Annual Groundnut Workshop organized

25^th to 27^th May, 2019, Vishakhapatnam

The ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Groundnut organized its Annual Workshop at Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam from 25^th to 27^th May, 2019.

In his inaugural address, Dr. V. Damodar Naidu, Vice-Chancellor, ANGRAU, Andhra Pradesh expressed his concerns on the recurring crop failures in Anantapur District due to the vagaries on monsoon. He urged the scientists for developing the varieties exclusively suitable for such areas.

Dr. S.K. Jha, Assistant Director General (Acting), Oilseeds and Pulses, ICAR highlighted the need for a campaign for reducing the per capita consumption of edible oil. He urged the scientists to work to enhance the productivity of the oil crops in order to meet the increasing demand of oil seeds and to reduce the import.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Director, IIOR highlighted stressed on the need to enhance the productivity of the oilseeds for addressing the increasing import of edible oil.

The Guest of Honor, Dr. D.K. Agarwal, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Seed Science, Mau accentuated the need for rationalising the seed conversion system. He urged to take-up more seed production programmes.

The Special Guest, Dr. Rajeev K. Varshney, Director, Centre of Excellence in Genomics & Systems Biology, ICRISAT stated that the genome sequences and annotations for the cultivated groundnut are now available. He said that the platform is ready to take-up the genome assisted breeding.

Dr. N.V. Naidu, Director (Research), ANGRAU, Andhra Pradesh emphasized on the need for drought tolerant varieties and mechanisation for drought prone areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Dr. Radhakrishnan T., Director, ICAR-DGR presented the Research highlights of work done by the different centres of the scheme.

In the Variety Identification Committee, Dr. AK Singh, DDG (Crop Sciences) identified three entries to be released as varieties for the commercial cultivation - Dh 256 for cultivation in kharif season for Zone - V (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telengana) and Girnar 4 and Girnar 5 - two high oleic groundnut varieties (>78% Oleic acid) developed for the first time in India, recommended for cultivation in kharif season in Tamil Nadu, AP, Telengana, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Rajasthan.

Dr. K. Muralidharan and Dr. JB Misra, Ex Directors of ICAR-DGR and Dr. Sain Das, Ex Director, ICAR-DMR were also present on the occasion.

The workshop registered more than 100 participants from AICRPG Centres, Research & Development organizations from different SAUs and ICAR Institutes, etc.

(Source: ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Groundnut, Junagarh, Gujarat)