A Training cum Awareness programme on vegetable Seed production on commercial scale was organized by CHES (ICAR-IIHR), Bhubaneswar, under MIDH SEEDS project on 22nd Jan 2021 with an objective of educating the seed producing farmers of Khorda and Cuttack on the nuances of seed maturation, drying, harvesting, threshing, packaging, etc of legume crops like French bean (Arka Arjun), Dolichos bean (ArkaVistar & ArkaAmogh), while creating awareness on commercial seed production to a new group of farmers from Khorda.
The inaugural session of the programme was initiated by Dr. P.Srinivas, by welcoming the guests, scientists, and farmer participants. Chief guest of the programme and head of the station Dr. G.C Acharya, while inaugurating the programme elucidated upon the importance of seed production in Odisha and appreciated the farmers for responding to the new initiatives in this area. Guest of Honour, Dr.Amreshwar Mishra, Advisor, Jaydev Krushak Surakhya Mancha, addressed the gathering and assured the continued support of the farmers of the region towards commercial seed production. Dr.Meenu Kumari offered the vote of thanks to end the inaugural session.
During the Technical Session I, Dr. G. C. Acharya delivered a lecture on Prospects of commercial production of vegetable seeds in Odisha, Dr. P. Srinivas delivered a talk on Details of the MIDH-SEEDs project and its provisions, Dr.Meenu Kumari presented a detailed presentation on Critical components of commercial seed production of legume vegetableswhere she explainedvarious important steps of seed production and care to be taken at the maturing stages of the crop. Dr.Tejaswini, Principal Scientist joined the training programme virtually from ICAR-IIHR Bengaluru and gave an illustrative presentation on Prospects of developing planting material of marigold. During the interactive session the farmers asked various questions to all the scientists and got detailed explanations to their queries.
During the technical Session II, an interactive virtual advisory session was held with welcoming of the panel of scientists from ICAR-IIHR and CHES by the head of the Station Dr. G. C. Acharya. The Session was filled with detailed and elaborative guidance by Dr. T. S. Aghora, Dr. H.S. Yogeesha, Dr. Naresh, Dr.Smaranika Mishra, Dr.Meenu Kumari, Dr. G. C. Acharya and Dr. P. Srinivas. The farmers interacted virtually with the panel of experts and got their queries clarified.
The session was followed by a field demonstration of the concerned crops by Dr.MeenuKumari and Dr. P. Srinivas.
