ANN | Ludhiana, 23 Feb 2022

The Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), organized an international meeting on “Precision Agricultural Technologies (IPAT) – 2022” on Tuesday under the aegis of ICAR- Centre of Advanced Agricultural Science and Technology (CAAST) – School of Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Agriculture (SNRM) project.

”The meet was organized as a part of World Bank sponsored NAHEP ICAR-CAAST-SNRM project mandates”, said Dr OP Choudhary, Prof-cum-Head, Department of Soil Science.

He also introduced six eminent resource persons from Canada, USA and India, who shared their knowledge about precision technologies.

About 250 eminent scientists, farmers and students from various parts of India and abroad attended the meet that saw deliberations on advanced agricultural technologies such as nano formulations of fertilizers, hyper spectral imaging techniques to identify plant diseases without much analysis, sensors and detectors, transgenic crops, protected cultivation and remote sensing techniques. The theme of the meet was to discuss different precision technologies that helped to facilitate agriculture for feeding the growing demand.

Professor Arvind, Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala was the Chief Guest. He emphasized the need for precision technologies to strengthen the present scenario of agriculture and address the important issues such as food security.

Dr AS Dhatt, Director of Research, PAU said that it was the moral responsibility of the scientific community to facilitate the farmers by encouraging them to bring precision agriculture technologies into practice.

Dr Gurpreet Singh from INRS-EMT, Canada discussed the role of nano engineering and nano materials in agriculture. Professor Sudhir Malik from UPRM (USA) spoke on sensors and detectors for precision agriculture.

Dr MA Kumar, Senior Principal – Advanced Engineering Group, INFOSYS, Mysore, discussed Hyperspectral Imaging as a dynamic tool for agriculture.

Dr Jagdeep Sandhu, Principal Biotechnologist, PAU, highlighted the role and status of transgenics in agriculture.

Dr Piyush Gupta, Co-founder and MD, Verdenta Hybrid Seeds Pvt (L.), Gurgaon discussed remote sensing technologies in Indian agriculture. Er Krishna K Kaushal, Joint Project Director, National Committee on Precision Agriculture and Horticulture (NCPAH), Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, shed light on protected cultivation and government schemes.

The conference was also attended by Mr Avtar Singh Dhindsa, Chairman, Farmers’ and Farm Workers’ Welfare Commission, Punjab

_______________________________________________________________________