Srinagar: Quinquennial Review Meeting to review five-year progress of AICRP on PHET & AICRP on PEASEM was held from May 18 and 19 at SKUAST-K Shalimar here.
Expert panel comprising Dr. N. C.Patel (Former Vice Chancellor, AAU, Anand), Dr. PitamChandra (Former Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal), Dr. R. K. Jain (Ex. Principal, ADIT, Anand), Dr. AshutoshUpadhyay (Prof. Dept. of FST, NIFTEM, Kundali. Haryana), Dr. Uday Shankar Saha (Ex. Chair Professor, IRMA & Former CGM, NABARD, Mumbai), Dr. SandeepMann (PC-PEASEM) and Dr. R. K. Vishwakarma (PC-PHET) evaluated the five-year progress of Srinagar Centres of AICRP on PHET and AICRP on PEASEM along with AICRP on PHET Solan and AICRP on PHET Lukhnow.
At the inaugural ceremony Vice Chancellor SKUAST-Kashmir, Prof. N. A. Ganai in his presidential address, highlighted the impact of various AICRP schemes sponsored by Govt of India and gave details of achievements of Srinagar Centres of AICRP on PHET and PEASEM. He informed the house that goal of the University is to transform the agriculture from subsistence to commercial through mechanization, automation and use of Artificial Intelligence.
The QRT team and participants had interaction with Vice Chancellor SKUAST-Kashmir wherein challenges faced by agricultural sector were discussed and future strategies chalked out. The MoU was signed between SKUAST-Kashmir and CIPHET Ludhiana for mutual cooperation in education and research that includes student and faculty exchange.
Chairman QRT Dr. N. C. Patel appreciated the work done by different AICRP centres during the last five years and especially lauded the efforts of Srinagar Centre of AICRP on PHET. He gave a detailed account of scope of plastic culture in J&K for boosting agricultural productivity and farmers’ income.
Dr. R. K. Vishwakarma (PC-PHET) briefed about the importance of QRT as recommending body to ICAR regarding functioning of AICRPs. He acknowledged the efforts of Prof. Syed Zameer Hussain, PI AICRP on PHET Srinagar Centre, being the first one to come up with value chain on walnut among the 20 centres assigned the work on value chain of different crops.
It is pertinent to mention that in the previous Quinquennial Review Meeting (2012-17) Srinagar Centre of AICRP on PHET emerged as “Outstanding Centre” out of 32 such centres across the country. Dr. SandeepMann (PC-PEASEM), member secretary QRT thanked University authorities for smooth conduct of the meeting. He stressed on choosing research issues based on local needs and emphasized on commercialization of the developed technologies.
Prof. H.R. Naik, Director Planning & Monitoring welcomed the experts and Prof. S. A. Wani Dean, Faculty of Horticulture proposed a vote of thanks. The experts also visited laboratories, fields and facilities developed under AICRPs.

KR Desk