HAU gets Rs 4.62 crore for research projects

Tribune News Service

Hisar, April 19

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry had sanctioned six research projects worth Rs 4.62 crore to Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) to work with foreign institutes.

Prof KP Singh, Vice Chancellor, HAU, said the projects had been sanctioned under the ‘SPARC’ (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration) scheme. “The SPARC scheme launched in October last year aims to improve the research ecosystem of higher education institutes of the country. It also includes the facilitation of academic and research cooperation, in which top ranked Indian institutions and globally ranked foreign institutions will work together on joint research projects. Under the scheme, research projects were invited from the researchers who have collaboration with world famous foreign universities,” he said.

On these projects, the HAU faculty would work in collaboration with scientists the University of Massachusetts; Washington State University, USA; Laval University, Canada; University of British Columbia, Canada; Massey University, New Zealand; Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Switzerland; and University of Sydney, Australia, he said.

The Vice Chancellor said according to a communiqué received from Dr A Goswami, national convener of SPARC, the project granted to the university by the Human Resource Development Ministry included development of low silicon rice for the management of paddy straw (Rs 96.55 lakh), stress tolerance and yield in soybean (Rs 78.32 lakh), techno-economically viable technologies for crop residue management (Rs 74.73 lakh) and standardization of seed testing procedures and storability for medicinal plants (Rs 62.88 lakh). It also includes promoting smart farming through agro-meteorological techniques (Rs 75 lakh) and research on wheat to achieve food security (Rs 75 lakh).