26 AGM

SUMMARY REPORT

ICAR-AICRP on palms Annual Group Meeting was inaugurated on 26.07.2017 by Dr. A. K. Singh, DDG (Horticultural Science) at UHS Bagalkot, which was presided over by Dr. D. L. Maheswar, Vice Chancellor, UHS, Bagalkot. Dr. V. Nachegowda, DoR, UHS, Bagalkot welcomed the gathering. Dr. H. P. Maheswarappa, PC (Palms) briefed about the research achievements made during 2016-17 and technologies to be released during the meeting. Dr. P. Chowdappa, Director, ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod and Dr. R. K. Mathur, Director, ICAR-IIOPR, Pedavegi graced the occasion. In group meeting about 100 scientists from 13 State Agricultural/ Horticultural Universities, two Central Agricultural Universities and four ICAR institute were participated.

During the meeting, ‘Palm Jaggery’ prepared from fresh inflorescence sap of Palmyrah developed by Pandirimamidi centre was released. A success story on ‘Community based approach for biological control of coconut black headed caterpillar outbreak in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh’ was released along with three other technical bulletins and fifteen extension folders in local languages from different AICRP centres. Among the 27 AICRP centres Pattukkottai centre was judged as the best centre based on performance grading. The group meeting deliberated on work done during 2016-17 on different thematic programmes of AICRP and formulated technical programme for 2017-18.

Following technical sessions were held during the annual group meeting of AICRP on palms.

• Technical Session 1: Genetic Resources and Crop Improvement
• Technical Session 2: Crop Production
• Technical Session 3: Disease Management
• Technical Session 4: Pest Management
• Technical Session 5: Post Harvest Technology in Palmyrah and TOT/TSP
• Technical Session 6: Plenary session

The plenary session was held on 28th July 2017 under the chairmanship of Dr. P. Chowdappa, Director, ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod. Dr. V. Nachegowda, DoR, Dr. D. R. Patil, ADR and Dr. Vishnuvardhan, ADR, UHS, Bagalkot were present on the occasion. The recommendations made during different sessions were presented by the scientists and Dr. P. Chowdappa presented Best Presentation award to Er. P. C. Vengaiah. Following technologies were recommended for release during the meeting

1. Improved variety, Kalpa Shatabdi recommended for cultivation in Tamil Nadu for its higher copra content and copra yield.
2. Intercropping of banana, elephant foot yam and pineapple is remunerative during juvenile phase of oil palm cultivation in Konkan region of Maharashtra with additional income of Rs. 80,000/ha/year.
3. Intercropping of cucurbits (ridge gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber and bitter gourd) is remunerative during juvenile phase of oil palm cultivation in West Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh with additional income of Rs. 65,000/ha/year.
4. Soil application of talc based formulation of 125g each of Trichoderma reesei and Pseudomonas fluorescens + 5 kg of neem cake per palm at yearly interval for the management of basal stem rot disease in coconut.
5. Palmyrah jaggery prepared from inflorescence sap collected by adopting CPCRI method having a shelf life of six months under room temperature recommended for commercial release.