Philippines delegates visit

Ludhiana: A team of the Direct Seeded Rice Consortium (DSRC) members, led by Varinder Kumar, IRS, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Philippines, and scientists from the IRRI South Asia Regional Centre, Varanasi, visited Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). The delegates discussed water, soil health, labour, environment, energy and food security issues in north-western states, and the sustainability of rice cultivation. They explored all available options (crop diversification, water use efficient varieties (non-basmati versus basmati), crop establishment methods and irrigations methods) to sustain the production. The progress and problems related to direct seeded rice in Punjab was also discussed. The team visited the DSR experiments in the department of plant breeding and genetics, department of agronomy and School of Agricultural Biotechnology.

23 farm women attend training programme

A four-day training programme for the farmers and farm women of Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, began at the Skill Development Centre of the university under the guidance of JS Mahal, director of extension education. A total of 23 participants attended the course, which provided technical know-how of vegetable and fruit cultivation, beekeeping and mushroom growing. TS Riar, associate director (Skill Development), said the centre aimed at making farmers, farm women and the rural youth self-reliant.

Lecture on baking skills

The department of food science and technology organised a lecture-cum-demonstration on commercial functional bakery products by professional baker Alpna Gupta from M/s Maple Foods. Students from BTech food technology and other courses attended the lecture. Gupta demonstrated the preparation of soft dough cookies using different functional ingredients such as multigrain flour, oats, millets, cookies utilising low GI sugar for diabetics. TNS