Haryana agri university tie up for wheat varieties

Hisar, Nov 8 (UNI) Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) will work on development of heat tolerant varieties of wheat as well as minimising post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables with the help of scientists from China and Japan.

This was disclosed by the HAU Vice-Chancellor J C Katyal who recently returned from an official visit to China and Japan.

He said that heat tolerant wheat varities and post harvest losses were discussed with Chinese and Japanese scientists during the visit.

He said that since the scientists of the two countries had already achieved success in identifying heat tolerant genes in crops and increasing shelf life of perishable fruits and vegetables, they agreed to cooperate and help HAU in its venture. All the essential formalities like signing of Mou as well as arrangement for funds would be completed soon so as to commence the collaborative research work.

Highlighting the need of reasearch on these aspects, he said that in the past few years fluctuations in climate were being witnessed world wide. In India, this effect is being noticed in wheat crop as production gets affected due to a sudden rise in temperature at the maturity stage of the crop.

Likewise, post harvest losses in fruits and vegetables were also taking place in the country because of low shelf life of these products and lack of proper handling techniques.

Dr Katyal said that during visit to China he attended the meeting of Eurasia Pacific Uninet at Shanghai and placed before the representatives of 80 member countries of the Indian agriculture.

Assessing gravity of the problem it was decided to hold an International Conference at HAU Hisar in 2009 to find out valid solutions, he said.

He further said that while developing new varieties of crops, the nutritional aspect would also be taken care of. For this, he added the varsity scientiests would be working in collaboration with experts from other agri universities and evolve varieties of crop rich in micro nutrients like zinc, iron and vitamins essential for human health.

UNI