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Ludhiana: PAU mulling partnership for sustainable cotton farming
The meeting was attended by PAU officials, including vice-chancellor Satbir Singh Gosal, along with the cotton breeders, textile experts, and entomologists
The Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) officials are mulling over potential partnerships aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural practices and enhancing the livelihoods of cotton farmers with Godrej Industries Limited.
The firm’s corporate affairs group president Rakesh Swami recently led a delegation at PAU regarding the potential collaboration. The meeting was attended by PAU officials, including vice-chancellor Satbir Singh Gosal, along with the cotton breeders, textile experts, and entomologists.
Swami acknowledged the role of agriculture in India’s GDP. In order to support the farmers, the company has initiated training programmes in dairy farming and sustainable agriculture practices. The firm aims to support the cotton farmers through sustainable agricultural operations, exploring high-density planting system (HDPS) in the process, he added.
In a presentation, a member of Swami’s team outlined the status of cotton in India compared to the global figures, focusing on cropped areas, production, productivity, and opportunities for growth. While discussing the high-density planting system (HDPS) in cotton, he enumerated technology transfer, demonstrations and trials, farmer training and capacity building as the key areas for collaboration with the PAU.
The V-C said PAU’s major thrust areas in cotton research included, germplasm acquisition, breeding programmes and eco-friendly pest management technologies.
PAU signs MoA to produce multi-grain atta
The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has signed a pact with Grainsera Private Limited for the commercialisation of technology for multigrain atta for diabetics. Crop improvement additional director of research GS Mangat and the firm representative Sardar Gian Singh signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on behalf of their organisations. As per the agreement, the varsity offers non-exclusive rights to the firm for the production of multigrain atta for diabetics within India.
PAU department of food science and technology head Savita Sharma said multigrain atta for diabetics is a formulation made using grains with low glycemic index and standardised for preparation of chapatti. It is also suitable for several indigenous cereal products such as paratha and poori, she added.
PAU has signed 364 MoAs for propagating technologies from labs to markets, said the varsity officials.
