TNAU Released Souvenir

C. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (centre), S.C. Chatterjee, Secretary, Indian Phytopathological Society, IARI, New Delhi (left) and R. Samiyappan, Director, CPPS, TNAU, after releasing a souvenir at the university in Coimbatore. Losses in crop production due to plant diseases average 13 per cent in the world. They severely limit the production of food for the world population that has increased by 90 per cent in the last 40 years.

In the light of this, new approaches to plant disease control are particularly important, C. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said here on Monday.Inaugurating a seminar on “Advances in Plant Pathology for Sustainable Agriculture” at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, the Vice-Chancellor called for accurate and timely diagnosis of plant diseases to put in place appropriate controls. The 11,000 diseases that affected plants were caused by 120 genera of fungi, 30 types of viruses and eight genera of bacteria. Plant biotechnology ushered in a new era for plant scientists working to maintain healthy plants, optimise crop yields, and minimise pesticide usage.

“One of the ultimate aims of agricultural biotechnology is to feed an expanding world population.” Mr. Ramasamy called for public investment in agricultural research to reduce losses due to plant diseases and other pests for achieving future food security. Plant disease control in the future was expected to be complemented or substituted by new disease-control technologies emerging from the basic knowledge of plant-microbe interactions and new biotechnological products.

S.C. Chatterjee, Secretary, Indian Phytopathological Society, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, said unless plant pathologists were proactive, there would be no scope for crop improvement. “A plant pathologist is a person who has to make important decisions. He has to give good modules for particular crop varieties and make suggestions whether genetic modification is required or not for a crop,” he asserted. R. Samiyappan, Director, Centre for Plant Protection Studies, TNAU, and V. Prakasam, Organising Secretary of the seminar, spoke.

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