CPRI Director stresses quality, disease-free planting material and wider adoption of modern seed technologies
Officials from West Bengal and Press Information Bureau participated in an interaction programme held at ICAR CPRI in Shimla on Saturday
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Dr Brajesh Singh, Director, ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI), here on Saturday said that in a major potato-producing state like West Bengal, the effective expansion of high-tech seed production, tissue culture and aeroponics technologies can provide farmers with healthy planting material while helping improve productivity, quality of produce and farm income.
He said this during an interactive programme held at the institute here, in which officials from West Bengal and the Press Information Bureau (PIB), along with officials from the institute, participated. During the programme, discussions were held on key issues such as improving potato productivity in West Bengal, ensuring the availability of quality and disease-free seed, and promoting modern seed production technologies.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Singh said that the availability of quality and disease-free seed is one of the most critical factors in increasing potato productivity.
“Potato, being a vegetatively propagated crop, is particularly vulnerable to seed-borne diseases, making the use of healthy and quality seed essential for sustainable and economically viable production. The high-tech seed production systems developed by ICAR-CPRI use tissue culture and micropropagation techniques to improve the quality and multiplication rate of breeder seed and reduce the period for which seed crops remain exposed to field conditions,” he said.
Dr Alok Kumar, Head, Division of Social Sciences, highlighted the importance of effectively disseminating CPRI technologies among farmers, strengthening scientific communication and farmer-centric extension activities, and assessing the socio-economic impact of research and technologies.
Dr Jagdev Sharma, Head, Division of Crop Production, outlined advanced potato production technologies, crop management practices and measures to enhance productivity.
Dr Sanjeev Sharma, Head, Division of Plant Protection, shared information on disease and pest management in potato, healthy crop production and scientific crop protection measures.
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