONFERENCE 2022

Its leaves, buds, and flowers are also consumed especially in West Africa. It is used in canned, dehydrated, and frozen forms to a limited extent. Okra mucilage is used as a food, non-food and medicinal product. Okra dry seeds are a rich source of oil (18-20%) and protein (20-23%). During the sugar production process, okra roots and stems are used to clean the cane juice. The okra development in India had taken place with the release of Pusa Sawani, the first YVMV (Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus) resistant variety by Dr. Harbhajan Singh at IARI, New Delhi in late fifties. Pusa Sawani remained a ruling variety for several decades worldwide. Many private seed companies in India, like Mahyco started their seed business with this variety. Later on with the development of Parbhani Kranti by Drs. Jambhale and Nerker and Arka Anamika by Dr. O.P. Dutta in nineties the okra development taken a further boost. With the expansion of private seed companies in India after eighties, okra research and development resulted into advent of hybrids both by private and public sector on a large scale, e.g Vijay and Varha (IAHS), Sun 40 (Pioneer), Mahyco-10 (Mahyco), OH 152 (Syngenta) Shakti (Nunhems), CO-4(TNAU), Arka Nikita -GMS Based (IIHR) Kashi Bhairav (IIVR), Pusa Okra Hyb-1(IARI) etc were key products.
The introduction of a short inter-noded strong virus-resistant hybrid Radhika (15-20% more yield) by Advanta (2018) enhanced the popularity of hybrid okra across India. Adaptation of hybrids has been easier as no enhanced agro-technique and additional costs were required to grow the hybrid vs open-pollinated (OP) varieties. Hence, a ₹ 90-crore ($11 m) seed revenue per year in 2011 has now become a ₹ 1000-crore ($112 m) annual market and growing continuously at the rate of about around 8-10 percent.

As per FAO estimates around 75 percent of the Okra market is in India and 12% is in Nigeria. However, in more than 30 West and Central African countries, okra is cultivated as both rain-fed and irrigated crop and is the most valued and popular vegetable consumed in fresh and dried forms. The last five years have seen okra gaining ground as a global crop as its nutritional values are being recognized by consumers. This is especially after COVID pandemic that healthy and balanced diet is getting imbedded in the global mindset. Okra seeds are getting exported to over 20 countries from India. Recently, increased number of research papers on its genetics, breeding, genomics, and agronomy from Asia and African countries have appeared. This is further indication of it becoming a global crop. Over 80 percent market is covered by hybrid seeds in India. Global seed requirement is expected to be 6000 mt by 2030 making it a $ 300m crop soon..

Proposal

Seeing the okra crop production scenario, it is a great time to bring all okra crop improvement scientists and other stakeholders together for a ‘Global Okra Roundtable’ under the aegis of ATPBR and fully supported by ICAR-IARI, New Delhi where the okra virus resistance breeding started with the release of variety Pusa Sawani by the Late Dr. H. B. Singh. This was followed by the path-breaking virus-resistant varieties bred at Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes like the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research in Bangalore and Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, Agricultural Universities like Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth in Parbhani, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab and Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. The time for conducting the conference will be Oct 10-12, 2022, which will include a field day on Okra at the IARI campus. GORT can develop into a biennial conference so that Okra stakeholders can meet & take the crop forward.

The journey of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), popularly known as Pusa Institute, began in 1905 at Pusa (Bihar) with the generous grant of 30,000 pounds from an American philanthropist, Mr. Henry Phipps. The institute was then known as Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) which functioned with five departments, namely Agriculture, Cattle Breeding, Chemistry, Economic Botany and Mycology. Bacteriology unit was added in 1907. The name of ARI was changed to Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research in 1911 and, in 1919 it was renamed as Imperial Agricultural Research Institute. Following a devastating earth quake on 15th January 1934, the institute was shifted to Delhi on 29th July 1936. Post independence, the institute has been renamed as Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).

During the fifties, the advancement of scientific disciplines constituted the core program of IARI and provided the base for its fast expansion in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It attained the status of a Deemed University in the year 1958. The green revolution that brought smiles to millions of Indians bloomed from the fields of IARI with the development of famous wheat varieties which contributed an estimated on billion tones of addition production. As the Mother of several IARI institutions, IARI continues to be the leading institution for agricultural research, education and extension in the country.
The present campus of the Institute is a self-contained sylvan complex spread over an area of about 500 hectares (approx. 1250 acres) and located about 8 km (5 miles) west of New Delhi Railway Station and about 16 km (10 miles) east of IGI Airport (Palam). The location stands at 28.08 0N and 77.12 0E, the height above mean sea level being 228.61 meters (750 feet). It is adjacent to hillside road.
Currently, the Institute has 20 divisions 5 multi-disciplinary Centres situated in Delhi, 8 regional stations, 2 off-season nurseries, 3 All India coordinated research projects with headquarters at IARI and 10 national Centres functioning under the all India coordinated research projects. It has the sanctioned staff strength of 3540 comprising scientific, technical, administrative and supporting personnel.