India names new farm research institute after Borlaug

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday announced plans to set up a new scientific research institution to help develop new seeds and technology for farmers, which will be named after Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug.

The government is planning a big push to farm technology in order to ensure a 4 per cent agricultural growth in the coming years.

India hopes to carry further the late Borlaug's crusade against hunger and share the gains with its neighbours in South Asia, almost 30 years after his high-yield and disease-resistant wheat seeds helped trigger a 'green revolution' in India.

"Our country has not witnessed any big technological breakthrough in agriculture after the green revolution. We need technology which would address the needs of dry land agriculture,' the prime minister said in his Independence Day speech.

"I am happy to announce that the Borlaug Institute of South Asia is being established in India. This institute would facilitate availability of new and improved seeds and new technology to the farmers of India and other countries of South Asia," he added.

The Nobel laureate is often called the father of India's Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s that used new seeds and better irrigation techniques to significantly raise India's food output.