–TNAU’s VC at Annual Seed Workshop
The seventh Annual Seed Workshop was organized by Seed Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore on Friday. More than 90 scientists participated in the workshop both in online and offline modes to finalize the seed production of TNAU for the year 2021-22.
During the inaugural session, S. Sundareswaran, Director, Seed Centre, TNAU elaborated the achievements made by TNAU in seed production.
The presidential address was given by Prof. N. Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of TNAU, in which he emphasized that the current year seed production has increased by 1.5 times over previous year with the total production of 1832 tonnes.
He indicated that farmers of Tamil Nadu realized an additional revenue of Rs. 10,000 crores through introduction of new varieties, use of quality seeds and adoption of new technologies released by TNAU. He emphasized to expand the area under quality seed production through farm mechanization. He also insisted the seed production scientists to provide more attention towards production and supply of high quality seeds to the farming community at right time.
S.D. Sivakumar, Director, Agri Business Development offered felicitation. He emphasized the importance of private seed producers for the spread of newly released varieties by TNAU. S. Geetha, Director, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics highlighted the salient features of newly released verities of TNAU.
The Director of Research K.S. Subramanian emphasized the use of digital system for seed stock and Infra-red technology, browning test, e-nose technology and bio-imaging for quick assessment of vigour and viability status of seeds. The scope of high value low volume vegetable seeds like onion and moringa in doubling the farmers’ income was emphasized by R. Swarna Priya, Professor and Head, Department of Vegetable Science. P.R. Renganayaki, Professor and Head, Department of Seed Science and Technology formally expressed gratitude to the participants for taking part in the program.