28th Annual Group Meet of AICRP on Palms organized

6^th to 7^th June, 2019, Coimbatore

28thaicrpreport-012019 The ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Palms organized its 28^th Annual Group Meeting at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore from 6^th to 7^th June, 2019.

The Chief Guest of the inaugural session, Dr. W.S. Dhillon, Assistant Director General (Horticultural Sciences - 1), ICAR, New Delhi outlined the overall growth of the horticultural sector and its significant contribution to GDP and the nutritional security of the nation.

Dr. P. Rethinam, Former Executive Director, Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, Jakarta; Dr. K. Muralidharan, Director, ICAR, CPCRI, Kasaragod and Dr. R.K. Mathur, Director, IIOPR, Pedavegi were also present during as the Guests of Honor.

Dr. N. Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, underlined the need to develop the composite mother gardens for the producing the quality seedlings. He urged the palm scientists for developing the drought mitigation strategies considering the weather extremities.

Dr. H.P. Maheswarappa, Project Coordinator of AICRP on Palms, CPCRI, Kasaragod outlined the mission of Project Directorate on five crops - Coconut, Oil Palm, Palmyrah, Areca Nut and Cocoa that has been distributed across 30 AICRP Centres of 14 States and 1 Union Territory. He elucidated the collaboration of the Project Directorate with 13 State Agricultural Universities and 2 ICAR Institutes.

Earlier, Dr. K.S. Subramanian, Director (Research), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore welcomed the dignitaries.

The inaugural session was followed by the Technical Sessions on variety release proposal, genetic resources and crop improvement, crop production, crop protection and post-harvest technology.

Dr. L. Pugalendhi, Dean (Horticulture), Horticultural College and Research Institute, TNAU, Coimbatore proposed the vote of thanks.

A total of 80 scientists from different AICRP Centres and ICAR Institutes participated in the meeting.

(Source: ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project on Palms, CPCRI, Kasaragod)