and supply, price trend in the domestic and international markets, inter-crop price parity, terms of
      trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the likely impact of MSPs on
      consumers, in addition to ensuring rational utilization of natural resources like land and water.
      Thus, pricing policy is rooted not in ‘cost plus’ approach, though cost is an important
      determinant of MSP.
      Indian Council of Agricultural Research
            In India, new records are being established in the agriculture sector. India’s foodgrain
      production for the 2016-17 is estimated at record 275.68 million tonnes, which is over 4 per cent
      higher than the previous record production achieved during 2013-14. In this endeavour, the
      Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has played a vital role by way of technology
      development, demonstration and transfer in India. The National Agricultural Research System
      (NARS) of the country has taken up number of activities through Krishi Vigyan Kendras
      (KVKs) and other programmes for application of farm technologies in farmers’field. Besides,
      taking up technology assessment, refinement, demonstration and capacity development
      programmes the other initiatives such as Farmers First, attracting and retaining youth in
      agriculture (ARYA), climate resilient integrated farming systems (IFS), cluster frontline
      demonstration (CFLD) of pulses and oilseeds, Cereal Systems Initiatives for South Asia
      (CSISA), documentation and registration of farmers’ varieties under PPV&FRA, pulses seed
      hubs, KVK Portal, Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav and awareness creations about mega government
      schemes, etc., were also implemented to espouse the cause of farming community through
      technology application with their active participation.
      Soil and Water Productivity
            The National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) developed
      NBSS BHOOMI Geo-portal to access various thematic information on major physiographic
      regions, sub-physiographic regions, agro-ecological regions (1992), agro-ecological regions
      (2015) and agroecological sub-regions of the country. Area/region specific efficient and
      remunerative crops and cropping sequences were delineated based on soils, landforms, rainfall,
      temperature, length of growing period and irrigability. The NBSS&LUP developed an android
      based mobile application on GIS platform to facilitate web-based decision support system (DSS)
      for land use planning and dissemination of soil health cards information at village and farm level
      for Gujarat. App will display details of soil map unit information and suggested land use plan for
      that survey number. The NBSS & LUP has so far prepared Land Resource Inventory (LRI) of 99
      blocks. These digitized maps of micro nutrients status would be helpful in providing site specific
      variable rate application of micro nutrients prescription for sustainable agricultural productivity.
      Genetic Resources
            In all 21 explorations were undertaken and 1,532 germ plasm accessions were collected
      comprising 1,095 of cultivated plants and 437 wild accessions. The explorations were undertaken
      two each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh,
      West Bengal and one each in Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland,
      Odisha, Tripura and Uttarakhand. The population of momordica cochinchinensis, collected from
      the middle Andaman Island, was described as a new subspecies momordica cochinchinensis
      subsp. andamanica, which was subsequently validated through DNA barcoding. During 2017,