A two days ‘Training cum Orientation Workshop on Commercial Vegetable Seed Production in Odisha’ was organized under MIDH funded project “Social and Economic Empowerment through Dedicated Seed Production Clusters for Vegetable Crops in Odisha” at CHES, Bhubaneswar during 11-12 October 2022. The Chief Guest Dr. Pradosh Panda, Additional Director, Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Odisha, while inaugurating the workshop, emphasized on the significance of quality vegetable seed production and quality planting material of other horticultural crops for increasing the farmer’s income in the State and appreciated the various activities of CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar to this end. Dr. G.C. Acharya welcomed the guests and the farmers and Dr. P. Srinivas, Principal Investigator of the MIDH-SEEDs Project, explained about the commercial seed production interventions being taken at various districts of Odisha under the project, which has led to production of quality seeds of French bean (Arka Arjun), dolichus bean (Arka Vistar) and Yard long bean (Arka Mangala) by the farmers of the State through Seed Village Concept. Guest of Honour Dr. H. S. Yogeehsa, underlined the effort of the farmers for commercial vegetable seed production program and Ms. Babuni Sahoo, a farmer who played a crucial role in motivating farmers for taking up commercial vegetable seed production was also felicitated.
Experts delivered technical talks on various aspects of commercial vegetable seed production, seed village concept, scope and importance of seed production in Odisha, vegetable varieties available for seed production and seed certification standards of various vegetable crops and participated in group discussion, also visited various farmers’ fields of Balipatna region of Khurdha district. About 200 farmers, scientists from KVKs, Assistant and Deputy Directors of Horticulture participated in the workshop, which was coordinated by Dr. P. Srinivas and Dr. A. V. V. Koundinya.
