Guwahati: A three-day national workshop on floriculture began at the Horticulture Research Station under Assam Agriculture University at Kahikuchi in Guwahati on Tuesday. Organized by the All India Coordinated Research Project- Floriculture (AICRP-Floriculture), a pan-India network of research institutes supported by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the workshop intends to coordinate and deliberate on the research activities carried out in the floriculture sector of the country. Scientists from different research centres under AICRP-Floriculture will present and deliberate on salient research findings and streamline need need-based research agenda in the floriculture sector of the country during the workshop, stated a press release.
Speaking as the chief guest in the inaugural session of the workshop, Dr BC Deka, Vice Chancellor of Assam Agricultural University, remarked that technology commercialization is the need of the hour and innovative ideas must be linked to the market. He urged the scientists not to rest on developing technologies alone but to carry it forward to commercialize them. Addressing the inaugural meeting, Dr Sudhakar Pandey, Assistant Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, remarked that floriculture has been designated as a sunrise sector by the government and hence holds immense promise for commercial exploitation. He stated that scientists should always be on the lookout for researchable issues to facilitate the commercialization of flowers and flower-based value-added products.
Dr Sankar Prasad Das, Director of the National Research Centre on Orchids, Sikkim, underlined the need for varietal development of flowers for commercialization. Earlier in his welcome address, Dr KV Prasad, Director of the Directorate of Floriculture Research, Pune, expressed hope that the workshop would go a long way in streamlining and fine-tuning research activities in the floriculture sector of the country. Dr Tarak Nath Saha, scientist of the Directorate of Floriculture Research, Pune, proposed the vote of thanks for the inaugural event.
Several technical bulletins on flower crops prepared by different centres of the country under AICRP-Floriculture were released during the inaugural session. In addition, different flower-based value-added products such as floral cookies, hibiscus tea, rose tea, incense sticks, gulal, floral calendars etc. developed by different AICRP centres of the country were formally launched. Four technical sessions across different research domains will be organized during the three-day workshop. Arround eighty agricultural scientists representing 22 research centres under AICRP-Floriculture from across the country are participating in the workshop. A farmer-scientist interaction session has also been scheduled for the last day of the workshop which fifty progressive flower growers from across the state are expected to attend.
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