The 23rd annual group meeting (AGM) of All India Coordinated Research Project on Tuber Crops (AICRPTC) was organized during 10-12 May 2023 at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya (BCKV), Kalyani, West Bengal. Dr. A.K. Singh, Deputy Director General (DDG), Horticultural Science, ICAR, New Delhi was the Chief Guest and inaugurated the meeting. Dr. S.B. Goswami, Vice Chancellor, BCKV; Dr. S.K. Chakrabarti, Vice Chancellor, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV), West Bengal; Dr. Sudhakar Pandey, Assistant Director General (ADG), FVS&MP, ICAR; Dr. G. Byju, Director, ICAR-CTCRI; Dr. G.C. Hazra, Director of Research, BCKV; Dr. JayantaTarafdar, Professor & AICRPTC-in-Charge, BCKV and Heads of Divisions/Sections/Regional Station, ICAR-CTCRI and BCKV Officials attended the inaugural function.

Millet Museum in CTCRI

Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI) has started a millet museum in its campus in Thiruvananthapuram by planting different millets such as foxtail millet, little millet, finger millet, barnyard millet, pearl millet, kodo millet, proso millet, sorghum and brown top millet. This is intended to create awareness among people about the significance of millets in our daily diet, as a part of the campaign in connection with International Year of Millets 2023. Dr. G. Byju, Director, CTCRI inaugurated a series of programmes panning one year in the crop museums to showcase the importance of millets in human diet. Dr. J. Sreekumar, Scientist-in-Charge, Social Sciences, other scientists and staff attended the function. A cassava and millet based cookies ‘Milta” was recently developed at its Techno Incubation Centre and studies to develop more such products are going on.

CTCRI Vision 2050 provides an oppurtunity to evaluate the relevance of tropical tuber crops in food security by introspecting the accomplishment and visualizing the challenges this sector may face in future. It also critically examines possible scenario of operating environment.