Group Discussion of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Fruits Organized
2nd March, 2015, Bengaluru
The second group discussion of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Fruits was organized at the Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur (Rajasthan) from February 26 to March 1, 2015.
Dr. S. Ayyappan, Secretary (DARE) and Director General, ICAR graced the occasion on March 1st 2015. In his address, Dr. Ayyappan emphasized the development of programmes to achieve the targeted production of fruit crops in India to the tune of 100 million tonnes.
Dr. S.L. Mehta, former Vice Chancellor, MPUAT and former, Deputy Director General (Education), ICAR spoke about the training needs of the scientists at NARS and highlighted the future road maps developed by ICAR.
Dr. N.K. Krishna Kumar, Deputy Director General (Hort. Sci.) ICAR inaugurated the group discussion emphasized the need for refinement of technology in order for its acceptance among the farming community.
The function was presided over by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. O.P. Gill, MPUAT, Udaipur. Dr. Gill presented an analysis of the various issues related to fruit production.
Dr. Prakash Patil, Project Coordinator (Fruits) presented the progress of work done at 39 centres across the country on nine fruit crops, namely mango, Citrus, banana, guava, litchi, grapes, papaya, sapota and jackfruit.
A total of 160 delegates from 28 SAU-based centres, 13 ICAR-institute-based centres, 3 CAU-based centres, including 1 private centre, and growers and nurserymen of Rajasthan participated in the four-day event.
Three publications were released during the inaugural session of the Group Discussion. In the plenary session, the monograph titled “Insect and Mite Pests of Citrus in India” was also released.
(Source: Project Coordinator (Fruits), ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru)
