21-day plant breeding training concludes at PAU
A 21-day national-level training programme on “Harnessing Modern Plant Breeding Tools for Developing Climate-Resilient and Nutritionally Enriched Crop Varieties” successfully concluded at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University.
The programme was organised under the aegis of the Centre for Advanced Faculty Training (CAFT) in Genetics and Plant Breeding, PAU, with the objective of strengthening the scientific capacity of young researchers in advanced crop improvement strategies to address the challenges posed by climate change and nutritional insecurity.
The valedictory function was graced by Dr MIS Gill, Dean, Postgraduate Studies, PAU, as the chief guest. In his address, Dr Gill emphasised the critical role of modern breeding tools, genomics, and biotechnological interventions in developing future-ready crop varieties and appreciated the efforts of the organising team for conducting a comprehensive and impactful training programme and highlighted the importance of teamwork and quality publications in advancing agricultural research.
Welcoming the dignitaries, Dr Surinder Kaur Sandhu, Head, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics and Director, CAFT, highlighted the legacy of CAFT at PAU, which has been actively contributing to national capacity building since its establishment in 1995. She informed that this was the 36th CAFT training programme conducted at the centre, benefiting scientists from ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities across India.
The programme coordinator, Dr Satwinder Kaur Dhillon, briefed the gathering about the academic journey of the training programme, which included expert lectures, intensive practical sessions, field visits, and exposure to advanced breeding facilities. A total of 21 scientists from different parts of the country participated in the programme.
The valedictory session was coordinated by Dr Dharminder Bhatia, who highlighted that the participants received hands-on exposure to modern breeding approaches, including doubled haploid technology, genomics-assisted breeding, GWAS, QTL mapping, RNA-seq analysis, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing and biofortification.
