Shri Gabriel Denwang Wangsu, Honourable Minister for Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary, Dairy Development, Fisheries, Food & Civil Supplies, Legal Metrology and Consumer Affairs, Govt.of Arunachal Pradesh and his delegation has visited the ICAR-IIHR on 28th November,2024 to witness the ongoing research, education and extension work in horticulture. The delegation has visited various facilities such as fruit crops nursery unit, food safety lab, phytosanitary certification unit, mushroom unit, seed unit and BESSTHORT facilities. Later on, a formal meeting was convened in hybrid mode and connected the district level Horticulture Officers of Govt.of Arunachal Pradesh. Dr T.K. Behera, Director, ICAR-IIHR welcomed the honourable minister and other delegates and spoke about contribution of ICAR-IIHR for research and development in Horticulture across the country. Dr E.Sreenivas Rao, Nodal Officer, PME gave an overview of the research, education and extension activities of ICAR-IIHR and impacts of IIHR technologies. Dr T. Sakthivel, Nodal Officer, NEH, ICAR-IIHR presented the NEH activities of the Institute with special reference to Arunachal Pradesh.
Smt Koj Tinya, IFS, Secretary (Horticulture), Government of Arunachal Pradesh spoke about the expectations from IIHR especially the establishment of tissue culture unit, capacity building, technology transfer and demonstration. The delegation has interacted with Dr.Prakash Patil, Project Coordinator, AICRP on Fruits, HoDs (Dr.S.Sriram, Dr.H.C.Prasanna, Dr.M.Sankaran, Dr.P.Naveenkumar, Dr.Basava Prabhu Patil, Dr.R.B.Tiwari, Dr.T.R.Rupa) and Dr.Dhanajeya, Princiapl Scientist and CEO, BESSTHORT.
Honourable Agriculture Minister of Government of Arunachal Pradesh appreciated the research, education and extension activities of ICAR-IIHR and he also expressed his happiness about the performance of Arka IIHR varieties in Arunachal Pradesh. He also assured about strong collaboration with ICAR-IIHR and Government of Arunachal Pradesh for establishment of infrastructure, seed supply, tissue culture unit, value addition and marketing of Horticultural Crops.
This visit was coordinated by Dr.M.Sankaran, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Fruit Crops, ICAR-IIHR.
