Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has released 11 crop varieties this Pongal. A release from the university said six were agriculture crops, four in horticulture and one in forestry.
The six new varieties of agriculture crops included three rice varieties – Co54 for sonavari / kar / kuruvai / navarai season, ADT55 for the kar / kuruvai / summer and TRY4 for saline soil in samba / taladi / late taladi season.
In small millets, the university released Ragi ATL1, Varagu ATL1 for rain-fed and irrigated regions to enhance nutritional security and black gram Co7, which was resistant to yellow mosaic viral disease and released for both rain-fed and irrigated conditions, the release said.
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In horticulture crops, the university released brinjal VRM(Br)2, a spineless variety to replace spine variety VRM(Br)1 in northern districts, gum-less latex-free sweet jackfruit PLR3, kodampuli / Malabar tamarind PPI(K) and wood apple PKM1. In forestry, it released malai vemmbu MTP3 to be used in agro-forestry to increase farmers’ income. The variety had face veneer for plywood decoration.
Releasing the varieties at a Pongal function, Vice-Chancellor N. Kumar said the university had released 854 crop varieties in the past 100 years for varied agro-climate zones and to meet farmers’ demands.