Agri Varsity Plans Weather-Ready Crop Diversification Project
According to PJTAU vice-chancellor Prof. Aldas Janaiah, the ‘Innovation to Impact’ programme aims to reduce technological gaps in cultivation and promote crop diversification, reduce yield gaps, and increase farmers’ incomes.
Hyderabad:With increasing stress on crop diversification, an issue that came to the fore this Kharif crop season as this year’s El Nino severely impacted rainfall in Telangana, the Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (PJTAU) has planned, for the coming Rabi crop season, a pilot project that will provide farmers with the wherewithal for growing crops that are better suited to the changing climatic conditions.
According to PJTAU vice-chancellor Prof. Aldas Janaiah, the ‘Innovation to Impact’ programme aims to reduce technological gaps in cultivation and promote crop diversification, reduce yield gaps, and increase farmers’ incomes.
He said to start with, the programme will focus on pulse and oilseed crops, and will be implemented at the university’s 12 regional agriculture research centres in Palem, Tandur, Madhira, Warangal, Kampa Sagar, Rudrur, Adilabad, Jagtial, Thornala, Karimnagar, Basanthpur, and Koonaram. Four villages within the jurisdiction of each centre will be selected and around 25 progressive farmers from each village will be asked to join the progamme which will also see package of advanced technologies suitable to them being made available to them.
The project will be launched in the second half of this month by agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao as part of the Khet Bachao programme of the central government.
While the PJTAU will also seek cooperation of private industries to participate in this programme, the university will also be submitting a comprehensive proposal to the state government seeking around Rs 25 crore for the programme.
