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ICAR- CTCRI ORGANISED INDUSTRY MEET IN BHUBANESWAR

Vitamin-rich orange-fleshed and anthocyanin-rich purple-fleshed sweet potatoes are the in-thing in alleviating micronutrient malnutrition and addressing many health issues, according to ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI). Business giants like Pepsico participated in a Business Meet, a first of its kind, organised by CTCRI, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha being the state which produces about 40% sweet potato in India. Realizing the importance of biofortified sweet potato in tribal food system, CTCRI has distributed over 40 lakh vine cuttings and six tonnes of biofortified tubers to tribal areas in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Kerala, and Jharkhand since 2020, said P. Sethuraman Sivakumar, principal scientist and leader of the event.

CTCRI INKS PACT WITH C-DAC

ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Thiruvananthapuram for R&D in agriculture automation, crop management, robotics, AI/ML driven agriculture solutions, IoT sensors, geospatial data-driven applications and edge embedded systems. G. Byju, director, CTCRI and K.R. Rajesh, Senior Director and Head, Strategic Electronics Group, C-DAC exchanged the MoU in a function held at CTCRI on Tuber Crops Day 2024 which was inaugurated by noted poet Murugan Katakana. E. Sreekumar, director, Institute of Advanced Virology graced the occasion.

The ICAR-CTCRI celebrated Tuber Crops Day

The ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram and the Indian Society for Root Crops (ISRC) jointly organized the “Tuber Crops Day” on 13.12.2024 at 11 AM in the Millennium Hall of ICAR-CTCRI, Sreekaryam, Thiruvananthapuram. During the programme, the Chief Guest, Shri Murukan Kattakkada, Director, Malayalam Mission, Department of Culture, Govt. of Kerala, emphasized on the importance of agriculture and need for uplifting the struggling farmers through his own poems and motivational speech. Guest of honour Dr. E. Sreekumar, Director, Institute of Advanced Virology, Thiruvananthapuram was eloquent about the importance of the existence of CTCRI for tuber crop farmers and for the general public. He congratulated scientists’ efforts in releasing different tuber crop varieties with good quality.

ICAR- CTCRI celebrates World soil day 2024

ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute celebrated the World Soil Day 2024. Dr. P. Rajendran, Chairman, Kerala Farmers Welfare Fund Board & Former Vice – Chancellor, Kerala Agricultural University delivered lecture on this year theme, "Caring for soils: Measure, Monitor, Management". He emphasized to enhance soil health and its deterioration quality through proper soil management practices and eloborated about the present day causes for the soil degradation as acidification, salanization, sodification, urbanization, deforestation, industrialization, usage of toxic materials. He emphasized that, soil health will reflect on plant health that leads to leads to animal health and human health. Students and staff from government Model High School for Girls, Pattom and Govt. school Cheruvakkal attended the celebration. World soil day pledge was administered during the occasion. Dr. G. Byju, Director, Dr.S. Sunitha, Principal Scientist and Dr. V. Ramesh, Principal Scientist spoke on the occasion.

ICAR-CTCRI released two cassava varieties

ICAR-CTCRI, Thriuvananthapuram released two cassava varieties named ‘Sree Annam’ and ‘Sree Manna’during the 29th State Seed Sub Committee They are multi nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) use efficient requiring only 25% of the recommended NPK dose (N: P2O5: K2O @ 25: 12.5: 25 kg per ha) for producing a yield of 30-40 tonnes per hectare. Both are edible varieties of 9-10 months duration, cooks well, mealy, soft texture, sweet taste with low cyanogen.

PUBLICATIONS

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.