The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) Wednesday signed an agreement to set up the Borlaug Institutes for South Asia in India. They will come up at Pusa in Bihar, Ludhiana in Punjab and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

"The institutes will create state of the art research facilities to support maize and wheat research and development and broaden the range of varieties and tools available to farmers. They will also strengthen local crop breeding programmes to meet food production challenges," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said.

The Borlaug Institute Centre at Ludhiana will concentrate on introducing newer crop varieties that will be high yielding, more water and nutrient-efficient and terminal heat-resistant.

Pawar said the Bihar centre will focus on research priorities of eastern India and maize-based agricultural systems would be the focus of research.

Jabalpur is another strategically located agro-ecological zone of central India from where substantial productivity gains in agriculture, particularly wheat and maize can come, he said.

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I can't express my immense pleasiure to learn this news. I thank those guys who have made this posisble. Kalam sheb had said that Bihar's land is so much fertile that it can feed entire India alone. Despite of all sort of problems we are among the top scoring guys to feed the nation. Now Borlaug..man if these guys support Bihar, our farmers will be immensely benefitted. For long time I had been writing to bring research Institutes to Bihar. CSIR, DBT, NISER, IISER and DST institution...all central government institutions ditched Bihar. Our CM statrted playing political game with academics by spoiling CUB like great hope to revamp education and research In Bihar by asking this central institution to locate to Motihari! Then this Nalanda University scam...among this all saddest and dirty news of hopelessness news from Bihar, this news of Borlaugh coming to Bihar is like great hope for Bihar. Whenever needed I am there for this initiative, to provie the latest technology which we do here and change the game. Here is the point to come back and do something for Bihar, which will be untouched and unaffected by dirty politics of Bihar and Central Govt. Sharad Pawar was a guy whom I disliked the most but on this occasion I want to think this man and our PM Manmohan Singh for thinking about Bihar. Whoever causes the positive changes in Bihar, I bow before all these guys and I am personally thankful to all these game changers.

Ravi Shankar