11 new crop varieties released as Pongal gift for ryots

Coimbatore, Jan 14 (PTI): As continued efforts tosustain farm productivity and profitability, Tamil NaduAgricultural University (TNAU) here on Thursday released 11crop varieties as a Pongal gift.

They include six varieties of agricultural crops, fourhorticulture crops and one forestry crop.

The release was based on the recommendation by the 51thState Variety Release Committee under the chairmanship ofAgricultural Production Commissioner and Principal Secretaryto the government Gagandeep Singh Bedi and TNAU Vice-Chancellor Dr N Kumar, a varsity press release said here.

There are three rice varieties for Tamil Nadu whilesmall millet varieties Ragi ATL 1, Varagu ATL 1 for rainfedand irrigated conditions to enhance the nutritional securityand to adopt eat right food.

Blackgram Co 7 is resistant to serious devastatingyellow mosaic viral disease and released for both rainfed andirrigated conditions.

Among four horticultural crops, brinjal VRM(Br) 2, aspine-less variety, to replace spine variety VRM(Br)1 fornorthern districts of Tamil Nadu, gumless/latex free sweetjackfruit PLR3, Kodampuli/Malabar tamarind PPI(K) 1 forcooking and medicinal purpose and the nutria-health fruitwood apple PKM 1 are released for adoption.

In forestry, MalaiVempu MTP3 is released for agro-forestry to increase the farmers income and the varietypossesses industrial application of face veneer utility forplywood decoration.

The government of Tamil Nadu and TNAU wish that the cropvarieties can be cultivated by the farmers to promote theirfarm income and rural livelihood.

The university has released 854 crop varieties in the past100 years and in addition 11 varieties released this year asPongal gift.

The varieties are suitable to different agro-climatic zonesand meeting the demand of farmers.

The farmers are requested to cultivate the varieties andtake the benefit of new varieties, Kumar said in the release.

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