National symposium on crop improvement concludes at PAU
Author(s): Ludhiana News Desk @ city air newsA photograph taken on concluding day ceremony of National symposium on crop improvement at PAU, Ludhiana. Ludhiana, November 10, 2014: A three-day national symposium on “Crop Improvement for...
Ludhiana, November 10, 2014: A three-day national symposium on “Crop Improvement for Inclusive Sustainable Development” concluded at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. More than 500 researchers and students from farm universities, institutes and organizations participated in the symposium. Discussions on four relevant themes including breeding for nutritional and industrial quality traits, conservation and utilisation of plant genetic resources, developing varieties having climate resilience and higher productivity, and integration of biotechnology with conventional crop improvement were held. A galaxy of stalwarts delivered one convention and 11 lead lectures.
Under the chairmanship of Dr B.S. Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU and Chairperson of Organising Committee, the deliberations were finally built into a clear set of recommendations covering germplasm activities, breeding methodologies, biotechnological interventions, policy issues and a future plan of action.
A convention lecture on ‘Abiotic and biotic stress management through genes from high altitude plants’ was delivered by Dr P.S. Ahuja, Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and an illustrious alumnus of PAU.
The Organising Secretary of the symposium and Additional Director of Research (Crop Improvement), PAU, Dr R.K. Gumber said that eight symposium sessions were conducted besides a panel discussion and a plenary session. The research papers were presented as 526 posters and 17 oral presentations. In addition, proceedings of more than 1000 pages reflecting latest scientific developments in the field were published and distributed among the participants, he added.
On the occasion, “Award of Honour” was bestowed on two distinguished scientists by the scientific societies. Dr B.S. Dhillon, PAU VC and an internationally known figure in the field of Plant Breeding and Genetics received the honour for his outstanding contributions to maize breeding and for providing direction to agricultural research as head of various organizations and societies. Besides, Dr G.S. Nanda, former Director of Research, PAU was honoured for his outstanding contributions to wheat breeding.
During the symposium, Dr SK Vasal, World Food Prize Winner; Dr SK Datta, Deputy Director General, ICAR; Dr HS Gupta, Director, Borlaug Institute for South Asia; Dr S. Nagarajan, Former Chairman, Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Authority; Dr SA Patil, Former Director, IARI; Dr DS Brar, former Head of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division, IRRI, Philippines; Dr RK Tyagi, Vice President, Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources; Dr AK Joshi, Wheat Breeder, CIMMYT; Dr Indu Sharma, Project Director (Directorate of Wheat Research); Dr OP Yadav, Project Director (Directorate of Maize Research); Dr JS Chauhan, ADG Seeds (ICAR); Dr BN Singh from National Food Security Mission; and many other well known scientists led scientific discussions or chaired various sessions.
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