Ludhiana, October 5
A 10-member delegation from Australia comprising of scientists from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), university of Sydney, CSIRO and Western Australia, department of agriculture, is visiting PAU on October 9 on a pre-workshop tour and to see the progress of the ACIAR sponsored projects.

Dr B.L. Bhardwaj, head, department of plant breeding, genetics and Bbiotechnology, said the team will meet director of research, PAU, and interact with the scientists of the wheat and genetics and biotechnology.

The team will also participate in an Indo-Australian workshop on “Marker Assisted Breeding in Wheat” to be jointly organised by ICAR and ACIAR at New Delhi on October 11 to 13. Dr Parveen Chhuneja and Dr N.S.Bains from PAU have been invited to participate in the workshop. 

Ludhiana, October 5
The new focus on research on fruits at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is on processing and value addition. According to Jasbir Singh Randhawa, head, department of horticulture, the identification of varieties for release are based on their quality and desirable processing attributes.

He said, recently, PAU has released two semi-soft pear varieties, Punjab Nectar and Punjab Gold, which apart from possessing table quality are suitable for processing into squash, nectar and ready to serve (RTS) beverages due to their juice content between 52-56%. Under the soft pear group, PAU has released a very juicy variety, Punjab Soft. Semi soft varieties are suitable for processing either by caning or as whole pieces.

The recently released anthocyanin-rich grape variety, Punjab Purple is suitable for processing into juice, nectar and RTS beverage. Inter-disciplinary research on varietal evaluation for suitability for processing is being carried out in collaboration with department of food science and technology and microbiology.

Randhawa said this beverage has been recommended for preparation at small scale. Baramasi lemon and Tahiti lime have also been identified as suitable fruits for making beverages.

He said, scientific teams have been constituted for different fruits to promote research on processing and value addition as huge proportion of horticultural produce suffers from post harvest spoilage.

Ludhiana, October 5
The directorate of students welfare of Punjab Agricultural University is organising the annual youth festival from October 22 to November 3. This decision was taken at a meeting held under Dr Dulcha Singh Brar, PAU director of students welfare.

Dr Brar said all the constituent colleges of PAU will participate in this festival. Although the stage performances will start from November 1, various competitions will take place from October 22 onwards.

The debate will be held on October 22 at 2.30 p.m. at Students Home on the university campus. The collage making and cartooning event will be held on October 23. On the spot painting and poster making competition will be held on October 24. The events on creative writing and elocution and extempore will be held on October 29. On October 30, competitions for clay modelling and rangoli making ill be held while poetic recitation and comedy will be held October 31.

The stage performances will be held from November 1 onwards and these would be inaugurated by the PAU VC Manjit Singh Kang. The music items will be performed at 5.00 p.m. in the same theatre. The shabad gayan, quiz, one-act play, mime and mimicry competitions will be held on November 2. Dr Brar said classical dances, skits, folk dances will be performed at 5.00 p.m. while the prize distribution function will be held at 7.00 p.m. on November 3 in the Open Air theatre of the university. — TNS

Mandi Ahmedgarh, October 5
Accusing a local trader of seeds of duping innocent farmers of the area by supplying them inferior seeds, activists of the Zamhoori Kissan Sabha staged a dharna at local grain market here today. The protesters accused the agricultural authorities in Ludhiana district of shielding the trader.

Yadwinder Singh Chheena, district agriculture officer, Ludhiana, while denying charges levelled against him, alleged that office-bearers of the organisation had obstructed him from visiting fields last week.

“When I along with my staff visited Lohatbaddi village to verify allegations levelled by the farmers, the activists and office-bearers stopped us from entering the fields,” said Chheena while talking to Ludhiana Tribune.

The farmer leaders alleged that cotton crop in 50 acres of land and paddy crop in 8 acres belonging to various farmers of the area had been spoilt due to poor quality and fake seeds supplied by Lohatbadi branch of the local firm.

Akattar Singh, Kartar Singh, Teja Singh, Mehar Singh, Jitti Singh and Amrit Pal Singh were major 
sufferers.

Owners of the Jindal Trading Company on the other hand denied the charges against them and maintained that the action of the activists was vindictive.