The objective of the field day was to demonstrate the protected and open-field tomato varieties and hybrids to farmers and seed companies.
Dr. A. K. Singh, Director, IARI; Dr. P. K. Singh, Head of Plant Exploration & Germplasm Collection, NBPGR; Dr. Zakir Hussain, Principal Scientist, Vegetable Science; Dr. Akriti Sharma, CEO & Incharge, Pusa Krishi, ZTM & BPD unit; Dr. Satish Kumar Yadav, Principal Scientist, NBPGR were present on the occasion. Besides farmers and students, more than 20 seed companies including Bayer, Advanta, Nuziveedu also participated in the field day.
Talking to the media, Dr. A.K. Singh highlighted the salient feature of the tomato varieties and how IARI’s genetic material is reaching out to farmers in different manners. He said through such programs, we are trying to give our cost-effective technologies to the industry so that they can further provide it to the farmers.
Explaining the objective of today’s field day, Dr. P.K. Singh said it is important that the research done by our scientists reaches the industry and then to the farmers, ultimately helping them increase their income. He mentioned that all these tomato varieties are disease-resistant and farmers can even sow them in the rainy season. He further added that these hybrid tomato varieties can produce 80 to 100 tons per hectare, which is huge.
Dr Zakir Hussain who was also present there explained participants about all the tomato varieties in detail through a presentation.
Talking about ZTM BPD’s role in technology dissemination, Dr. Akriti Sharma said we must make sure that the technologies developed by IARI scientists reach the farming community through private companies at fair prices. For this, we work with the Centre for Protection Cultivation Technology, Vegetable Science, and other divisions of IARI in organizing such events.
IARI regularly organizes such field day programs not just to demonstrate its technologies but to involve industry as well.
