Photo for representation. File photo
Ludhiana, March 1
Dr PH Zaidi from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Hyderabad, chaired a session on ‘Genomic Interventions for Climate Reliance’ during the national symposium on ‘Genomics Revolution to Foster Advances and Innovations in Crop Improvement’ which concluded at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. He said, “With global warming being one of the major effects of climate change, eight heat-tolerant maize hybrids are being deployed on over 50,000 hectares in South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, under a public-private partnership.”
While chairing the plenary session, Dr Parveen Chhuneja, Director, School of Agricultural Biotechnology, emphasised the importance of building connections for the advancement of the collective mission of harnessing genomics for enhanced crop improvement. Highlighting the recommendations that emanated from scientific deliberations during the symposium, she said that the experts called for the amalgamation of artificial intelligence and machine learning for mining novel haplotypes from crop genomics data.
Expressing concern over weather fluctuations affecting crop productivity, geneticists observed that advanced phenomics and genomics technologies opened new avenues for varietal development with heat tolerance, better input efficiency, and high productivity, she said. It was also suggested to enhance the utilisation of advanced genomic approaches and their scientific coupling with conventional breeding systems for quick delivery of technologies to stakeholders, she added.
Dr Surinder Sandhu, Principal Maize Breeder, said genomics had the potential to bring about another agricultural revolution. To broaden and fast-track the horizon in the utilisation of wild crop relatives to break domestication bottlenecks, a paradigm shift is needed in productivity and quality and to combat abiotic and biotic stresses.
National Science Day
On National Science Day, the National Service Scheme (NSS) Unit of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) hosted a ‘Yuva Samvad India@2047’ programme under the guidance of the coordinator, Dr Harmeet Sarlach.
Domain expert Dr Irani Mukherjee, Professor Emeritus, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, urged the gathering to continue learning with dedication and become responsible citizens of the country. She emphasised the importance of voting wisely in the upcoming General Elections.
A declamation contest was held at the event, and certificates were awarded to the winners.
Student gets ‘Young Scientist Award’
Varinder Kumar, a PhD Chemistry student, has been conferred with the ‘Young Scientist Award’ for his outstanding research in nano-agrochemicals. He received this award at the Indo-Canada International Conference on Advances in Research and Development (ICARD 2024). The conference was jointly organised by the All India Institute of Training and Education (AIITE), New Delhi; the International Skill Development Council (ISDC), New Delhi; Somnogen Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada; and Vasundhara Enclave, Dallupura, New Delhi, on January 27 and 28.
Varinder submitted his PhD dissertation on the ‘Development of nano-metal sulphide formulations for the management of seed-borne fungal pathogens of rice’ under the supervision of Dr Anjali Sidhu, a nanotechnologist (chemist) from the Department of Soil Science at PAU. During his doctoral studies, he published numerous research articles in highly impact journals of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), American Chemical Society (ACS), Wiley, and Springer Nature publishers. He has also been awarded the Best Research Paper Award and Best Oral Presentation Award at international conferences for his research work.
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