School of Agriculture (SOA), Uttaranchal University organised a Guest Lecture on ‘Quality Enhancement of Orchards Management’ under the aegis of the Cultural & Events Committee, SOA on 26 April 2022. The session started with a welcome and felicitation of guest speaker Dr Abhay Pratap Singh by Prof (Dr) Mahipal Singh, Dean, SOA. Dr Abhay Pratap Singh is Vipanan Adhikari in the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Dr Singh emphasized on the need for quality improvement in orchard management and explained the advanced and new technologies for the value addition of the orchard produces. He described in detail the Government Schemes, Loan facilities by banks and other organizations, Available expertise, and other help from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. He motivated the students for new start-ups in orchard development and told them that “for the establishment and income generation from the orchard, an individual has to go for the integrated management systems in his/her orchards e.g., selection of appropriate varieties of fruit crops suitable to the local agro climatic zone, soil testing and its quality enhancement, application fertilizer regularly, appropriate irrigating method and facilities, time of pruning, harvesting, storage, and marketing in local and global markets.” He further advised the students to use AI-based modern tools and equipment in orchards to minimise the energy requirements and improve their income. Before concluding the lecture, he explained about quality assurance of fruits and vegetables during storage and marketing.
The session was carried out for the students of agriculture of UG and PG Degree Programme. Students put their doubts during the questionnaire round which were aptly solved by the guest. The Head of the Department, Dr Rajendra Prasad proposed a vote of thanks and concluded the session.
