Use biotechnology to boost farming

A workshop on Biotechnology tools for agricultural and agri-entrepreneurial development was held at the Kerala Agricultural University here on Thursday.

Addressing the workshop, KAU Vice-Chancellor P. Rajendran called for optimum use of emerging technologies for sustaining agriculture. Farmers should get educated about technological advancements in agriculture. Biotechnology and nanotechnology are transforming agriculture.

Biotechnology tools should be used to expedite plant growth, prevent infestation of pests and enhance productivity. Despite wide use of biotechnology in medical and veterinary fields, its application in agriculture is viewed sceptically. This should change, he added.

T. R.Gopalakrishnan, Director of Research, presided. Director of Extension P. V. Balachandran inaugurated the sale of tissue culture planting material. P. A. Valsala and Deepu Mathew also spoke.

The workshop was organised by the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Biology of the KAU as a follow-up to a recent two-day national seminar on New frontiers in agricultural biotechnology.

Hi-tech agriculture

The workshop proposed that biotechnology should be given priority for promoting high-tech agriculture.

Possibilities in nanobiotechnology should be explored. Production of disease-free planting material should be explored using biotechnology tools such as ELISA test and secondary metabolite production.

Diagnostic tools should be developed for estimation of Daflatoxin in pepper and ginger, added the workshop.

The speakers included Asok Giri, senior scientist, NCC, Pune; A. Seema, senior scientist, Centre for Materials and Electronics; Achyuth Sankar, computational biologist; and Nataraja Karaba, crop physiologist.

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Use biotechnology to boost farming