ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) organized a special online training programme on “Advances in Horticultural Technologies" under NHM, for the officials of Pondicherry State and this programme was sponsored by Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of Pondicherry and it was held during February 23-27, 2021 under NHM. Thirty officials along with Additional Director of Agriculture (Hort.) and Deputy Director of Horticulture of Pondicherry state attended the training programme.The objective of this programme was to impart knowledge on advances in ICAR-IIHR technologies of various horticultural crops and improved vegetable/fruits/flowers varieties/hybrids, so that such technologies may be disseminated for adoption by farmers at Puducherry state. The programme was started with welcome address by Dr R. Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Social Sciences and Training, IIHR - Bangalore, who emphasized the objective and further he conveyed the officials of Pondicherry state that ICAR-IIHR will be associated with farmers for transfer of latest information and technologies to double their income. Dr M R Dinesh, Director,ICAR-IIHR addressed and interacted with the participants and laid emphasis on developing entrepreneurs through various ICAR-IIHR technologies and requested for layout of demonstration of latest ICAR-IIHR technologies which are suitable for Pondicherry.
During the five-day deliberations, participants acquired knowledge and skills on fruits, vegetables and ornamental crops, improved varieties/hybrids and latest production technologies, commercial nursery management, micro irrigation and fertigation, integrated pest, disease & nutrient management and technologies for commercial /agri-business avenues, business avenues in post-harvest technologies, protected cultivation of vegetables and flowers and ventures for custom hiring centres, horticultural technologies of IIHR, post harvest and value addition; process and benefits of licensing of IIHR technologies, horticultural mechanization,mushroom technologies, nematode management, canopy management, mobile and web application in horticulture, latest ICAR-IIHR horticultural technologies for commercialization and incubation, underutilized and future fruit crops,terrace gardening, emerging marketing models in horticultural crops, usage of "Arka Vyappar", role of FPOs in technology dissemination etc. The lectures were interspersed with steaming of videos of various technologies demonstrated at ICAR-IIHR, glimpses of National Horticultural Fair @2021 and panel discussion of various latest horticultural technologies. Moreover, ICAR-IIHR is planning to distribute training materials like Hand book on vegetable cultivation, tropical fruits and flowers cultivation, mushroom production technologies and hand book on Horticultural Directory to all the participants.
The trainees expressed very much satisfaction on the conduct of the training programme and opined that they have learnt many latest and new scientific horticultural management practices to implement under real farm situations. This programme was coordinated by Dr.V.Sankar, Principal Scientist, Dr R.Senthil Kumar, Principal Scientist, and Dr.R.Venkattakumar, Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Social Science and Training ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore.
