Awareness- cum- Training programme on PPVFR Act, 2001

26th October 2023, Namakkal

Awareness-cum-Training programme on Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 was organised by the ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram at ICAR-KVK Namakkal, Tamil Nadu today for the benefit of farmers, students and other stakeholders. The programme was sponsored by PPVFR Authority, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi.

Dr. Shaik N. Meera Director, ICAR-ATARI, Hyderabad was the Chief Guest of the Programme. He inaugurated the event and accentuated the importance of farmers’ varieties of tuber crops and the benefits of the PPVFR Act, 2001 for the farmers and researchers.  Dr. Meera encouraged the participation of farmers in biodiversity-related meetings and urged the farmers to set the target for registration and conserving traditional varieties by the farmers and other stakeholders.

Shri. Rajganesh, Legal Advisor, PPVFR Authority, New Delhi, Dr. M. Selvaraju, Dean, VC&RI, TANUVAS, Namakkal and Dr. P.P. Murugan, Director of Extension Education, TNAU, Coimbatore were also present in the inaugural function as Guests of Honours.

Shri. Rajganesh highlighted the need for the PPVFR Act, 2001 and various provisions of the Act.

Dr. G. Byju, Director, ICAR-CTCRI, Thiruvananthapuram, emphasised the importance of climate-resilient varieties of tuber crops and significant achievements of varietal improvement programmes at CTCRI for addressing the food and nutritional security in the country.

Dr. K. Ambasankar, Head, ICAR-CIBA, Chennai, spoke on tuber crops for animal and fish feed nutrition and their commercialization prospects.

Dr. K. Velmurugan, Professor and Head, ICAR-KVK Namakal proposed the vote of thanks.  

The technical publications on tuber crops -PPVFRA and registration of farmers’ varieties in Tamil and English languages were released and distributed to the participants during the event.

A total of 150 participants consisting of farmers, NGO representatives, Subject Matter Specialists, project coordinators of KVKs, students and other stakeholders participated in the programme.

(Source: ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram)