CHILE DELEGATION VISITS PAU, EXPLORES COLLABORATIVE AREAS FOR PARTNERSHIP

LUDHIANA, OCTOBER 25:



A five- member delegation from Chile is on a two-day visit to Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) to explore collaborative areas for partnership. The delegation members comprise Dr Ivan Ariel Matus Tejos, National Institute of Agri Research, Chile; Prof. Serigo Rodriguez Royo, Pontificia University Catholic of Chile; Prof. Gabino Reginato Meza, University of Chile; Mr Roderigo Gallardo, Counselor of Agri- Affairs and Ms Aarti Verma, Agriculture Assistant, Agriculture Office of Chile.



The delegates held an interactive meet with Dr J.S. Dhiman, Additional Director of Research (Natural Resource and Plant Health Management); Dr PPS Lubana, Dean of College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology (COAE&T), Dr H.S. Sehgal, Additional Director of Communication and Dr Ramandeep Jassal, Deputy Director, (Public Relations).



Dr Sehgal welcomed the delegates, senior officers and heads of various departments of the university. Tracing the history of the PAU, he briefed the delegation about the research, teaching and extension programmes, underway in the university. Besides, the Heads of Departments including Dr M.S. Sidhu (Economics and Sociology), Dr G.S. Butter (Agronomy), Dr Avtar Singh (Forestry and Natural Resources) and Dr Allah Rang (Plant Breeding and Genetics-BG) also attended the meet.



Apprising the PAU experts of the organizational set-up of their respective institutes, the visiting delegation said that they would like to enter into maiden cooperation with India, especially PAU, through the exchange programme. Chile is a successful country in terms of growth, food safety and poverty elimination, highlighted they, saying that a lot can be learnt through the joint collaboration in agricultural research and academics. Chile has developed a strong food industry with specialty in sea and fresh foods. The entire food production system is excellent and both the countries can partner and teamwork in the food section to address the food security issue of the nation like India, added they.



Dr Dhiman said that PAU is a one of the prestigious institutes of the country, which played a pivotal role in ushering in an era of green revolution. The university has a strong technology transfer mechanism for disseminating timely knowledge to the farmers on various aspects of agriculture, he told. Many technologies have been evolved by the PAU to save the natural resource base of the Punjab state, said Dr Dhiman, disclosing that the plan to introduce School of Climatic Studies is also on the way in the university.

Dr Lubana said that the state is fully mechanized but the present thrust is being laid on promoting the custom hiring of farm machinery and development of machinery for small farmers.



Highlighting that the PBG department mainly lays emphasis on the evolvement of crop varieties, Dr A. Rang told the delegation that there are eight crop based sections in the department with strong programmes in wheat, rice and sugarcane.



Referring to the paddy transplanting, Dr Sidhu said that 90 per cent of the transplanting is done manually and that too by the labourers.


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