23rd October 2016, Solapur
Dr Trilochan Mohapatra , Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) inaugurated the Lift irrigation system at Hiraj research farm of ICAR-NRCP for bringing irrigation water through 9.9 KM underground pipeline from Pakani KT weir today. The project was consummated by Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran. He also inaugurated the Pomegranate Processing Unit for total utilization of pomegranate into several high value products viz. Juice, RTS-drinks, Wine, Virgin Pomegranate seed oil and pomegranate rind powder for various commercial use.
While interacting with the scientists, Dr Mohapatra appreciated the achievements on production of disease free healthy planting materials trough tissue culture with bio-hardening, complete mobile application for the benefit of farmers and the research works on processing and value addition of pomegranate.
He stressed the need of translating this mobile app in several other languages apart from its present form of Hindi, Marathi and English and bring out a success story on its impressive number of downloads. He also emphasized the need for screening and evaluation of large population of pomegranate focussing on bacterial blight disease. He suggested preparing a model value chain proposal for integration of production with processing activities having backward linkage for increasing farmers income and formulating strategies of anticipated future glut in the market due to rapid expansion in the area and production of pomegranate in India.
The Director General also participated in the “Swacchata Abhiyan” programme at ICAR-NRCP Solapur.
(Source: ICAR- National Research Centre on Pomegranate, Solapur)
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