Agri innovation centre comes up at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

Amritsar, June 1

Giving a push towards research, introducing lab-to-land technologies in agri-industry, GNDU on Wednesday set up its Agri Innovation and Extension Centre on its premises. The centre was inaugurated by Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal.

This centre has been established as a part of the Centre for Agricultural Research and Innovation (CARI) under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)-2.0. The centre will establish a synergistic relationship with various stakeholders such as farmers, entrepreneurs and investors to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation. It will integrate research and outreach education in agriculture, food systems and the environment for establishing ecologically and economically sustainable models of agriculture.

Professor department of biotechnology and head, department of agriculture, Pratap Kumar Pati said: “CARI is engaged in developing suitable agro-technologies for the cultivation of high valued non-traditional crops such as low-chilled apple, banana and saffron at the experimental farm of the centre. The centre is also engaged in development of many successful protocols for in-vitro propagation of high-valued plants such as G9 banana, saffron, low-chilled apple, sugarcane, blue berry and elite varieties of sweet potato enriched with ß-carotene and anthocyanin. “Besides these many medicinal plants which have pharmaceutical importance such as withania somnifera, tylophora indica and rhodiola imbricata are being grown and mass multiplied using the existing plant tissue culture facility. The effort of the centre in the adoption of these lab to land technologies will broaden the crop diversity in the region and provide economic dividends to farmers and also promote entrepreneurship in the region,” he said.

Links with top universities, institutions

To pursue innovative research in the field of agriculture and allied areas, the centre has also established linkages with top universities and institutions of the world. Recently, the centre has signed MoU with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Chung Hsing University (NCHU), Taiwan; Cornell University, USA; Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Indigram Labs Foundation (ILF)-TBI, New Delh to promote cooperation in teaching, training and innovative research in the field of Agriculture. VC Prof Jaspal Singh Sandhu said the efforts were on to non-traditional agriculture for the benefit of the state.