He called upon Icrisat and other agricultural institutions to check this trend and ensure that ''these pseudo inventors'' do not not possess absolute rights over the seeds.

Speaking at the ``India-Icrisat day'' at their sprawling complex about 30 kms from here, Mr Rao urged the scientists to evolve a viable pest management programme to prevent the re-occurence of ``trips'' that devastated the groundnut crop in Anantapur district in the state. He stressed the need for the transfer of hybrid sowing technology to the poor and marginal farmers.

The India-Icrisat research partnership should continue for the benefit of the poor and marginal farmers, the minister said.He also sought the expertise of Icrisat for the development of watersheds and the water harvesting management programme, which the state government had implemented in a big way.

Despite the green revolution, India and the other developing countries can not not afford to remain complacent. To meet the needs of the growing population and the increasing food demand, the country required a global strategy and integration of traditional knowledge with new tools of biotechnology, bio-prospecting, information technology and new principles of natural resource management.

New modalities and mechanisms had to be evolved for sustained crop improvement. Any restriction imposed in the availability and access to germplasm was likely to hamper the scientists in their crop improvement efforts.

It was imperative that efforts had to be made for easy access to world germplasm by all countries through institutions like Icrisat.Mr Kumar said that the mandated crops of Icrisat were extremely important for the country's agriculture production. About 90 per cent of the area under pigeonpea and 75 per cent of the area under chickpeal fell in India, but the productivity of these crops was low. He hoped that these two pulse crops would continue to receive priority in Icrisat's research agenda, since no other international institute was mandated for improving these crops.He said efforts should be made to bring down the cost of production through increased use of crop varieties. Better crop production packages would go a long way in solving the problems of the farmers, he added.