PJTSAU conducts meet on plant health management

Professor M Raghunandan Rao, Vice-CXhancellor of Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU) on Wednesday inaugurated a four-day conference on Plant Health Management – Innovations and Sustainability.
The conference has been organised by the Plant Protection Association of India. Addressing the inaugural session, Raghunandan Rao said that food safety shall be the primary goal. Agricultural scientists and industry should work in this direction.  “The next 50 years are crucial from plant health management aspects.” He advised to empower the farmers with technology for sustainable crop production and said that farmers should be aware of precision agriculture where no additional pesticide should be left in the plant, soil or in the environment.
He further said,  “Information asymmetry is prevailing amongst the farmers as they are not aware of the right molecule for the pest-related problems and this has to be addressed with due care and informed that, Telangana State is performing at 2% growth rate in the last decade which is a positive sign to reckon with.”
On the occasion, he urged the scientific community for innovation which will address soil degradation, water pollution and pesticide residue.
Dr Sarada Jayalakshmi Devi, Vice-Chancellor, ANGRAU, said, “There is need to identify resistant genes for various pests and diseases to develop promising high-yielding varieties.” She also said that excessive use of chemicals to control various pests and diseases lead to minor pests becoming major ones. She has said that focus should be on biocontrol agents, natural enemies and ecofriendly applications towards attaining sustainability.
Dr SC Dubey, ADG, Plant protection and Biosafety, ICAR, GOI, New Delhi, said, “New agricultural technologies should be developed to address the plant health management to minimise the higher chemical usage in agriculture. He focused on judicious use of pesticides, good agricultural practices and scientists should focus on quality research publications.”