JAMMU: A one day Plant Clinic Cluster Exchange meeting of Plant Doctors was conducted under Center for Agricultural Biosciences International’s Plantwise Programme at Krishi Bhawan Jammu today under the Chairmanship of Joint Director of Agriculture (Inputs), Jammu, B. K. Zutshi. The meeting was jointly organized by Department of Agriculture Jammu and CABI.
The intent of the programme was to monitor and evaluate the progress of Plant Clinics in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Rajouri and Udhampur districts. The meeting was attended by Regional Level SMS Jammu, Anil Nargotra, PPO Jammu, Ajay Sharma, Chief Agriculture Officers of the concerned districts and representatives from M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and Plant Doctors of Jammu Division.
Speaking on the occasion, Zutshi said that there is need to widen the scope and content of work progress of the ongoing Plant Clinics to mitigate the insect pests and disease problems of crops. He impressed upon the officers of department and CABI to organize the refresher trainings for Plant Doctors regularly to update knowledge about various aspects of the pest management including data collection, online validation, analysis and recommendations. Earlier, Dr Vinod Pandit, Programme Leader, CABI, South Asia said Plant clinics should be integrated with other extension activities with similar mandate.
Ganeshamoorthy Rajenderan, Country Co-coordinator, CABI, South Asia discussed about future planning and way forward including Plantwise plus for scientific farming and sustainable agriculture. Dr Raj Kumar from MSSRF and Arun Khajuria, I/C Plant Health Clinic Jammu presented Plant wise current status of Plant Clinic activities in their respective regions in South India and Jammu.
Various activity sessions including interaction and feedback, Plant Doctor self assessment, live sample identification. Diagnostic Assessment and Recommendations Assessment group exercise was conducted jointly by Sushil Kumar SMS, and Arun Khajuria Incharge Plant Health Clinic Jammu. Plant Doctor Kits were also distributed among the plant doctors during the programme.