University Vice Chancellor Santosh Kumar Tripathi said that this integrated project is a part of a social outreach program to help local farmers while researching these aspects. “We have already started these project works in our premises. Professors of two related departments are working on it.
Professor Surjendu Kumar Dey, department of environmental sciences of the university, who is in charge of the betel project, said betel is a cash crop in Bhogarai and Baliapal blocks of Balasore district. “There are many varieties of paan in Odisha and many of them are found in Balasore. Under this project, we will conduct a survey and collect betel varieties for our research study. We will also cultivate some of these betel varieties in our premises for the purpose of study.” He said that they will develop a germplasm conservatory and conserve the betel germplasm. “We will study these varieties and the qualitative components of the plant. If we find good qualities like disease tolerant aspect of betel variety, then we will develop new varieties with this quality through tissue culture. We will make biopesticides to control pests in betel farming. This will also help the farmers. We will also ascertain the medicinal quality of the plant. It is in the planning stage,” he said.
Elsa Pandit, Associate Professor, Department of Biosciences and Biotechnology in charge of the funding project, said that they have already grown paddy plants inside the campus for research work. “When I was working at the National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) Cuttack, I was among the developers of 12 varieties of paddy. I want to use my expertise in this project and help the farmers here.”
He said that aerobic rice can be grown in less water. “Farmers are not aware about these varieties. We want to set up a center here and develop varieties of paddy to help farmers increase their income.”
Bhaskar Behera, head of the university’s Department of Biotechnology and Zoology, said they have started working on the aspect of ‘Meena’. The university has already prepared a pond for this project. For this, three more ponds will be prepared. The University has signed an MoU with ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) Bhubaneswar and ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI) Kolkata for training and research work.
“Both these institutes will provide training and equipment through our university. We have already given training in fish farming to the scheduled caste farmers of Balasore. We plan to give more training to SC and ST farmers. This is a part of our social outreach program. In addition, we are researching the varieties of fish found in the coastal part of Balasore.