Officials during a webinar on "Awareness Programme on Nursery Accreditation of Horticultural Crops in the North Eastern Region (NER)" on July 29.
Medziphema, August 2 (MExN): The Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH), Medziphema, organised a webinar on "Awareness Programme on Nursery Accreditation of Horticultural Crops in the North Eastern Region (NER)" on July 29 to promote nursery accreditation and scientific nursery management practices across the region.
The webinar, conducted through Google Meet under the guidance of CIH Director Dr. R.L. Raut, aimed to create awareness among stakeholders on the importance of nursery accreditation, production of quality planting materials and adoption of scientific nursery management practices for the sustainable development of the horticulture sector in the Northeast.
More than 100 participants, including officials from state horticulture departments, nursery owners, entrepreneurs, farmers and other stakeholders from across the region, attended the programme.
In his welcome address, Dr. Raut highlighted the importance of accredited nurseries in ensuring the availability of healthy, true-to-type planting material for enhancing horticultural productivity.
Additional Commissioner (Fruit), Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Dr. N.K. Patle, delivered the inaugural address and stressed the need to strengthen quality planting material systems through nursery accreditation.
The technical sessions included presentations by Deputy Director of the National Horticulture Board (NHB), Guwahati, Navanita Baruah Mahanta, who spoke on the guidelines for nursery accreditation and government schemes related to nursery development, and former Director of ICAR-Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow, Dr. S. Rajan, who shared practical insights on the establishment, production and scientific management of horticultural nurseries.
Directors of Horticulture and representatives from Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh participated in the webinar.
The programme concluded with closing remarks by Dr. Raut, who encouraged stakeholders to adopt nursery accreditation standards to improve the quality and credibility of horticultural nurseries in the region.
