Eleven new varieties of seed – five in paddy crop, two in jowar and one each in redgram, greengram, soybean and gingelly – developed by the scientists of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) are likely to become available to the farming community of Telangana and elsewhere soon, Vice-Chancellor of the university V. Praveen Rao has stated.
The new varieties, most of them being various pest-resistant and high-yielding, have been approved by the State Variety Release Committee (SVRC) or the 3rd State Sub-Committee on Crop Standard and Release of Varieties last week.
They would now be sent to the Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties or CVRC.
After going through a process at CVRC., they would be notified and published in the Indian Gazette. Mass production of the new seed varieties by seed producing agencies, besides the university, would begin after the gazette notification and would be made available to farmers for cultivation, the Vice-Chancellor explained here on Thursday.
Higher yields
Along with the 11 varieties approved by the SVRC now, the university had released 47 varieties of various crops since formation of Telangana, Mr. Praveen Rao said emphasising the need to efficient water management for achieving higher yields and optimum utilisation of the increasing irrigation facilities.
The youngest agricultural university in the country, PJTSAU, had earned a good reputation in the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and about 30 students of the university are bagging junior research fellowships (JRFs) every year, the V-C, Director (Research) R. Jagadeeshwar and Director of Seed Research of Technology Centre (SRTC) T. Pradeep stated, explained the progress made by the university. Further, the university is also scaling up its technology by entering into agreements with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and adopting robotics, artificial intelligence, drone and other technologies.
Mr. Praveen Rao stated that PJTSAU is the first university in the country to get Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approval for using drones in crop research.
Stating that there was no approval to private agricultural colleges in Telangana, the PJTSAU V-C made it clear that in case any private university starts any course in agriculture, they have to follow ICAR guidelines.
Fee structure for agricultural courses is lowest in Telangana in the country. The university is also launching an agri-hub for imparting training on entrepreneurship skills among students.
