Ludhiana: A one day training programme on “Seed production of field and vegetable crops” was organized by office of the Director (Seeds), Punjab Agricultural University at University Seed Farm, Naraingarh, Fatehgarh sahib on 20.2.2018. About 100 farmers/ seed producers who are engaged in or tend to engage in seed production participated in this training programme and benefitted from the expert lectures organized on this occasion.

Dr. T. P. Singh, Assistant Plant Breeder, explained in detail about the certified seed production in field crops. He stressed the technologies to be followed for production of hybrid seed of berseem. He also emphasized on monitoring the crop at important stages and to follow the proper rouging as recommended so to make the crop free from off type plant, diseased plants, and volunteer plants.

Dr. T.S. Dhillon, Associate Director (Seeds) was the chief guest and exhorted the farmers to adopt new technologies to produce quality seed. He emphasized on the importance of quality seed, as the challenge of meeting the food and nutritional security for ever growing population could be met by using quality seed. He said that purity, quality and germination of seed are the main parameters responsible for good yield for a particular crop.

Dr. Harinder Singh, Director, USF, Naraingarh acquainted the farmers with various agronomic practices for quality seed production. He stressed upon following the recommended package of practices for different crops like seed rate, proper spacing, fertilizer application, managed irrigation, weed management, nursery management etc.

Dr.Rajinder Singh, Senior Scientist (Vegetable Seeds), enlightened the participant about the guidelines to be followed for vegetable seed production. He explained them the methodology to be followed for the production of seeds of vegetables like hand pollination, tagging of plants, following isolation distance etc.

Dr.Rupinderpal Singh, Seed production specialist explained the important tips to be followed for the successful seed production. He stressed upon the selection of seed of recommended and disease resistant/tolerant varieties, method and time of sowing etc.

Mrs.Reet Verma, Assitant Professor (Plant Protection) made participants aware of the plant protection measures to be followed for the quality seed production of field crops and advised them to treat the seed as recommended and monitor the crop at regular intervals for the incidence of any disease or insect-pest attack.

After the technical lectures the participants were taken for the field visit and were also shown the wheat plots sown with Happy Seeder. Dr. Harinder Singh, Director, USF, Naraingarh stated that the seed farm was totally free from residue burning.

Source: Punjab Agricultural University (PAU)