PAU bags project on weed competitiveness in wheat

PAU bags project on weed competitiveness in wheat

Ludhiana: The School of Organic Farming, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has bagged a research project on ‘Genetic and physiological architecture of weed competitive ability in Iranian wheat landraces’ from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The project aims at identifying wheat landraces having weed competitiveness and early vigor which will be suitable for non-chemical weed management in organic wheat and help in reducing chemical load in conventional wheat. Wheat landraces having early vigour, long and quick emerging coleoptiles, tall heights, establishment of an early ground cover and increased resistance to mechanical weeding operations possess a competitive advantage over the early emerging weeds. The project worth Rs 22 lakh is of two-year duration. Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU; Navtej Singh Bains, director of research; and CS Aulakh, director, School of Organic Farming, congratulated Parampreet Kaur, principal investigator of the project.

Advance training course on beekeeping concludes

A five-day advance training course on “Mass queen bee rearing and production of hive products” concluded today. The programme was held under the Directorate of Extension Education, PAU. TS Riar, associate director of skill development, said the course covered various aspects of beekeeping. He also highlighted the importance of beekeeping extension for the development of beekeeping. Pardeep K Chhuneja, head, Department of Entomology, educated the trainees about scientific management of honey bee colonies, importance of queen bee and need of mass/commercial queen bee rearing, mass queen bee rearing using Karl-Jenter and Cup-kit systems, and identification and management of bee diseases. Jaspal Singh, technical coordinator of the course, dwelt on techniques for selecting honey bee stocks for various aspects meant for bee breeding; modified Doolittle technique of mass queen bee rearing; royal jelly: production, processing, storage and market outlook; and identification and management of bee mites and other bee enemies. Entomology experts Bharti Mohindru, Yuvraj Singh Pandha and Amit Choudhary delved on selection of honey bee colonies for stock improvement; preparing breeder and cell builder colonies; production, processing and storage of pollen, propolis and bees wax; management of bee enemies and diseases; conventional methods of mass queen bee rearing; preparing breeder and cell builder colonies; and honey bees as a valuable input for augmenting crop productivity.