`Hon’ble Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR), Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra visited Central Horticultural Experiment Station (CHES), ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bhubaneswar on 27th December 2019. He visited the experimental blocks of the Station and took onsite appraisal of major field experiments pertaining to various horticultural crops. He interacted with the scientists about their research, extension and development activities.
During the field visit he was particularly impressed about the new research works being carried out at the Station like development of mango based cropping system with pine apple and dragon fruit, vegetable grafting in solanaceous crops like capsicum, tomato and brinjal to counter biotic and abiotic stresses, germplasm collection and utilization in vegetable crops like moringa, leafy vegetables, beans, pointed gourd, etc.
Hon’ble DG also held a staff meeting where the researchable and administrative issues were discussed thoroughly. He emphasized on widening the scope of all the research/analytical works being currently held at the Station with help of nearby ICAR organizations. He suggested exploring the commercial viability of cultivation of dragon fruit for the benefit of the farming community in the region, skill development of entrepreneurs in the regions for development planting material of grafted vegetables, and other fruit and vegetable crops. There were discussions on developing specific drip irrigation technologies for horticultural crops, legume vegetable based value added products, preparation of comprehensive database on fruit and vegetable cultivation in the region, and preparation road map showing potential areas for taking up demonstrations on latest horticulture related technologies. He opined for taking determined efforts for taking horticultural technologies to the end-users for wider adoption.
Director, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute; Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Water Management ; Director, ICAR-Central Institute for Freshwater Aquaculture; Director, ICAR-central Institute for Women in Agriculture, and Head, ICAR-RC Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, also accompanied the Hon’ble DG for the field visit and offered their scientific inputs during the interactive sessions.
