In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express, Aulakh said though Punjab contributed 43 per cent of the gross domestic product, agriculture sector has received a mere 30 per cent of the state's annual budget allocation. ``And still we compared our productivity with China and US without realising that 63 per cent of our area was rainfed,'' he said.

Aulakh was of the view that the government should allocate more funds for research in agriculture so that India is able to produce 20 per cent additional foodgrains each year to meet the challenge of the growing popula-tion.

The PAU in Ludhiana enjoys the distinction of being the torch bearer of new innovations in research. The production of food crops like wheatand rice and cash crops like cotton, sugarcane and sunflower in Punjab have seen phenomenal increase. Punjab with only 1.53 per cent of the total geographical area of country contributes annually about 59 per cent of wheat and 35 per cent of rice to the national food kitty.

Before the establishment of PAU in 1962, the average yield of wheat in Punjab was 1,161 kg per hectare which has now reached a level of 4,240 kg per hectare while rice yield has increased from 1,076 kg per hectare to 3,397 kg per hectare. Production of milk has increased from 22 lakh tonnes to 64 lakh tonnes during this period.

Aulakh said Punjab has not only achieved a milestone in foodgrain production but is also producing 2,000 tonnes of honey. Efforts are being made to increase fish production through efficient farming technology coupled with appropriate promotion polices of state government to get farmers maximum returns.

The university has strengthened research on hybrids to raise yield potential of various crops. Thrust wasnow on integrated pest management including biological control, efficient nutrient management, soil and water conservation, drip irrigation and increased farm mechanisation.

Aulakh said that post-harvest technology research had been intensified to improve "value addition" and advances were being made in research on animal breeding and health care through adoption of techniques like pedigree testing, embryo transfer and development of new vaccines.

The director claimed that by far the university has developed about 440 varieties including 25 hybrids of various field, fodder and horticultural crops.

He claimed that PAU was now the leading centre in the country for research on hybrid breeding. The research on hybrid breeding in rice, maize, bajra, poigeonpea, cotton, sunflower, rapeseed mustard, muskmelon, brinjal, chillies, tomato has been strengthened.

With intensive cultivation, weeds had become a major problem reducing crop yield by 15 to 20 per cent. The PAU has been pioneer in developing chemicalcontrol measures against serious weed.

The university has prepared an atlas of soil resources of Punjab giving characteristic potentials and problems of different kind of soils in the state. Fertiliser management research has focussed on working out optimum dose, time and method of application to enable farmers to economise.

The PAU has now identified thrust areas for future research, some of them are: development of hybrids in field and vegetable crops; development of high yielding varieties tolerant to pests and abiotic stress; development of short duration varieties with high productivity per unit time to fit into multiple cropping system and for kandi region production of export-oriented crops like basmati rice, durum wheat, flowers and vegetables; application of biotechnological tools for screening against diseases at cell level;development of integrated water management technology; post harvest technologies; development of energy efficient farm machinery, equipment and tools particularly for smalland marginal farmers; and utilisation of renewable energy sources like biomass for producing biogas.