A two-day QRT meeting was organized in the Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture of Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni. Floriculture scientists from 7 centers across the country participated in it under the All India Coordinated Research Project of the Directorate of Floriculture Research , Pune .
Prof. Rajeshwar Singh Chandel, Vice Chancellor of the University was the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony of the meeting. Prof. Chandel welcomed the Chairman of QRT Dr. S. K. Chakravarty and members Dr. Pritam Kalia , Dr. C. Aswath , Dr. Ranjit Kumar , Dr. V. Ramamurthy and Director of Directorate of Floricultural Research Dr. K. V. Prasad.
On this occasion, Prof. Chandel said that flower production has an important role in the country’s growing economy as it can be very helpful in increasing farmers’ income two to three times. He inspired all the scientists to work towards developing new technologies.
On the first day of the meeting, scientists from all the universities presented the research work done by their respective centers between the year 2018-2023, which was reviewed. On the second day, a field visit was made to the Department of Floriculture in which various experiments of the All India Coordinated Research Project were assessed. The work done on native ornamentals by all the members of QRT was appreciated. The chairman congratulated the scientists on the research work done by the department on mutants of carnation, open pollinated selection of chrysanthemum and alstroemeria and hybrid of gladiolus. The dry flower laboratory of the department was also visited. After this, a dialogue meeting of flower producers and scientists of Himachal Pradesh was held in which carnation producer Suresh Chandel , gypsophila and carnation producer Ravi Dutt Sharma and Ravindra Parashar, Managing Director of Yuvan Vendors, a company that makes incense sticks from wasted flowers, shared their experiences and problems. All the farmers praised the participation of the scientists of the Floriculture Department in their development and expressed satisfaction. We also visited the carnation polyhouse of progressive farmer Karan Thakur in Dharon Ki Dhar. All the scientists including the head of the department Dr. S.R. Dhiman participated in this meeting.
