Robotic vegetable grafting machine set up

Ravinder Sood

CSK HP Agriculture University has taken the lead among 74 farm universities of the country by installing a robotic vegetable grafting machine. Dedicating a robot in the service of the farming community of the state, Prof AK Sarial, Vice Chancellor, said high quality planting material of grafted seedlings would be produced for the farmers. He said the machine could graft 600-800 plants per hour with 90 per cent accuracy. The machine worth Rs 27 lakh had been imported from South Korea, he said. The university has taken lead in the country in initiating grafting of vegetables, particularly tomato and capsicum, which are commercial off-season vegetable crops, under the polyhouse conditions. It has initiated efforts for grafting by importing bacterial wilt and nematode resistant rootstocks of capsicum, chilly, eggplant and tomato from Taiwan for the purpose.

91 get fellowship

For the first time, 91 undergraduate and postgraduate students of the university have qualified for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) examinations conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and nine students have cleared the agri-management examinations by other national management institutes. Thirtyeight students from Dr GCN College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 36 from the College of Agriculture (COA) and two from the College of Home Science have cleared the JRF examination this year. Fifteen students from COA cleared the prestigious SRF examination for doing PhD from different institutions. Besides, nine students from the COA have cleared the agri-management examinations. One student has joined the Army. Sixtyone postgraduate students of the university have qualified the National Eligibility Test (NET) conducted by the ICAR and UGC.

15 teachers soon

The university will soon fill up 15 posts of teachers, besides 25 positions of non-teaching employees. The board of management has approved filling up of 14 positions of subject matter specialists for Krishi Vigyan Kendras and one post of assistant professor in veterinary gynaecology and obstetrics in DrGCN College of Veterinary and Animal Science (COVAS). “This will give impetus to extension education activities for the benefit of farming communities of the districts where krishi kendras were situated,” opines Prof Sarial. He said the board of management has also approved filling up of 25 posts of junior office assistants. The university has also initiated the process to fill-up 23 posts of teaching staff in the constituent colleges, namely the College of Agriculture, College of Basic Sciences, College of Home Science and COVAS after the approval of the qualifications by the management as per UGC norms.