JAMMU: Principal Secretary, Agriculture Production & Farmers Welfare Department, Navin Kumar Choudhary today chaired a meeting of State Seed Sub-committee held to release newly developed varieties of different crops produced by Sher-e- Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Jammu (SKUAST-J).During the meeting, the Committee recommended release of twelve new crop varieties; three of Basmati rice (Jammu basmati 118, Jammu basmati 123 and Jammu basmati 138), two of lentil (Jammu Lentil 71 and Jammu lentil 144) and one each of Lobia (Jammu Lobia Super 60), Rajmash (Bhaderwah Rajmash BR 104), Radish (Jammu Radish 45 / CR 45), Broad bean (Jammu Broad bean 01), Tomato (Jammu Cherry Tomato 01), walnut (variety Bhushan) and pecan-nut (SJPP-25), after lot of deliberations. Navin Chaudhary appreciated the efforts of breeders of these varieties and stressed on continuation of such novel efforts. He also emphasized on impact analysis, farmers’ feedback and large scale dissemination of these newly released varieties across their respective ecological niches and speeding up of their mass-scale seed production.Vice-Chancellor SKUAST-J, Prof. J.P. Sharma opined that improved varieties are must for the growth of farming sector. He added that variety development is a continuous process and new varieties should have novel features like drought tolerance, disease resistance, quality, aroma and protein superiority in addition to yield advantages.Vice Chancellor of SKUAST-K, Prof. Mushtaq Ahmad congratulated the scientists for their sincere efforts for the welfare of farming community through the release of varieties of different crops.Earlier, Director Research, Dr. Jag Paul Sharma, through a presentation briefed the meeting about the specific features of each variety which had been proposed for release before the Committee.During the meeting, Director Agriculture, Jammu, Inderjeet emphasized on inclusion of these new varieties in the seed chain for enhancing food and nutritional security in J&K.The meeting was also attended by Samoon, Director, Law Enforcement, AP&FWD; Dr. D.K. Srivastava, Secretary, Central Seed Committee/ Dy. Commissioner (QC), Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; B. K. Chandan, Joint Director, Agriculture Extension, Jammu; M.D. Iqbal, Joint Director (Input) Agri. Deptt. Jammu ;Rakesh Kumar Sharma, Seed Analyst, STL, Jammu; Rahul Jamwal, Divisional Seed Certification Officer, Deptt. of Agriculture, Jammu; Aijaz Hassan, Secretary, Co-convener, SSSC; K. K. Sharma, Agriculture Economist; Shoib Yusaf Khan, Technical Officer, DSCO, Kashmir; and progressive farmers Kulbhushan Khajuria; Bakshi Ganesh Das and Krishi Pandit, along with the scientists of the University proposing the varieties.
