Department of Agronomy conducted a one-day workshop under the title of “Good quality planting material (PM) production” on 21.02.2022, Monday from 8.30 a.m. to 4.15 p.m. for farmers. Objective of this workshop is to help farmers to learn the important aspects in good quality aspects of planting materials and to motivate the farmers to involve in self production of planting materials. PM is one of the most important elements of successful horticultural production. PM available to small scale farmers in different areas is often of insufficient quality, which undermines potential yield and performance of crop production. Planning is essential of successful nursery operation. Therefore, the workshop was organized to the farmers to learn about quality PM production. This workshop was organized under the AHEAD programme (AHEAD/RA2/ELTAELSE/JFN/FAG/OVAA 08/ WS2).
Farmers were welcomed by Dr.K.Pakeerathan, AHEAD coordinator for the Faculty of Agriculture. Dr. (Mrs.) L.Pradheeban, Head and Senior Lecturer, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Mr.S.Sritharan, Farm Manager, Faculty of Agriculture are served as the resource persons for this workshop. They provided the training on quality planting material production to the farmers as resource persons for the workshop. There were 50 participants actively involved in the workshop form various crop discipline.
At the end of the workshop, farmers were trained on the following,
- Acquired theoretical knowledge and practical skills on planting materials
- Basic principles have to be considered in quality planting materials production
- How to produce the quality seedling from seeds
- Nursery bed preparation and nursery sterilization techniques
- Pest and diseases free planting materials production
- Production of true to type planting materials through vegetative propagation methods
- Production of planting materials through different cuttings and techniques to produce good cuttings
- Grafting, budding techniques to prepare root stock and scion
- Layering techniques and selection of plants for layering
- Registered supply of planting materials
Participants gave good feedback about the workshop and they requested more workshop regarding quality planting materials for different crops. Certificate for the participants were issued at the end of the workshop.
