Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, gears up to hold national conference on maize

Ludhiana, August 21

The Maize Technologists Association of India (MTAI) in collaboration with ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research (IIMR) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, is all set to hold a national conference on maize tilted ‘A Crop for Food, Feed, Nutritional and Bioenergy Security with Environmental Sustainability’ in the university from August 23-25.

PAU vice-chancellor Dr Satbir Singh Gosal will be the chief guest at the inaugural function, scheduled to be organised at PAU’s Pal Auditorium on August 23. World Food Prize laureate SK Vasal will chair the inaugural function. Besides, Dr SK Pradhan, ADG FFC, ICAR; Dr DK Yadava, ADG Seed, ICAR; Dr BM Prasanna, Maize Programme Director, CIMMYT, Mexico; Dr AK Joshi, Managing Director, Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA), will be the guests of honour. Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) and Director General, ICAR, will preside over the plenary session on August 25. A total of 400 participants including scientists, students, farmers, entrepreneurs and seed/agrochemical company’s representatives are expected to join the conference.

Organising Committee Chairman Dr Sain Dass, president, MTAI, said the conference aimed to bring different stakeholders together to discuss the new avenues in maize agri-food systems to address various issues of food, feed and energy security for fulfilment of sustainable development goals.

Dr HS Jat, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Maize Research, Ludhiana, and the Organising Secretary, said the conference consisted of six themes covering all aspects of maize crop sciences starting from genetic enhancement, novel crop improvement strategies to industrial utilisation, stresses management, production technologies and marketing linkages.

Dr Surinder Sandhu, Principal Breeder and Maize Section in-charge, PAU, said that achieving ecological sustainability through maize would also be one of the focus areas of the conference. All the themes would have a keynote lecture and two lead lectures by subject experts, she added.