Indian Society of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and ICAR New Delhi organized National seminar on “Strategic interventions to enhance oilseed production in India” at DRMR, Bharatpur during 19-21 Feb, 2015.

The inaugural session of the National Seminar was held in the august presence of Dr.Arvind Kumar, DDG (Edn.)VC RLBAU, Jhansi; Dr.P.R.Kumar, Ex-ADG; Dr.D.M.Hegde, Ex-Project Director, DOR; Dr.Dhiraj Singh, Director ICAR-DRMR and Dr.K.S.Varaprasad, President ISOR and Director, IIOR. The second M.V.Rao Lecture on the topic entitled “Stakeholders access for enhancing oilseed Technology” was delivered by Dr.Arvind Kumar, VC, RLBCAU, Jhansi. In his address, Dr.K.S.Varaprasad, President ISOR briefed about the activities of ISOR and highlighted the action points attended during previous/immediate national/international events organized by ISOR.

The 3-day National Seminar consisted of presentations by technical experts from different part of the country during six technical sessions. Panel discussion on Road map for increasing /sustaining the oilseeds production in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra with panelists from industry, Dept. of Agriculture, Scientists and progressive farmers resulted in fruitful discussions and implementable action points as given below:

  • Enhance the availability of quality seeds of oilseed crops
  • Ideotype of oil palm with high oil yield suitable to Indian conditions may be designed and developed
  • Soil test based fertilizer application of major and micro nutrients need to be followed for enhancing the oilseed production grown in different agro-ecological situations in the country
  • Mechanization in oilseeds through custom hiring mechanism may be augmented for timely field operations
  • Farmers should get reasonable/remunerative selling price across oilseed crops/oil palm
  • Favourable tariff policy on imports of edible oils may be formulated
  • Identifying potential areas/districts (High volume-low yield districts) and organize cluster demonstrations/whole village demonstrations of available best management practices for enhancing the productivity of oilseeds
  • Research-Industry interface involved in oilseed R& D needs strengthening
  • Use of ICT for providing oilseed related advisories through mobile phones