Horticulture Minister visits research farms of Nauni varsity

Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Minister Mahender Singh Thakur today visited the experimental farms of Nauni based Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry. Dr HC Sharma, Vice Chancellor of the University, welcomed him at the university campus. The statutory officers and faculty were also present on the occasion. Dr Sharma gave a brief presentation about the university and its achievements in the past year. He said that the university was focusing on improving on all the three fronts- teaching, extension and research. He emphasized that the university figured in the top universities in India and was the best-ranked university from Himachal. He added that the results of the past year showed that the university had improved on these fronts by submitting and bagging more research projects and training over 11,000 farmers through various extension activities. He also informed that the university’s students had performed exceedingly well in various competitive examinations in the country. The Vice Chancellor also thanked the state government and the minister for the additional financial support to the university, which had helped the university to clear the long pending arrears of the employees and retirees and for the Rs 58 crore grant-in-aid released in one lump sum for the first time in the university’s history. The Horticulture minister also paid floral tributes to Himachal founder Dr YS Parmar and planted a Santalum album (Sandalwood) tree at the campus. He took stock of various research activities being undertaken by the University and visited the experimental farms on exotic vegetable, medicinal and aromatic plants, Zero Budget Natural Farming and agro-horticulture and agroforestry. The minister also visited the kiwi block, nursery of the fruit science department and high-density apple plantation involving different rootstocks and variety combinations. He urged the scientists of the university to increase the capacity for producing quality planting of fruits to increase the farmers’ income. He also asked the university scientists to develop projects on increasing its research and extension activities and expanding its work on litchi, guava, mango and citrus fruits for increasing fruit and vegetable production in the lower Shivalik Hills. He interacted with the statutory officers and scientists of the university and appreciated the progress made by the university in the past two-three years.